Full Answer
Park and the man he beat in that first British Open by two strokes, Old Tom Morris, are among those golfers who have won the Open Championship multiple times, but they did not win the most titles. That honor goes to Harry Vardon, who earned six Open titles.
In 1863 a purse of £10—which was to be shared among the professionals who finished in second, third, and fourth place—was introduced, and a first-place cash prize of £6 was added in 1864. In 1870 Tom Morris, Jr., won the Open for the third consecutive time and was thus allowed to keep the Challenge Belt permanently.
The British Open is played on a links-style golf course, which is different from most other courses played on tour. Which players play best on links courses? Jason Sobel shares his thoughts:
'Champion Golfer of the Year' at Every Open Championship. Padraig Harrington celebrates his second consecutive Open Championship win in 2008.
British Open, officially the Open Championship or the Open, one of the world’s four major golf tournaments—with the Masters Tournament, the U.S. Open, and the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship—and the oldest continually run championship in the sport. Best known outside the United States as the Open Championship or, simply, ...
The Old Course of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Fife is the most famous of many excellent seaside courses. Scotland’s landscape is ideally suited to those pursuing hill…. Tiger Woods. …major championships by winning the British Open.
The Open is a unique event and is of great importance to professionals and amateur golfers alike, as well as to fans of golf. Unlike the play of other majors—which are typically contested in sunny locales in the United States—the outcome of the Open is often influenced by the weather.
From 1860 to 1870 the Open was played exclusively at Prestwick Golf Club. Since 1872 it has been played at a number of courses in rotation. Initially the three courses were Prestwick, St. Andrews, and Musselburgh, all located in Scotland.
The first Open Championship was played on October 17, 1860, at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. A field of eight professionals played three rounds of Prestwick’s 12-hole course in one day. Willie Park, Sr., won the inaugural tournament and was presented with the Challenge Belt, a silver-buckled leather belt that each champion was to keep until ...
The last of those was Bobby Jones ’s third Open, which was part of his celebrated Grand Slam (four major tournament victories in one calendar year). The popularization of golf in the mid-20th century produced a string of noteworthy Open champions, including England’s Sir Henry Cotton (winner in 1934, 1937, and 1948), ...
Watson ’s final win in 1983 ended an era of U.S. domination, during which American golfers won 12 times in 14 years. For the next 11 years there was only one American winner, with the Claret Jug going to Spain’s Seve Ballesteros, Australia’s Greg Norman, and England’s Nick Faldo, among others.
The British Open golf tournament goes all the way back to 1860. That's a lot of champions. And here they all are, the Open Championship winners.
The number following the winner's name is his stroke total (playoffs are listed in parentheses). Where the year appears as a link (in blue), you can click to view the final scores and recap:
While his Open Championship record is surprisingly shallow – three missed cuts in five starts and a career-best finish of only T-12 last year – the Englishman has enough reps on links courses that he edged his way onto this list.
With a Scottish Open title to his name at Gullane four years ago, Fowler certainly owns the right skills and mentality to succeed in this style.
Perhaps it should come as little surprise that Garcia is the all-time leading money-winner in Open Championship history out of those who haven’t won the event. Ranking seventh overall with more than $3.6 million, Garcia owns more top-10 at this event since the turn of the century (10 of ‘em) than results outside the top-10.
The man from Warrnambool ranks as one of the world’s best wind players, which in turn makes him also one of its best links performers. Known for a low ball-flight, he’s parlayed that skill into top-six finishes in three of the last five editions of The Open.
At some point, a few players need to be on this list less because they’re so proficient at links golf and more because they’re simply proficient at any golf, regardless of venue.
A classic case of a golfer tailoring his game to the environment in which he grew up. Poulter needed to learn how to keep his ball out of the English winds, a trait which shows in his numbers today. He ranks 192nd in average apex height on tee shots and 190th in hang time, statistics which help explain three career top-10 finishes at The Open.
If it’s little surprise that Garcia ranks first on The Open money list of non-winners, then it similarly shouldn’t shock us that Scott is second, at 11th overall, with just over $2.5 million.
The Open Championship—often called the British Open by Americans—has been contested since 1860 , when Willie Park Sr. won the inaugural event. Little did he, or the other seven golfers who competed, know that the tournament that year at Prestwick would grow to become golf's oldest and arguably most prestigious major championship.
That honor goes to Harry Vardon, who earned six Open titles. In 2009 at the age of 59, Tom Watson nearly equaled Vardon's achievement. He was tied with Stewart Cink at the end of regulation but lost the playoff that would have given him his sixth title.
Tom Kidd was a golfer of the 19th century and one of the lesser-known British Open champs ever. But he did, in fact, win the Open Championship ... and he just might have invented grooves on irons.
Kidd is one of the least-known major championship winners in golf history, so little-known that the exact year of his birth isn't even certain.
The French golfer’s catastrophic 72nd hole at Carnoustie was not the stuff of abject failure, but a doomed folk hero undone by his danger-seeking. And it’s why we continue to think about it (and rewatch it) today.
Jean Van De Velde looks at the cup from deep in the burn next to the 18th green during the final round of the 128th British Open Championship. GERRY PENNY/AFP/Getty Images. Alliss, at this point nearly operatic with grief, could scarcely contain himself: “This is so, so, so, so sad. And so unnecessary.”.
And so it is with Jean Van de Velde, the daredevil who took history’s center stage for the briefest of moments, fired all his guns and watched them explode into space. Yes, he played the 72nd hole of the 1999 British Open with the rational acuity of your average serious acid head.
Sergio Garcia wept after shooting an 89 in the first round. Tiger Woods entered Sunday tied for fourth, but at seven shots over par. And yet Jean Van de Velde, of all the field—which included nearly every highly ranked player in the world—had forged a path.
But golfing gods are notoriously mercurial. “His first shot was way out near the 17th hole, and it nearly went in the water, ” Murray says.