Forget LIV, The Open buzz proves golf is in a better place than ever

The Open encapsulates the spirit of the sport in a way that the LIV Golf Series with its glorified invitationals cannot

The buzz around the tournament is already palpable (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

The prize money at this week’s Open Championship is the highest ever at over £11.6m, but it’s not the cash that’s drawing the world’s best players to the Old Course in St Andrews.

As the oldest tournament in golf celebrates its 150th anniversary, everyone who’s ever swung a club is daydreaming of holding the Claret Jug aloft. Shane Lowrysummed up the buzz surrounding traditional tournaments like the Open Championship perfectly. He said: “You don’t look at your winner’s cheque at the end of the day. You’re standing there with that trophy with all those names on it and that’s what golf is about."

In many ways, this year’s Open couldn’t come at a better time. The uncertainty and division caused by the emergence of the controversial LIV Golf Series rocked the sport earlier this year, with players peeling off from the PGA Tour and DP World Tours in order to take a Saudi-funded paycheck and wrestle with all the implications that move entails.

There’ll be LIV players taking part in the tournament this week, but the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews has barred figurehead Greg Norman from featuring in the past champion events beforehand. In fact, the tournament organisers have been understandably keen to avoid all talk of LIV completely during the week in order to focus on the event in hand – and what an event it promises to be.

Firstly, there’s the incredible field. Tiger Woods is back at his favourite course just 18 months after a car crash that almost lost him a leg. Even if he hobbles over the finish line Woods promises to be as box office as ever. Rory McIlroy, hungry for his first major in eight years, will be up against him. The Northern Irishman is still just 33, but these days he’s a relatively old hand in a hugely competitive young line-up.

World number one Scottie Scheffler had a bad week in tough links conditions at the Scottish Open, but such a relentless player can never be discounted. Meanwhile, you wouldn’t bet against Collin Morikawa defending his title and earning his third major at the age of just 25. With so many potential winners, it’s clear how strong the game is at the moment.

Then there’s the legendary course itself. The monstrous pot bunkers, the enormous shared greens with their endless undulations, and the quirks of the layout that first set the template and conventions for the game. If the wind picks up, it’ll provide one of the toughest tests in golf.

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The buzz around the tournament is already palpable. For days people have been tuning into the live stream in their thousands just to watch players hitting balls on the range – and thank goodness, because the sport needs this moment more than ever.

Over two million people took up golf during the UK lockdown. They were drawn to the fundamental elements of the game just as countless people have before them – the satisfaction of a flushed strike, the frustration and reward, and the simple pleasure of a long walk with good company.

The Open encapsulates this ethos in a way that the LIV Golf Series with its glorified invitationals cannot. Shane Lowry is right. Pretenders will come and go, but it’s the weight of history, the prestige of a competition so many dream of winning as youngsters and the ghostly footprints of the golfing greats on the fairways that make the Open Championship so integral to the sport.