The R&A has named Royal St George's and Royal Lytham & St Annes as the venues for the 2011 and 2012 Open Championships.

Royal St George's last hosted the event in 2003, when Ben Curtis won after a final round 69 that was good enough to hold off Thomas Bjorn, who led for most of the final day, and Vijay Singh.  This will be the fourteenth time that the Open has been staged at Sandwich, the southern-most venue on the rota.

Royal Lytham & St Annes most recently hosted The Open in 2001 when David Duval of the United States shot a closing round of 67 to record a three shot win over Sweden's Niclas Fasth.

That was the tenth time the tournament had been played over the testing Lancashire links since the legendary amateur Bobby Jones won the first there, in 1926.