The 149th edition of the British Open Golf Championship tees it up this coming Thursday at Royal St. George’s Golf Club on England’s far southeastern coast. It is a links-style course just outside the medieval town of Sandwich and will be hosting the Open Championship, as it is known on the other side of the Atlantic, for the 15th time. The defending champ is Irishman Shane Lowry who captured his first major championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland in 2019. The Open Championship was canceled last summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic and couldn’t rescheduled later in the year. A maximum of 30,000 fans will be able to attend this year’s Open.
Royal St. George’s is one tough course that has had a storied as well as an erratic British Open history. Initially designed by Dr. Laidlaw Purves in 1887, it was a true “country club” for Scottish and English members who belonged to crowded established courses such as St. Andrews, Muirfied and Wimbledon. St. George’s is Purves’ only real design of note as he was also a noted surgeon as well as one of the leading figures in the development of golf in the British Isles. We will feature Purves in next week’s column. The course will play to a par of 70 and will be lengthened to 7,204 yards for the Open. The winner’s share this time around is an eye-popping $2.07 million from a total purse of $11.5 million.
St. George’s hosted its first British Open some seven years after it opened in 1894. It was the first course outside Scotland to host the Open Championship. That Open was won by J.H. Taylor, one of the game’s elite linksters and a storied member of the Great Triumvirate. Taylor shot 84-80-81-81 for a 326 aggregate, good enough to beat Douglas Roland by five strokes. In 1899 the second member of the Triumvirate, Harry Vardon, won the Open at St. George’s. Jack White won the 1904 Open there and Vardon captured his fifth of sixth British Opens at St. George’s in 1911. The two Opens held at Royal St. George’s in the Roaring Twenties belonged to American Walter Hagen, who took home the Claret Jug in 1922 and 1928.
In 1930, the design team of H.S. Colt and C.S. Alisson (Sea Island, Burning Tree, Royal Portrush) alongside Alister Mackenzie (Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne, Crystal Downs) rebuilt and lengthened the course. Yet putting genius Henry Cotton didn’t get the memo about St. George’s newfound difficulty. He won the 1934 Open and shot an unheard of 65. It was his first of three Open titles. Playing Dunlop golf clubs, the company signified his achievement with the release of the Dunlop 65 ball. Reg Whitcombe won the Open at St. George’s in 1938 and South African Bobby Locke won the first of his four Opens at Sandwich in 1949.
Because of its relative remoteness coupled with a course re-do and widening of local access roads, the Open rotation did not include Royal St. George’s between 1949 and 1981. Once the Open returned to southeast England in the modern era, there has been a hodge-podge of classic champions coupled with a couple of “who’s he?” moments. Texan Bill Rogers won his lone major title in 1981 by four strokes over Bernhard Langer. Scotland’s Sandy Lyle won his first of two majors when he won the 1985 British at St. George’s by one shot over Payne Stewart. In 1993, world No. 1 Greg Norman played brilliant golf during the fourth round Sunday, shooting 64, and ran down Nick Faldo to win his second Claret Jug. It was Norman at his best.
The last two Open Championships held at St. George’s were a head-scratcher and a feel-good moment. In 2003, Ben Curtis finished 13th at the Western Open in Chicago, which got him one of the final spots in the Open that year. The PGA Tour rookie was a 300-1 shot to win, and after three rounds he found himself on a crowded leader board in a five=way tie for third place. A final-round 69 resulted in his one-hit wonder status as he beat Thomas Bjorn and Vijay Singh by one stroke.
The last time the Open was at St. George’s was in 2011. Irishman and European Tour regular Darren Clarke won his lone major after 54 attempts. Five years earlier Clarke’s wife Heather had died of breast cancer and Clarke’s career had an irregular feel to it while he raised his two young sons. His 2011 Open win was the result of a three-stroke victory over Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson. It was a magical moment for Clarke, a most popular figure.
Similar to the United States Open, the British Open has designated spots as well as spaces for qualifiers. Past Open champions as well as those who finished in the top 10 at the previous Open are exempt. Those ranked in the world’s top 50 are exempt as well. The top 30 on the European Tour from 2019 are in the Open as well as the top 10 from last year. A win in the other majors during the last five years will get you a tee time this Thursday at St. George’s. The 2019 members of the Presidents Cup team are also exempt.
Finishing in the top three at a number of 2021 tourneys on both sides of the Atlantic will get a golfer into the field at sites such as the Irish Open, the Scottish Open, the John Deere and the South African Open, among others. Amateur winners of the British Am, the U.S. Am, the European Am, the Asian-Pacific Am and the Latin American Am also get a spot in this year’s Open. The remaining 60 or so spots go to those golfers who survive 13 regional qualifiers held throughout the world of golf.
The British Open is the last of the game’s four grand slam championships of 2021. While it’s hard to get a read on what type of golfer excels at Royal St. George’s, one has to assume that the usual cast of big-name golfers are favored to take home the Claret Jug a week from Sunday. Obviously U.S. Open titlist Jon Rahm has to be considered as does Brooks Koepka, former British Open champ Jordan Spieth, and iron master Collin Morikawa. Ten years ago Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson finished second to Clarke at St. George’s although DJ hasn’t been playing well of late. If the wind picks up, then high-ball hitters had better beware.
Yet something tells me that a non-American just might prevail next week. Maybe it’s time for Louis Oosthuizen to get that second Claret Jug. Perhaps Euro Tour regulars such as Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton or Viktor Hovland are waiting for their big moment. Beware of past Irish champions such as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. Yet if I had a few pounds to put on the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s next week, I just might open my wallet and place a wager on Garrick Higgo. Who? Well, Higgo is ranked 11th on the Euro Tour’s Rolex Rankings, won earlier last month for the first time in America, and has three wins in Europe and a pair of wins on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour. He’s accomplished a lot for a 22-year-old and soon we’ll know why he’s going to be a future great. After all, there’s a Claret Jug to be won a week from Sunday.
