We are at the midway point of the British Open Golf Championship being contested at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in northwestern England alongside the Irish Sea. Through two rounds of play we have heard from many golfers who have dreamed of winning the Open Championship while adding their name alongside the greats already on the Claret Jug.
The Open is the game’s oldest championship of note, having initially been contested at the Prestwick Golf Links in 1860 in western Scotland. Willie Park won his first of his four Open titles that year, only to be matched with four Open wins by the father-and-son team of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris during a 15-year period of time. Park and the Morrises began a trend that continues today with the best players of the era winning the championship while holding the Claret Jug multiple times.
Around the turn of the 19th century, the triumvirate of Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor won a combined 16 British Open titles from 1894 through 1914 with Vardon collecting six victories while Braid and Taylor won five times apiece. Following World War I, Americans such as Walter Hagen with four wins and amateur great Bobby Jones with three led a dominant invasion of golfers from across the pond that also included Gene Sarazen, Jim Barnes, Denny Shute and Jock Hutchinson.
After the conclusion of the Second World War, a new period of dominance was led by a group of overseas golfers from Australia and South Africa. South African Bobby Locke won in 1949, 1950, 1952, and 1957. Australian Peter Thomas took home the Claret Jug in 1954, 1955, 1956 and, 1958, and he made it five Open titles when he won again in 1965. A young South African named Gary Player won the British Open in 1959 and Kel Nagle from Australia followed up with a victory in 1960. Yet from Denny Shute’s win in 1933 through 1961, there was limited American presence in the Open Championship for three decades.
It was a time when the champion golfer of the year included a veritable who’s who of professional golf. Englishman Alf Perry won the Open at Muirfield in 1935. Fellow countryman Alf Padgham won the following year at Royal Liverpool. In 1938 Reg Whitcombe lifted the Claret Jug at Royal St. George while another Englishman, Dick Burton, won the 1939 Open at St. Andrews. For the uninitiated, you won’t find Perry, Padgham, Whitcombe or Burton in golf’s Hall of Fame. You will only find their names on the Claret Jug. They won Open Championships at a time when the world’s finest golfers avoided the British Open. The world’s oldest championship had become a mere afterthought.
Sure, there were a few blips on the screen during those 30 years, but they were few and far between. First and foremost, the Open Championship wasn’t played during six of those years during World War II when some of Great Britain’s finest links courses such as Turnberry were turned into Royal Air Force landing strips. Nonetheless, there was little relevance to the British Open, far removed from the days of the Great Triumvirate and the reign of Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones. Sam Snead took his one and only excursion to the Open Championship in 1946 and won by four strokes over Locke and Johnny Bulla. When Snead received the Claret Jug and the $150 first-place check, he was shocked by the paltry sum of his winnings. He vowed to never return to the Open. Seven years later, Ben Hogan entered the Open at Carnoustie, ran away from the field by a similar four-stroke margin and beat a foursome of golfers that included Thomson. He never returned either.
Regardless of the success of one-hit wonders Snead and Hogan, the prevailing notion was that the British Open paid too little in prize money, the courses were too quirky, the food was less than palatable, and the accommodations were lousy. It made much more sense to play in the Rubber City Open or the Western Open than to venture overseas, put up with 36-hole qualifying, deal with all the hassles of playing in the United Kingdom, and lose money, even if you just so happened to win the Open that weekend. As earlier stated, the Open Championship was an afterthought.
It all changed in 1961. That’s when the star of American golf, Arnold Palmer, came to Royal Birkdale, site of this year’s Open Championship, and hit a monster 6-iron out of ankle-high rough during the final nine to beat Dai Rees by one stroke and bring the Claret Jug back to this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Palmer repeated the feat the following year at Troon, lapping the field by six strokes over runner-up Kel Nagle, the 1960 champion. Palmer also promoted the British Open to his American counterparts. Arnie parroted his father’s thoughts that you could never be considered a great golfer unless you could win tournaments in all parts of the world. Palmer also promoted the concept of a professional grand slam that included the three American majors, the Masters, U.S. Open, and PGA Championship along with the British Open. True, the Open Championship paid less than the other majors, the weather was still lousy, and the accommodations were old world, but winning a British Open put you in the same golfing stratosphere as those who won golf’s American majors.
The floodgates were truly opened by Arnold Palmer. Bay Area resident Tony Lema won the Open at St. Andrews in 1964. Jack Nicklaus won his first of three Open titles the following year at Muirfield. Nicklaus’ foil in those days, Lee Trevino, would win the Claret Jug in back-to-back years. Gifted Americans such as Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller would add the British Open to their impressive golfing resumes. Midwesterner Tom Watson would win his first of five Open titles in ‘75 and suddenly it was an American from Kansas City who was beloved overseas
Of course, the rest is history and the Open has taken on a decidedly international flavor with multiple Open champions such as Englishman Nick Faldo, Spain’s Seve Ballesteros, Australian Greg Norman, American Tiger Woods, Ernie Els from South Africa, and Irishman Padraig Harrington. Yet it is important to remember a time when no one cared who was the champion golfer of the year. Arnold Palmer changed all that in 1961. The Open Championship is one of golf’s four major championships, and for many of the golfers in this year’s field, it is the one grand slam title they most cherish, that they would most want to win.
