The Open Championship is one of the most prestigious and oldest golf tournaments in the world dating back to the first event at Prestwick in 1860. This golfing competition showcases the world’s best players competing for the famous Claret Jug.

GL events UK has been providing temporary seating infrastructure to The Open Championship since the start of The R&A partnership back in 2013 at Muirfield. Over the years, GL events UK has gained knowledge to overcome the challenging topography of various courses, including heritage and greenfield sites, to incorporate the grandstands with minimal impact to the surrounding landscapes.

As part of a new five-year agreement with The R&A, this year, GL events UK returned to the historic Links environment of The Old Course at St Andrews, to play a crucial part in delivering The 150th Open. To commemorate this significant milestone, GL events UK constructed 20 spectator structures through a combination of tiered grandstands, audience viewing infrastructure, player’s bridges, television camera towers and iconic yellow leader board support towers. The overall capacity of the tiered seats was 15,000, with audience viewing infrastructure for over 2,000 standing spectators.

To improve the visibility of the course and amplify the entertainment experience for spectators, the GL events UK team had astutely designed the grandstands in customised configurations. These configurations included the U-shaped grandstand covering the 7th hole and 8th tee featuring reverse splay, rear access staircase and a television camera tower.

In addition, 39 television camera towers were built to house several cameras to shoot at double greens and varied in height from a levelling platform to 18 metres. GL events UK showcased its innovative capabilities by integrating the 18th green camera tower into the seating structure that was built on a bespoke steel structure to span the St. Andrews links trust shop. GL events UK also supplied 2 iconic yellow leaderboard support towers.

Taking 104 days to achieve the final result, GL events UK also constructed a 20m x 45m Double-Deck structure for the players clubhouse, finished with a terrace area and a 10m x 10m Double-Deck kitchen with ancillary tents. The structure had bespoke steps with both tack off linings and kader fed linings. The total area of the temporary structures spanned across 1,500 square meters.

Rhodri Price, Director of Championship Operations at The R&A commented, “GL events UK combines expertise and operational support to meet the requirements of The Open and this year was no different. Their superior temporary infrastructure solutions helped us celebrate this truly historic golf milestone. We look forward to collaborating with GL events UK in many future tournaments.”