What Is An Opposite-Field Tournament in Golf?
How do you know which of the two is the lesser event? It's pretty obvious, as some examples below will show. But the tournament to which the term "opposite field" is applied is the one with the weaker field and lower purse.
As for the origin of the term, it's just another way of saying alternate tournament or alternative field. Where are the golfers who aren't playing this event? They are in the opposite (or opposing) event. Another expression for the same type of tournament is "an encumbered event."
Opposite-field tournaments are not that common in professional golf, but they do happen a couple times a year on the PGA Tour. The European Tour has also staged opposite-field tournaments.
But why? Why would the PGA Tour, for example, schedule two tournaments on the same dates?
Let's say it's the week of the British Open. The PGA Tour knows that its best golfers will be playing in England or Scotland that week. But it also knows that many more of its golfers won't qualify for the British Open, and the tour wants to provide those golfers a place to play, a chance to earn money and FedEx Cup points.
So the PGA Tour might choose to play an "opposite-field tournament" on the same dates as the British Open. In fact, that is what the PGA Tour has often done. For several decades the now-defunct event traditionally called the Greater Milwaukee Open was played opposite the British Open. That gave golfers who failed to qualify for the Open — or who simply preferred not to travel overseas — a chance to play that week.
Another reason for an opposite-field tournament: when the main event has a limited field. The PGA Tour tends to schedule opposite field tournaments the same weeks as WGC tournaments. WGC events have limited fields, and some of those limited spots are taken by international golfers. That leaves many PGA Tour players on the outside, so the tour may play an opposite-field tournament those weeks.
Further examples, using the randomly selected year of 2013, the European Tour that year played two opposite-field tournaments: the Madeira Islands Open opposite the Volvo World Match Play Championship; and the Najeti Hotels et Golfs Open opposite the U.S. Open.