The British Open, which begins in Telford this Saturday, will be without a sponsor. That leaves the game's governing body, the WPBSA, to provide the entire prize fund of £597,000 from its own dwindling resources.

The WPBSA, which promoted nine world-ranking events last summer, admitted in January that it could afford to run only six in the 2002-3 campaign and appealed for a major outside investor.

Steve Walsh, marketing director of Stan James, the bookmaker which was last year's title sponsor, said: "The current climate is inappropriate from a commercial viewpoint."

The Open will incorporate a sartorial innovation with the higher ranked player in each match wearing a red shirt and occupying the red corner and his opponent wearing blue in the blue corner.