The Open is played in the UK, so pool picks close before dawn there, which is Wednesday night for a group in the US. How to run an Open Championship pool around that clock, the links, and a top 70 and ties cut.
Before dawn UK time on Thursday. The lock is computed from the course longitude; at Royal Birkdale it comes out at 04:30 UTC, which is 5:30 a.m. in the UK, 12:30 a.m. Eastern (the middle of Wednesday night) and 9:30 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday. Other links venues land at the same time or half an hour earlier. If no longitude is stored, it falls back to Thursday 12:00 UTC.
No. Season Long lineups lock at Thursday 12:00 UTC for every tournament, which is 1:00 p.m. UK time during the Open, after the first round has started. Season Long also sends no lock or round emails, and a week with no lineup set scores zero.
The field loads from Sunday night UTC, and the tiers are sorted by win odds only once odds for the Open itself are posted. Until then they are sorted by world ranking, so golfers can move tiers as the odds arrive. Members who pick after the odds are posted see tiers sorted by the Open's own odds.
Many US fans call it that. Its organiser, The R&A, calls it The Open. It is the same championship, played in July on a links course in Scotland, England or Northern Ireland.
The commissioner can send a Picks due blast to everyone, or only to unpaid members, at any time before the lock. When there is a buy-in, members who have picked but not paid also get a pay reminder within 24 hours of the lock, and members who picked get a lock confirmation listing their picks once picks close.
By a three-hole aggregate playoff, then sudden death if still tied. For the pool, the Office Pool tiebreaker compares each prediction with the winner's 72-hole total, which leaves out playoff holes.