What if the greatest players in golf from the last 50 years could play against each other in a one off Championship at The Home of Golf, St Andrews?
Well that has happened in the innovative ‘The Open for The Ages’ which began on Thursday and culminates in a final-round broadcast on TV, digital and social media platforms from 2pm GST today (Sunday 19 July).
What is The Open For The Ages?
The Open For The Ages is an exclusive edition of The Open that features 50 years of archive footage, expertly edited and woven together with modern graphics and new commentary to create a Championship contested by the greatest names in golf including Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Sir Nick Faldo and Rory McIlroy.
The event has been created to offer fans a special celebration of golf’s original major, in the week The 149th Open was originally scheduled to take place.
The winner of The Open For The Ages has been determined by a fan vote, which registered more than 10,000 responses, and a data model developed in partnership with NTT DATA that utilises this fan vote along with player career statistics and historical data from The Open to calculate the Champion.
What’s happened so far
After the first three rounds it couldn’t be closer at the top with arguable the two greatest players of all time, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, battling it out for supremacy. Woods and Nicklaus each reached 12 under on day three, setting up a tantalising showdown.
The penultimate group will feature Seve Ballesteros and Sir Nick Faldo, the Champions at St Andrews in 1984 and 1990 respectively. Ballesteros and Faldo are only a shot off the pace after round three, along with five-time Champion Golfer Tom Watson, who is out in the third-last group with Louis Oosthuizen.
It’s certainly going to be an exciting final day for all golf fans.
How was the final-round broadcast put together?
Over 300 pieces of archive footage from past Championships at St Andrews dating back to 1970 were treated digitally to give a cohesive feel to the programme.
In addition, hundreds of digital corrections have been made to clips, including the removal of caddies and playing partners from original footage, and the introduction and removal of golf balls on greens, ensuring that the viewer feels what they are watching is actually happening.
Over 1,000 hours of editing time was required by the IMG Production team that worked with The R&A to produce the programme under lockdown conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Malcolm Booth, Sales and Marketing Director at The R&A, said, “The Open For The Ages is a world first and must-watch experience for golf fans and sports fans globally. We have worked closely with our partners to utilise video, AI technology, data and advanced television production techniques to create a compelling broadcast that we believe will excite people and spark conversation.”
How to watch it
• TheOpen.com website and official app
