Open champions receive Freedom of the Links

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY ST ANDREWS LINKS TRUST
A special presentation will take place at the Champions’ Challenge at the Open Championship this afternoon  (Wednesday, July 14) when each of the champions taking part will receive the Freedom of St Andrews Links.
The Champions’ Challenge is being held to celebrate the 150th anniversary Open Championship and will see some of golf’s greatest names playing a four-hole challenge on the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th holes of the Old Course.
Each of the 25 Open champions playing in the event, as well as Peter Thomson who will be non-playing captain of one of the teams, will be presented with certificates and bag tags entitling them to the freedom of all seven courses at the Links.
The certificates will be presented by Peter Forster, the chairman of St Andrews Links Trust, and Alan McGregor, the chief executive, to the players as they leave the 18th green.
“This is a historic occasion celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Open Championship and its return to the Home of Golf,” said Peter Forster. “We are celebrating this wonderful heritage and the close bonds between the championship and the Old Course at St Andrews Links by conferring this honour on the champions. As winners of golf’s oldest major championship they have each made a huge contribution to the game and it is only fitting that we recognise their achievements in this way.”

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