What's the difference between an Open, a Classic, a Championship and an Invitational?

In the case of the first three, not much, if any. The latter is a bit different, but not always.

All this comes out of a discussion about the name of the 2010 Nationwide Tour stop here at Dye's Valley course: the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open.

The question: what's an "Open?"

Way back when, an Open was really open. Open to all. When Tom Morris Sr. was dominating English golf, the Open there - not now, not ever the "British" Open, please - was truly open to all and the 50 or so decent players of the day showed up.

Then there got to be too many decent players and there had to be some sort of qualifying, but this still was open to all. So Open was the right term.

But then it got too big for even qualifying so some limits were established, like the handicap minimum for amateurs to enter the U.S. Open.

Therefore, the U.S. Open is no longer a true "Open." It's closed to me and, probably, you. Same in the UK.

So, the Winn-Dixie tournament really won't be an Open unless the qualifier is open to all, and that won't happen.

A "Classic" is a reasonable title to get around not being an Open. Other ways are to say nothing at all: The Masters and The Players do that quite nicely.

"Championship" is the most dicey. In the truest sense, a Championship is only a tournament that is conducted by a recognized sanctioning body, most familiarly the United States GA or the Royal & Ancient.

Thus, extrapolating the word, a "champion" is only one who has won a "Championship."

So, Henrik Stenson is not a "champion" because he won The Players, but Amy Anderson is ... she won the USGA Girls. (our Fred Funk's a champion, too - he won the USGA Senior Open. So is Ponte Vedra's Duke Butler IV, the Jacksonville Area GA champion. Too bad, Tiger. No championship for you this year.)

"Invitational" seems to be unsullied. It is what it says, and there are a few PGA Tour events that maintain this form of entry and thus deserve the name, most notably the Arnold Palmer tournament at Orlando's Bay Hill.

Semantics, of course, but a degree of fun to talk about. In tournament lingo, it doesn't have to quack like a duck to be a duck, and the Tour can call its event here whatever it wants and it shouldn't bother a soul.

Well, maybe a few:

Of course, the Ponte Vedra and St. Johns County folks might have a problem with the word "Jacksonville."

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How many golf pros are in Bolivia?

Not many, says our only Bolivian, Eagle Harbor pro Marian Detlefsen. "But we have some beautiful courses," says she.

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Former PGA of America prexy M.G. Orender visits with the Jacksonville Area GA directors next month and that closes the regular JAGA business for the year. All that will be left is the traditional Pro-President tournament, which has club teams of the pro, an officer and the two JAGA directors.