India, July 17 -- More than 300,000 fans will attend the British Open at Royal Birkdale this week, making it a record crowd for golf's oldest major championship. They'll need to bring sun cream and some manners.

For the first time, the R& A has felt it necessary to publish a fan code of conduct, at a time when some of golf's biggest events have been marred by unsavory and even abusive behavior by spectators.

Titled "The Open Commitment," the code boils down to these five basic requirements of fans: respect the players, respect the links, respect each other, be aware, enjoy responsibly.

Essentially, just be a nice person. If not, the R& A says it can punish "serious or repeated breaches" by removing the guilty parties from the p...