Open Championship history: winners, courses, records and statistics

The Open Championship, also known as the Open or the British Open in America, is back at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for its 153rd edition. As the fourth and final major of the season, next to the Masters, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship, we analyze what has made this tournament special for over a hundred and fifty years.

The Oldest major

The first British Open was held in 1860 playing three rounds of 12 holes in just one day to crown Willie Park Sr. as the first ever champion in Prestwick, Scotland, where the tournament would be played for the first 12 editions. In the coming years the Open would expand its playing field and allow amateurs to take part in it, with the exception of 1871, when the tournament was canceled. Tom Morris Jr. had won the Open for the past three years, so he was allowed to retain the championship belt. That meant there was no trophy to be awarded next year and the tournament did not reappear until 1872, when the trophy now known as the Claret Jug was introduced. Since then it has only stopped due to both World Wars and COVID in 2020.

The Open Championship has lived through some different eras, as it was won six times by amateurs before 1930. Then came a period of England domination until the tournament got recognition in the States, as Arnold Palmer took part in it in 1960 to try and win the US Open, the Masters and the Open all in the same year. Palmer finished runner-up, but he came back and won it a couple of times, initiating a US era next to Nicklaus and some other players. The British Open officially became part of the PGA tour back in 1994.

Royal Troon frustrated players last year

This 152nd edition of the Open Championship was held at Royal Troon, a links golf course where Xander Schaufelle won in 2024. The American took home the Claret Jug and is trying to defend it this year at Royal Portrush

Prizes, records and statistics

From an initial £10 purse to distribute among the top finishers in the tournament, the Open has grown to a $17 million prize pool, of which the winner gets $3.1 million. Winning it allows the champion to enter the Open until age 60, and also grants access to the next five editions of each major.

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The golfer with the most ever wins at the Open Championship is Harry Vardon, who totalled 6 championships at the end of the XIX century. Father and son, Tom Morris Sr. and Tom Morris Jr. both won four British Opens each during the first decades of the tournament’s existence. Some of golf’s greatest players have also had a lot of success at the Open, with Tom Watson winning the Claret Jug five times in 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1983.

The best aggregate score and to par both come from the same player in the same year, as Henryk Stenson’s historic performance won him the 2016 Open Championship. He finished with a score of 263 and a -20 that players will try to come near to this week in hopes of succeeding Cameron Smith as the nextOpen champion.