Talk:Grand Slam (golf)

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[edit] Open names

There is a conflict between using the formal name "The Open Championship" for the British open tournament, and the term, "British Open," in common usage in reference to the tournament. "British Open" is favored as the primary reference to this tournament, since it's the less confusing/more descriptive. Carrying the formal title of the tournament is no more of a requirement than insisting the use of "Robert Trent Jones" throughout an article on that golfer rather than just "Bobby" or "Jones", and in this instance avoids confusion between U.S. tournament named, the United States Open Championship and the British tournament named, The Open Championship.

The Open Championship should be referred to as "The Open", not just because of the fact that that is its name, but also because "British Open" is a common misnomer since the championship has been held in Northern Island, which is outside the British Isles. I understand the reasoning of calling it the British Open, but I support the fact that The Open is its name, and it should be called that accordingly

[edit] The Open Championship Pride

Every few months someone will get annoyed that The Open Championship is being referred to as the British Open through this article. They do not seem to have the same outrage to bother with the looseness used in reference to the other major tournaments, such as United States Open Championship or the Masters Tournament, being referred to as the US Open and The Masters. My take is that particular author has a particular fondness for The Open Championship and wishes to, above the others, make sure it's treated with the utmost formality. Such formality should not be carried through the article, but if it were, it should at least be consistently applied throughout.


Read my above comment and stop being so ignorant. The US Open is a simple shorthand for United States Open, since U.S. is the accepted initials for United States. By your same logic, prehaps the "Masters Tournament" should be called the "Georgia Masters" so we dont get it confused with the British Masters, or the European Masters or the Scandanavian Masters.

Looky here my dear: Talk:The_Open_Championship

[edit] Men's Golf?

The article makes reference to "Men's Golf". Is this strictly true, since women are free to participate in most, if not all, "men's golf" events? Should the categories be just "Golf" and "Women's Golf"?

Strictly speaking, maybe so, but there's no need for the change until Michelle Wie starts winning majors :-) Wasted Time R 17:55, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Officially defined?

Anon 66.188.225.202, please give a reference as to where the Grand Slam is officially defined. Wasted Time R 17:55, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Here's one reference:
A sweeping success or total victory, as in This presentation gave us a grand slam-- every buyer placed an order. This term originated in the early 1800s in the card game of whist (forerunner of contract bridge), where it refers to the taking of all thirteen tricks. It later was extended to bridge and various sports, where it has different meanings: in baseball, a home run hit with runners on all the bases, resulting in four runs for the team; in tennis, winning all four national championships in a single calendar year; in golf, winning all four major championships. In the 1990s the term was used for four related proposals presented on a ballot at once.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
To continue the question, what's "The American Heritage® Dictionary" source and can it be considered any more authoritive? There is no official definition of Golf's grand slam, which is why there is no concensus on whether Tiger Woods achieved it.
The wording of this reference is ambiguous – does the "in a single calendar year" clause of the tennis definition extend to the golf definition? I guess so, but it could be clearer. But as you state, this is not authoritative in any case. Some ruling body of golf such as the R&A, the USGA, or the PGA TOUR would have to give a definition of the Grand Slam, and they don't. Wasted Time R 13:02, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

It seems to me that it's inaccurate for the article to state definitively that Tiger Woods did not win a Grand Slam. There is some controversy over this. At least some people, myself included, think it's reasonable to define a Grand Slam as being achieved when a player holds all four major championships simultaneously.