The 1963 Open Championship was the 92nd Open Championship, held from 10–13 July at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes, England. Bob Charles won his only major championship in a 36-hole playoff, eight strokes ahead of runner-up Phil Rodgers. Charles was the first left-hander to win a major title. Jack Nicklaus came in third, one stroke out of the playoff. A heavy favorite among the local bettors, Arnold Palmer came up short in his bid for a third straight Open and finished in a tie for 26th.
This was the last 36-hole playoff at The Open, the format was changed to 18 holes the following year and first used in 1970.
The PGA Championship was played the next week in Dallas, Texas, one of five times in the 1960s that these two majors were played in consecutive weeks in July.
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“What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded clearness of the intuitive powers, which a perfectly truthful adherence to every admonition of the higher instincts would bring to a finely organized human being.... Should these faculties have free play, I believe they will open new, deeper and purer sources of joyous inspiration than have yet refreshed the earth.”
—Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)