Golf’s original major, The Open Championship, has launched an online edition, presented by Mastercard. 

‘The e-Open’ launched on 13 July and is set to span three months, with qualifying events and knock-out rounds running through July and August, culminating in a Grand Final showdown in September. 

The virtual stroke play tournament is set at the iconic links of Royal St George’s, and uses Topgolf’s World Golf Tour free online gaming platform. 

According to organisers, 28 million users will get the opportunity to compete for the chance to win an exclusive trip to The 149th Open in 2021.

Though this is a first for The Open, Topgolf is no stranger to esports, having previously partnered with TCL to add esports lounges to six Topgolf venues, and teaming up with Super League Gaming to house amateur esports events in February 2019. 

Topgolf Media also worked with the European Tour and DreamHack Sports Games to launch the European eTour series – to run parallel with the scheduled European Tour events in 2020. 

The LPGA eTour Live, launched by The American Ladies Professional Gold Association (LPGA) also used Topgolf’s World Golf Tour platform. 

AYO.NEWS says:

While golf is a long way behind sports like football, basketball and motor sports when it comes to embracing esports, perhaps because of its older average fan base, the COVID-19 crisis (which is rapidly worsening globally, despite a reprieve in Europe) seems to have been the wake-up call it needed. 

The Open Championship organisers have also shown some more digital initiative, creating ‘The Open for the Ages’ – a virtual Championship created using film archive that spans a 50-year period to create something totally new. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

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