SANDWICH, England — Just ahead of the British Open at Royal St. George’s Golf Club, Edward Kitson walked briskly through the dunes on Wednesday night, making his way to the clubhouse and thinking back to last year.
The Open was canceled then because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Kitson and other members of the club played a tournament among themselves, replacing the famous players on the famous links.
“Four days, and we could even play off the back tees if we wanted to,” said Kitson, a Londoner.
Now, after an unusually long wait, the world’s best golfers — or at least most of them — have convened at the English seaside course that first hosted the Open in 1894 and last staged it in 2011.