As it is, they all come together at this year's Open which starts in the week beginning 16th July. Darren Clarke will be plotting his way round the Lytham fairways in defence of the title he won at Royal St George's a year ago. The HSBC ATM, complete with a full-service branch of the bank, will be on-site, while a replica of the Road Hole Bunker will form a very active centrepiece of the popular HSBC Golf Zone.
When HSBC installed a copy of the bunker in the first of their Golf Zones - at St George's - and gave spectators two tries apiece, this well-nigh impossible challenge proved so popular that it was decided to stick with the identical torture for Lytham. (It is a torture which, like all the other opportunities in the Zone, comes free of charge )
Last year, the most humble and hopeful of golfers queued alongside the highest-ranked in the land, with Gary Player and Colin Montgomerie just two great stars in the mix.
Player, arguably the best bunker player of all time, had no trouble in hitting to within inches of the hole. As for Montgomerie, who took off his dinner jacket to have a late-in-the-evening attempt, he, too, emerged triumphant. Minutes later, he was proudly brandishing his certificate - there is one for ever golfer who hits and sticks the green - as he arrived at his function.
Though the Role Hole Bunker has a magnetism all its own, spectators can compete on golf simulators for one of the longest drive or "nearest to the pin" prizes which are up for grabs. At the same time, those whose interest in the game goes back to its beginnings, can test out the latest Mizuno clubs alongside the hickory clubs of yesteryear.
If any children go missing - youngsters the age of 16 have free entry to the Open when accompanied by an adult - the obvious place to look would be in the Zone's golf-related computer games area.
No-one should be in too much of a hurry to drag these less-than-active fans away...
No less a player than Jeong Jang, winner of the 2005 Ricoh Women's British Open, spent two years playing a Tiger Woods' video game before being tempted to hit her first shots for real at the age of 13.
By way of a memento of Open visits, families and individuals can have their pictures taken - still free of charge - in an exercise jointly sponsored by HSBC and Nikon.
Last year, thousands opted to be photographed with a wooden cut-out figure of their favourite player. In each instance, the players were crouching on the green and the fan was invited to adopt a pose to suggest he or she was making a useful contribution to the reading of a putt.
To give some idea of the scale of a modern Open, 86,000 pints of beer were consumed last year, along with 33,000 portions of chips and 11,000 chocolate bars.
Going on from there, entries for the 2012 championship have been in the mind-boggling region of 2115, of whom between 156 and 160 will survive to experience first-tee nerves on the 18th of July.
From that little lot, of course, there will be just the one champion.
Will it be glory for Rory or a 15th major for Tiger?
With the last 15 majors having sired as many as 15 different champions, not too many are prepared to hazard a guess. |
