The Open For The Ages

The Open For The Ages, in association with HSBC, begins on Thursday and culminates in a final-round broadcast on TV, digital and social media platforms from 11am BST on Sunday 19 July.

Ahead of the start of this innovative event, here is all you need to know.

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.

How can I follow The Open For The Ages?

The final-round broadcast will be available to view as a live event, from 11am-2pm BST on Sunday 19 July, via the following platforms:

• TheOpen.com website and official app

• The Open's official YouTube and Facebook channels

• Multiple international broadcasters, including Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, NBC Golf Channel in the United States and TV Asahi in Japan

A live leaderboard will also be available alongside the broadcast stream on TheOpen.com, allowing fans to track the progress of their favourite players.

Prior to Sunday's broadcast, TheOpen.com will provide daily highlights videos showcasing the best action from the first three rounds of the event, and a host of articles building anticipation for the final round.

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.”

The Open For The Ages is in association with HSBC.