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The Open is Technologically Open

Posted by: Darren Ramowski on Thu 14 Jul 2011

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For golf fans in the UK there is something very special about the Open and even more so that it's open for all to view courtesy of the good old BBC. With golf embracing new technology 2011 at Royal St Georges certainly looks set to be open and accessible to all if you have TV, internet or mobile access.

TV Coverage

The BBC coverage started at 9am running right through until 8pm and if you have access to BBC interactive you can access additional footage and dedicated footage of hole 14 to 16.

Friday will be the same with coverage starting at 10am Saturday and 11am Sunday with both days scheduled to finish around 7pm. Plus don't forget all is in HD.

Internet Video Coverage

If you can't access the TV footage but have access to the internet then the BBC have live footage being shown via the BBC website.

Livestream has an official TheOpen live channel providing archive footage from the week so far and up to 6 hours per day of live stream. Next footage starts at 11:00BST with UK sports minister Hugh Robertson in the studio.

Livestream isn't showing live golf footage but have some good interviews lined up and some of the footage so far as included interviews with the spectators which is a nice touch.

Mobile Coverage

If you are unable to access TV or the internet but have mobile access via your smartphone then the R&A have launched an excellent official Open app for iPhone and Android phone users.

The app provides details of live scores, groups and tee times as well as the latest new and information from Royal St Georges.

Video footage is also available for the latest news round up along with official player interviews from the press conferences. The footage is very good and you get a lot more than you may see on other news briefings.

Live Score board

Following on from the mobile app the live scores from the official site have also been updated for 2011 with the new Score Centre+

This is something we have now come to expect when watching the Masters, Wimbledon and other sporting events. It provides the usual full live leaderboard, tee times, your own player list and access to additional TV footage and news.

I'm currently watching the live coverage on TV with an additional monitor set-up to show the Score Centre+ which makes the viewing even better because I can see who exactly is at the top without waiting for the TV footage to let me know.

Twitter - Get Inside the Ropes

You either love or hate twitter but you can get a real insight from this year's Open by following the right people, golfers and commentators on Twitter, what's going off, behind the scenes and some great photos.

My personal fav's are:

@The_Open_Champ - the official Open Championship feed providing news, updates, images

@Giggsy67 - Head green keeper at Royal St Georges who tweets at 3am when he's working!

@ParkythePro - Office press guy

@MattCopperGolf - Golf writer and man who camps out each year at the Open all for the cause of Golf!

If you don't use Twitter but want to keep up with the latest news and 'tweets' then check out our Open list with some top tweets: http://www.golfshake.com/news/theopen-twitter/