1860 Open Championship

1860 Open Championship
Tournament information
Dates 17 October 1860
Location Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland
Course(s) Prestwick Golf Club
Statistics
Field 8 players
Champion
Scotland Willie Park, Sr.
174
1861»
Prestwick
Location in Scotland
James Ogilvie Fairlie, principal organizer of the inaugural 1860 Open Championship, c.1847
Willie Park, Sr. wearing the Challenge Belt

The 1860 Open Championship was a golf competition held at Prestwick Golf Club, in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is now regarded as the first Open Championship. Until his death in 1859, Allan Robertson was regarded as top golfer in the world. The Open Championship was created to determine his successor.[1] Eight golfers contested the event, with Willie Park, Sr. winning the championship by 2 shots from Tom Morris, Sr.

Prestwick Golf Club organised the event, "to be played for by professional golfers". Golf clubs in Scotland and England were invited to name and send up to three of their best players to compete. The contest was over three rounds of the twelve-hole links course. The prize for winning was the Challenge Belt, a player winning the belt three successive years would keep it. "Cawdies, i.e. Professional Players, not Keepers of Links" were eligible and had to produce a certificate of respectability from their club.[2] George Daniel Brown was the only Englishman to play in the event.[3]

James Ogilvie Fairlie was the principal organizer of this inaugural Open Championship. In a proposed competition for a "Challenge Belt", Fairlie sent out a series of letters to Blackheath, Perth, Edinburgh, Musselburgh and St. Andrews, inviting a player known as a "respectable caddie" to represent each of the clubs in a tournament to be held on 17 October 1860.[4]

The pairings were Tom Morris, Sr. (Prestwick) and Robert Andrew (Perth), Willie Park Sr. (Musselburgh) and Alexander Smith (Bruntsfield), William Steel (Bruntsfield) and Charlie Hunter (Prestwick St Nicholas), George Daniel Brown (Blackheath) and Andrew Strath (St Andrews).[5]

Course

Hole Name Yards
1 Back of Cardinal 578
2 Alps 385
3 Tunnel (Red) 167
4 Wall 448
5 Sea Hedrig 440
6 Tunnel (White) 314
7 Green Hollow 144
8 Station 166
9 Burn 395
10 Lunch House 213
11 Short 132
12 Home 417
Yardage 3,799

Final leaderboard

Source: [6]

PlacePlayerCountryScore
1 Willie Park, Sr.  Scotland 55-59-60=174
2 Tom Morris, Sr.  Scotland 58-59-59=176
3 Andrew Strath  Scotland 180
4 Robert Andrew  Scotland 191
5 George Daniel Brown  England 192
6 Charlie Hunter  Scotland 195
7 Alexander Smith  Scotland 196
8 William Steel  Scotland 232

See also

References

  1. "The Coming of The Open - History of The Open Golf Championship". Golf Today. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  2. "Challenge Belt". Fife Herald. 11 October 1861. Retrieved 21 December 2014 via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  3. "The story of the first Englishman to play in the Open Championship, told by David Malcolm and Peter Crabtree" (PDF). British Golf Collectors’ Society. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  4. Joy, David (June 2003). "Prestwick Golf Club". Links Magazine. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  5. "Prestwick Golf Club - The Challenge Belt". Fife Herald. 25 October 1861. Retrieved 21 December 2014 via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  6. Brenner, Morgan G. (2009). The Majors of Golf: Complete Results of the Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters, 1860-2008 1. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3360-5.

External links

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