 Looking Glass officially announced British Open Championship Golf on July 18 , 1996 . Coinciding with this news , the company launched a website to cover The Open Championship of 1996 ; it detailed both current events and the history of the tournament and its courses . According to Bradford , the company was " hoping to make a splash " with the game , which was placed in competition with popular series such as Links and PGA Tour . He noted the quality of these titles , and stated that , had the team not been trying to innovate , they would not have attempted to compete in the genre . Looking Glass revealed in November 1996 that Jim McKay , host of the Wide World of Sports , would provide color commentary for the game . Actor Michael Bradshaw was hired as the play @-@ by @-@ play announcer . The pair recorded more than 5 @,@ 000 lines of dialogue in total . In January 1997 , Looking Glass and Eidos Interactive announced a four @-@ year partnership . As a result , British Open Championship Golf was distributed and marketed in North America and published in Europe by Eidos . However , like Flight Unlimited and Terra Nova , the game was self @-@ published in North America by Looking Glass . In March 1997 , near the end of the game 's development , part of the team moved to Thief : The Dark Project ; this included Mark Lizotte , who became that game 's lead artist . British Open Championship Golf was released on April 30 , 1997 . That May , Looking Glass collaborated with golf website GolfWeb to host a " Virtual British Open " tournament . Players competed in the game to win a trip to The Open Championship in Scotland , complete with " air fare , hotel accommodations and spending money . " 
