The Open Championship
The Open Championship has been staged at the Old Course at St Andrews 28 times. The following is a list of the champions:
| Year | Winner | Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | ||
| 1873 | Tom Kidd 1st | 91 | 88 | -- | -- | 179. This was the first time the Open Championship was played on an 18-hole course. Instead of three round of 12 holes, there were two rounds of 18. Kidd won 11 pounds. |
| 1876 | Bob Martin 1st | 86 | 90 | -- | -- | 176. Due to a controversial ruling, Bob Martin finished in a tie for first. In protest, his opponent Davie Strath refused to participate so Martin walked the course and became the Open Champion. |
| 1879 | Jamie Anderson 3rd | 84 | 85 | -- | -- | 169. With this win, Jamie Anderson became the first person to break 170 in the Open Championship. |
| 1882 | Bob Ferguson 3rd | 83 | 88 | -- | -- | 171. This was the third straight Open Championship for Ferguson. He won 12 pounds. |
| 1885 | Bob Martin 2nd | 84 | 87 | -- | -- | 171. The third of Martin's Open Championship wins, he won 10 pounds. |
| 1888 | Jack Burns 1st | 86 | 85 | -- | -- | 171. Burns won after his score was re-added, giving him a one-stroke victory. |
| 1891 | Hugh Kirkaldy 1st | 83 | 83 | -- | -- | 166. Kirkaldy set the tournament record with his 166. This was also the last Open Championship that was 36 holes. |
| 1895 | J.H. Taylor 2nd | 86 | 78 | 80 | 78 | 322. This was the first Open to be played over two days (36 holes a day) and a total of 72 holes at St. Andrews. He shot the first sub-80 rounds at St Andrews. |
| 1900 | J.H. Taylor 3rd | 79 | 77 | 78 | 75 | 309. This open marked the first time the “Great Triumvirate” finished 1-2-3. That was the name given to the three golfers who dominated the game in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. From 1894 to 1906, J.H. Taylor, Harry Vardon, and James Braid combined to win 16 Open Championships. This was Taylor's third of five Open Championships. |
| 1905 | James Braid 2nd | 81 | 78 | 78 | 81 | 318. This was the first Open to be played over three days, with 36 holes on the last day. This was Braid's second of five Open Championships. |
| 1910 | James Braid 5th | 76 | 73 | 74 | 76 | 299. This Open was the last of Braid's five Open Championships. With this win he became the first person to break 300 in a four-round Open at St Andrews, and was the first to win five Open Championships. |
| 1921 | Jock Hutchison 1st | 72 | 75 | 79 | 70 | 296 PO. Hutchison was the first American citizen to win the Open Championship with this win. This was also the first time Bobby Jones played St Andrews. He ended up walking off the course after he took four shots to get out of a bunker on the 11th hole. |
| 1927 | Bobby Jones (a) 2nd | 68 | 72 | 73 | 72 | 285 (-3). This win marked Bobby Jones' first Open championship win at St Andrews, his second straight Open Championship, fourth professional major, and his 7th career major (he was a three-time winner of the U.S. Amateur). |
| 1933 | Denny Shute 1st | 73 | 73 | 73 | 73 | 292 (+4) PO. Shute won the Open title by five strokes in a playoff against Craig Wood. Leo Diegel could have joined them but he whiffed a putt on the 72nd hole, finishing one shot off the lead. |
| 1939 | Dick Burton 1st | 70 | 72 | 77 | 71 | 290 (-2). The 1939 Open was the last Open Championship that was played until 1946 because of World War II. The British Royal Air Force used the fairways of the Old Course as runways. Burton is also the person who holds the Open title longest because he held the title for seven years until the war ended and the tournament resumed in 1946. |
| 1946 | Sam Snead 1st | 71 | 70 | 74 | 75 | 290 (-2). Even though American Sam Snead won the first Open Championship to be played since 1939, he still lost money because of the high travel expenses. When taking the train into St Andrews, Sam Snead is quoted for looking out of the window and saying “Say, that looks like an old abandoned golf course” about the Old Course. |
