The 2011 Open Championship: This Is One Cool Tournament

The Masters is known for ultra-exciting Sunday charges accompanied by the deafening Augusta roars.

The U.S. Open used to be the toughest test in all of golf before the USGA let the game get away from them in recent years.

The PGA Championship is, well, that major that takes place a few weeks after the Open Championship.

Aside from being the oldest of the four professional majors, the Open Championship used to be known as much for its terrible weather and quirky winners than anything else.  However, in recent years, the Open Championship has taken on a whole new identity.

The Open is quickly becoming known as the tournament that provides us with us with some really cool storylines.  

In 2008, we had 53-year-old Greg Norman leading the Open Championship with just nine holes to play.

Norman was eventually beaten out by Padraig Harrington on the back-nine, but what a story it was for 63 holes.

In 2009, 59-year-old Tom Watson came within a hair of winning the Open at Turnberry, which just happened to be the site of his epic duel with Jack Nicklaus back in 1977, better known today as the duel in the sun.

Last year we had John Daily near the top of the leaderboard after round one, and 49-year-old Mark Calcavecchia in contention on the weekend.

And this year?

Well, where do I even begin?

42-year-old Darren Clarke, one of the most popular players in European golf history, is tied for the lead with Lucas Glover after 36 holes.

Just one stroke back is Thomas Bjorn, who had his heart broken at Royal St. George’s seven years ago when he let the championship slip right through his hands by taking three strokes to get out of a greenside bunker on the 70th hole of the tournament. 

PGA Tour rookie Ben Curtis happened to be the lucky beneficiary of Bjorn’s bunker troubles in 2003.

Also just one stroke off the lead is the most interesting man in the world, or at least the most interesting man in golf, 47-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez. 

How can you not root for a guy who smokes cigars, wears his hair in a ponytail, probably sits down to a $2,000 bottle of wine and fillet steak after each round at Royal St. George’s and has a pot belly that just screams “I enjoy life, so what of it?”?   

One stroke behind Bjorn and Jimenez is 51-year-old former Open Champion Tom Lehman, who is chasing down his second Open title a mere 15 years after his first.

And then we have the tale of the two Toms.

20-year-old amateur Tom Lewis, who was named after his father’s idol, Tom Watson, opened with a 65 and was tied for the lead after 18 holes, all while playing alongside Watson in the same group.  

Not to be outdone by “Young Tom,” “Old Tom,” Watson that is, provided his own fireworks on Friday with a hole-in-one on the par-three sixth.

We are 36 holes into the tournament and 44 players are within five strokes of the lead.

If anyone tells you that they have even an inkling of an idea who’s going to win this thing on Sunday, they’re lying.

Yuta Ikeda could wind up hoisting the Claret Jug on Sunday just as easily as Martin Kaymer.

I’d be no more surprised to see Gary Boyd’s name sitting atop the leaderboard on Sunday than I would to see Phil Mickelson’s being engraved into the Claret Jug as he triumphantly walked up Royal St. George’s 18th fairway.

The weather may take a turn for the worse this weekend, and hitting fairways at Royal St. George’s may be as much about luck as skill, but one thing is for sure, this is one cool major championship, which is what the Open is quickly becoming known for.

For more golf news, insight and analysis, check out The Tour Report.