Can someone explain to me why they play the Open on a course with so much dead grass?
The Open is played on nine different links courses in England/Scotland. Thus you’ll find lots of grass like that on them as it’s part of the landscape. Go look up some photos of the courses.
http://golf.about.com/cs/historyofgolf/a/hist_links.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Championship