British major championship week: Guide to the 146th staging of The Open at Royal Birkdale

The 2017 Open returns to a favorite venue, Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Since 1954, when it first hosted the event, it's been among the most popular venues along with Royal Lytham behind of course the Old Course in St. Andrews. It last hosted the championship in 2008 when Padraig Harrington prevailed to win his second claret jug in a row.

The links is particularly famous for a shot in 1961 hit by Arnold Palmer in the final round that was played out of a blackberry bush. A plaque commemorates the occasion and can be found today. Palmer would eventually win his first of back-to-back Golf Champion Trophies, otherwise known as the claret jug.

This week's favorites are highlighted by Dustin Johnson (10/1) and John Rahm, who won the DDF Irish Open (12/1), while defending champion Henrik Stenson is 25/1. Golf Channel's Will Gray has a breakdown of the current odds for fantasy golf and bet shops. Sports betting on golf is of course legal in the United Kingdom and a favorite pastime for spectators of The Open.

Birkdale Golf Club was founded in 1889 but didn't move to its present location until 1894 (it was awarded its "Royal" status in 1951 by Queen Elizabeth II). The links in its current form can be most attributed to the work done beginnning in 1922 by Fred Hawtree and J.H. Taylor. Its first Open was staged in 1954, but only because the 1940 Open, scheduled for Birkdale, was cancelled due to World War II. More updates were made to the links and facilities following the 1961 Open.

It's a popular venue for top championships and has also hosted the Ryder Cup (1965, 1969), Walker Cup (1951), the Senior Open Championship (2013) and British Women's Open (2014).

The white, art deco clubhouse of Royal Birkdale is certainly one of the most striking facilities in the Open rota. It was built in the 1930s by architect George Tong and intended to resemble that of a ship at sea.

Beginning in 2016, NBC and Golf Channel assumed the programming rights for The Open thru 2028. The two networks will feature nearly 140 hours of live tournament coverage including Live From throughout the week.

Streaming coverage can be found at Golf Channel, as well as complementary featured pairings and holes on TheOpen.com. For more details, click here. You can also access a live Open Championship leaderboard and streaming using a mobile device on the Golf Channel app.

According to TheOpen.com tickets are still available for the championship. Weekly tickets are 255 pounds, youth weekly tickets 155 pounds and daily tickets are 10-65 pounds. Children under 16 attend free and camping is available near the course. One of the truly great things about attending an Open for Americans is the chance to get there by train. Many of the links on the rota are within a short walk of a train station and so those staying in Liverpool can easily access the grounds without having to hire a car. Special service for spectators will be operating every 15 minutes along with normal service that will be running as scheduled. Visit the Merseyside travel planner for fare and route details.

For more parking and transportation info, visit TheOpen.com's parking tickets page.

Even though they are traditional in many regards, British clubs are generally far more receptive to outside play, and Royal Birkdale is no exception. The club is one of many excellent courses in the holiday town of Southport. Green fees can be booked online for 205-215 in the peak season and 155-190 off-season.

Groups who visit this part of England can play three championship Open links, including Royal Liverpool and Royal Lytham and St. Annes. Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard wrote this trip report on his group's visit to the links of Northwest England, which is also referred to as "England's Golf Coast" not just for its tournament venues but sheer quantity of excellent courses, many of them historic links. Nearby Hillside Golf Club is another top option that was opened in 1923 but was updated in modern times by Donald Steele and Martin Hawtree.

The British Open, also called for a long while as "The Open Championship," is staged by the R&A, who have officially titled the tournament 'The Open' in honor of its place as the game's first championship, originally staged in 1860. The British themselves have frankly never called the championship the "British Open," which was used by media and golfers from other countries. Through the first half of the 20th century, the U.S. Open, and U.S. Amateur were much more prominent tournaments in the eyes of the global golf media. That is until Arnold Palmer came to his first "British Open" in 1960 at St. Andrews and eventually it became considered a "major championship."

It is also worth mentioning that when the first Open was announced, officials said the event was "open to the world" and today, qualification takes place on five continents. Also, no event minutes or literature from the tournament committee has ever mentioned the event as the "British Open."

The Open is and has always been held on a "links" golf course. The definition of such is very precise or vague depending on who you ask. But in its purest form, it is a golf course set on a piece of sandy, seaside land. Playing links golf often comes at the mercy of the elements. Traditionally, many links courses haven't used irrigation (though more do today), so an Open's conditions could be very brown and dry (like Muirfield in 2013) or instead wet and soft, if rain has been heavy in the United Kingdom. As the game of golf was exported to the far corners of the world, the term "links" often became a synonym for a golf course, and many courses have "links" in their title that aren't truly links.

In a twist for 2017, the winner of The Open will be paid in U.S. dollars and not British pounds for the first time. The total purse is $10.25 million and the winner will receive $1.845 million (runner-up still receives over $1 million).

How does that compare to the other majors? The U.S. Open awarded from a $12 million purse and Brooks Koepka earned over $2 million for winning. The Masters awarded an $11 million purse, with Sergio Garcia receiving just under $2 million. The PGA Championship has not announced its 2017 purse yet, but in 2016 paid out $10 million with Jimmy Walker earning $1.8 million.