Is the Open the best of the four majors?

Yes, says Ben Sullivan

The point about the majors is that they have history. The Players Championship has got everything - illustrious list of past winners, world class field, fantastic venue - but it is only 33 years old.

In 30 years' time the 'unofficial fifth major' might lose that 'un', but until then there are only four.

And the Open is the best of them for that very reason. This week Carnoustie hosts the 136th. There have been 107 US Opens. The others don't even get close.

But obviously there is a lot more to it than longevity.

The Open is the only major that is always played on a links and golf was invented to be played on links.

Augusta's lush acres are all very well, but real golf is played on hard, bouncy, often bare, undulating fairways. You need skill and imagination to master these conditions and a variety of shot that just isn't called for in American target golf.

The players have to learn how to play links golf and their efforts are appreciated by the most knowledgeable fans in the game. And spectating is not kept exclusive to a priviliged few. Turn up on the day and you will get into the Open to watch the greatest players in the world. No other top class sporting event can boast that.

The quality of past champions also confirms that the Open is the best major. Okay, it has thrown up the odd anomaly, but the key is that an Open win is on the CVs of nearly all the great champions.

Former world number ones like Norman, Ballesteros and Faldo have not won a US Open or a US PGA but the Open boasts most great champions on its list of winners.

And finally for us Brits, it has to be the big one. Tony Jacklin is the only European to have won a US Open in the last 70 odd years. Not one has won a US PGA. Parochial, maybe. But as good a reason as any.

No, says Brian Bold

Paul Lawrie, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton. All winners in the last eight years. All decent players, but major champions? They haven't even come close anywhere else.

The problem with the Open is that there is too much luck involved. Those hard, bouncy, undulating fairways may be what golf was originally played on, but we've moved on from there.

When you hit a drive straight it should at least have the decency to stay on the fairway.

The weather is another factor. It's too extreme by the British coast. A player can be asked to battle 30 mph winds and four hours later his rivals are knocking it round in flat calm.

The field is not top quality either when compared to the other majors - there are too many qualifiers and amateurs and plenty of good American players don't bother to turn up.

Then there are the aesthetics. These links courses are bleak and brutal on the eye. Golf should be a pleasure to play and watch, but a windswept bit of scrub caught between housing estates and a grey ocean?

Give me Augusta any day.