| 1955 | Peter Thomson 2nd | 71 | 68 | 70 | 72 | 281 (−7). This was the second of Thomson's three straight Open titles, and five overall. |
| 1957 | Bobby Locke 4th | 69 | 72 | 68 | 70 | 279 (−9). Between 1949 and 1957, Locke won the Open title four times. He survived a possible disqualification when he marked his ball on the 72nd green, and played his ball without replacing his ball mark. The R&A decided that because he had a three shot lead, and he didn’t gain an advantage, that in the spirit of the game, he should not be disqualified. |
| 1960 | Kel Nagle 1st | 69 | 67 | 71 | 71 | 278 (−10). This was the 100th anniversary of the Open Championship, although due to wars it wasn’t the 100th Open Championship to be played. Arnold Palmer finished second and is credited with returning the Open to the eyes of Americans. |
| 1964 | Tony Lema 1st | 73 | 68 | 68 | 70 | 279 (−9). In between 1962 and 1966 Lema won 12 times on tour, his only major win being the 1964 Open title. He ended up beating Jack Nicklaus by five strokes. Tragically in 1966 he was killed when his plane crashed on a golf course. |
| 1970 | Jack Nicklaus 2nd | 68 | 69 | 73 | 73 | 283 (−5)PO. Doug Sanders missed a tough two and a half foot putt on the 72nd hole, bogeyed, and ended up tied with Nicklaus. The playoff the next day came down to 18th hole when Nicklaus birdied to win the Open title. This was his second Open title and eight overall major. |
| 1978 | Jack Nicklaus 3rd | 71 | 72 | 69 | 69 | 281 (−7). Nicklaus completed the career Grand Slam (winning all four majors in your career at least once) for the third time making it his third Open Championship. |
| 1984 | Seve Ballesteros 2nd | 69 | 68 | 70 | 69 | 276 (−12). The leaderboard for the final day was full of the best golfers in the world at the time. Ballesteros beat Bernhard Langer, Tom Watson, Fred Couples, Lanny Wadkins, Nick Faldo, and Greg Norman to make an epic final round at St Andrews. Ballesteros birdied the 72nd hole to win by two, and his fist pump is an iconic image to this day. He won $71,500. |
| 1990 | Nick Faldo 2nd | 67 | 65 | 67 | 71 | 270 (−18). Faldo set the Open championship scoring record shooting 18 under par, winning his second major of the year, his second Open Championship and his fourth overall major. |
| 1995 | John Daly 1st | 67 | 71 | 73 | 71 | 282 (−6)PO. This Open was significant because it was the first that Tiger Woods played in, and the last the Arnold Palmer played in, getting to have his farewell at St Andrews. John Daly beat Costantino Rocca in a four-hole playoff to win the Open title and $199,375. |
| 2000 | Tiger Woods 1st | 67 | 66 | 67 | 69 | 269 (−19). Winning the 2000 British Open was Tiger Woods' second consecutive major championship; he would win the next two as well for four consecutive major victories over two years - the "Tiger Slam". He didn’t hit a single bunker the entire tournament, shot in the 60’s all four rounds, won by eight strokes, and set the new Open Championship scoring record with 19 under par. He won $759,150. |
| 2005 | Tiger Woods 2nd | 66 | 67 | 71 | 70 | 274 (−14). This was Jack Nicklaus’s last Open Championship and like Arnold Palmer, he finished on the Old Course. This was also Tiger's 10th major championship and the fourth one he had won by five or more strokes. He won $1,261,285. |
| 2010 | Louis Oosthuizen1st | 65 | 67 | 69 | 71 | 272 (−16). On the 150th anniversary of the first Open Championship, Oosthuizen played consistently well, winning the Open title by shooting a 16 under par 272 and winning by seven strokes. Rory McIlroy shot a 63 in the opening round. |
- Note: Superscript number besides the player's name is the number of the Open Championship in their respective careers.
(a) denotes amateur
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