8 July 2009, Turnberry, Scotland: For the 138th Open Championship, Opengolf.com is offering a greater range of features than ever before to make sure that the world-class action can be enjoyed no matter where you are, or what you’re doing.
This year, video highlights will be available throughout the day, as well a round-up of the day’s play produced shortly after its conclusion. A live feed (UK only) from holes 9, 10, 11 will also be streamed on Opengolf.com, as will the popular Radio Opengolf radio station which broadcasts news, views and scores over all of the championship days.
New for this year is Opengolf.com’s Socialise page, where fans can interact with each other through Twitter (Twitter.com/Opengolf2009), Facebook (Facebook.com/The-Open-Championship), and the updated Forum, which allows fans to express and exchange their views in an online Open community.
“The Open is one of the world’s biggest annual televised sports events and we need to embrace the full spectrum of digital media if we are to connect the Championship with the widest possible audience,” explained The R&A’s Head of New Media, Adam Lynch.
Completing the list of digital media initiatives for 2009 are the Open Championship iPhone application which features customisable leaderboards, news and high-quality video streams; an interactive web widget which enables consumption of The Championship in a condensed form on multiple websites; and a brand new Open game for mobile phones. These are all available at Opengolf.com.
Returning in 2009 are the live leaderboard and the desktop scoring console, both of which will ensure that the latest hole-by-hole scores are always available. And Opengolf.com’s historical Championship data offers scores and stories from every Open going back to 1860, as well as a search function which enables the user to instantly view a player’s complete record.
Backing up that historical data is video footage of Opens going back to 1914, in a new video library which offers an unparalleled look into the moving history of a Major Championship.
Log-on to Opengolf.com now to enjoy The Open Championship like never before.
The Open Championship will be held at Turnberry on 16 -19 July.
ENDS
Note to Editors
The Open Championship has produced a viral commercial to promote The Open’s ‘Children go Free’ initiative, which enables any accompanied child under the age of sixteen to attend The Open free of charge, on popular social media sites. The commercial can be viewed on Opengolf.com or on YouTube where it is titled Open Champion 2020.
The R&A
Based in St Andrews, The R&A is golf’s governing body and organiser of The Open Championship. The R&A is committed to working for golf and operates with the consent of 136 organisations from the amateur and professional game and on behalf of over thirty million golfers in 123 countries.
Contact:
Adam Lynch
Assistant Director – Head of New Media
Malcolm Booth
Assistant Director – Head of Communications
The R&A
Tel: +44 1334 460000
