British Open Golf 2011: Why Americans Don't Care About the British Open

Once upon a time, there was a group of people who sailed across the high seas to settle a new land.

They formed a colony, bonded with the locals and tried their best to live their lives as normal as possible.

The country they sailed away from was pretty jealous that the colonists had moved on though, so just as any ex would, they decided to charge them lots of taxes on things like tea and other irrelevant objects.

They ended up getting in a big fight and officially breaking up.

And that, kids, is why Americans don’t care about the British Open.

Now that I’ve given you a quick lesson in kindergarten history, let me also give you a lesson in sarcasm.

All kidding aside, I highly doubt that there is any bitterness still left from the days of the Revolutionary War that would play into why Americans don’t necessarily care about the British Open.

The fact still remains that Americans really don’t seem to care about The Open though, so I guess that leaves me wondering why.

Golf is extremely popular in the United States so we can’t go to the usual “Oh we just don’t like that sport” excuse.

Unlike soccer, we agree with the rest of the world about calling the sport of golf, golf.

Can you imagine though?

What if we called it iron ball or something ridiculous like that!

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand. I think the reason we don’t care about the British Open is so simple and non-controversial that it almost might make you laugh.

I woke up this morning at 4:00 AM EST and turned on my TV. The British Open was just starting to kick off due to the time difference. I honestly think that is why Americans don’t care.

In order to really follow the British Open with the passion with which we follow the rest of our majors, us Americans would literally have to wake up at four in the morning!

Now, unless you are waking up for work, as was my case, or you are a complete fool, there is absolutely no realistic reason to do so.

Things in the United States are busy and hectic. Hopefully we all have jobs that we have to work long days at. We have people we need to care for and responsibilities we need to take care of.

I don’t know a self-respecting American that would sacrifice their hard-earned sleep unless they were on vacation to wake up in the middle of the night to intently follow the action at Royal St. George’s.

I almost wish I could tell you that it was because we don’t enjoy crumpets and tea, or that we think silly hats are dumb. At the very least, that would be much more controversial and interesting.

Alas, reality must set in in this instance.

Unfortunately for most Americans, the reality about the British Open is that it is far to inconvenient to care about.

For continuous coverage of the 2011 British Open and all things golf, keep it locked to Bleacher Report's Golf Page.

Follow Andrew on Twitter: @AKonSports