The Open For The Ages: Golf's all-time greats clash at St Andrews
'The Open for The Ages' will be screened from 11am on Sky Sports on Sunday July 19
By Sky Sports Golf
Last Updated: 17/07/20 5:18pm
The Open For The Ages has been hailed as "the stuff that dreams are made of" by the golf commentators who will bring to life the reimagined Championship that features many of the greatest ever golfers.
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The ground-breaking concept from the iconic Old Course in St Andrews is being shown on Sunday July 19, on Sky Sports, with Nick Dougherty, Butch Harmon, Ewen Murray and Iona Stephen all part of the 'live' commentary team for the three-hour broadcast.
This exclusive edition of The Open features 50 years of archive footage expertly edited and woven together with modern graphics and new commentary to create a Championship contested by the greatest names in golf, including Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Sir Nick Faldo and Rory McIlroy.
"It fills me with a lot of pride to be involved with The Open For The Ages because it's a really, really cool production," said Dougherty, a European Tour winner at St Andrews.
"I think this is a thing that we've always dreamt of being able to do - to put the greats of the game over the course of history together against one another at the Old Course. It's the stuff that dreams are made of. To see them there and watch them in their prime and look at the comparison between the golf swings and how they evolved, it was a lot of fun."
More than 300 pieces of archive footage has been treated digitally to adjust grading and colour balance. Hundreds of digital corrections have been made to clips including the removal of caddies and playing partners from original footage and the introduction and removal of golf balls on greens to ensure that the viewer feels what they are watching is actually happening.
Fellow commentator Murray, who played in The Open at St Andrews in 1978 and 1984, added, "It was something I didn't think was possible. I now know it is possible. I really enjoyed commentating on it - for me, it was a labour of love. It was an honour to do, to be perfectly honest."
The winner of The Open For The Ages has been determined by a fan vote, which registered more than 10,000 responses, and a data model developed in partnership with NTT DATA that utilises this fan vote along with player career statistics and historical data from The Open to calculate the Champion.
Watch The Open for the Ages this Sunday from 11am on Sky Sports Golf!
