• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

BettingSites.co

Betting Sites - Best UK Online Bookmakers & Sports Betting Websites

  • Home
  • Top 10
  • New Sites
  • Free Bets
  • Bookmakers
  • Sports
    • American Football
    • Athletics
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Boxing
    • Cricket
    • Darts
    • Football
    • Formula 1
    • Golf
    • Greyhound Racing
    • Horse Racing
    • Ice Hockey
    • Rugby
    • Snooker
    • Tennis
    • UFC/MMA
  • Tips
  • Banking
  • Articles

The Open Championship: Past Winners, Stats & History

St Andrews Old Course Golf Course

The Open is one of the most famous events in the sporting world, let alone in golf. It makes up one of the four majors and with it is the only one to be hosted outside of the US, taking place in the United Kingdom.

It’s also the oldest major, first held over 150 years ago, and often the one that offers the toughest challenge to the field, mainly because of the extreme weather conditions that often occur throughout the week. It takes place in mid-July and is played at one of 10 courses which work in a rotation system that decides who hosts.

Some of golf greatest players have lifted the Claret Jug as Open Champions, with winners including Harry Vardon, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.

Quick Facts

Course Location Length Prize Money
Royal Liverpool Golf Club Hoylake, Wirral, England 7,218 yards $14,000,000

The Open Championship Recent Winners

Year Winner To Par Winning Margin Course
2022 Cameron Smith -20 1 Stroke St Andrews
2021 Collin Morikawa -15 2 Strokes Royal St George's
2020 Cancelled - - -
2019 Shane Lowry -15 6 Strokes Royal Portrush
2018 Francesco Molinari -8 2 Strokes Carnoustie
2017 Jordan Spieth -12 3 Strokes Royal Birkdale
2016 Henrik Stenson -20 3 Strokes Royal Troon
2015 Zach Johnson -15 Playoff St Andrews
2014 Rory McIlroy -17 2 Strokes Royal Liverpool
2013 Phil Mickelson -3 3 Strokes Muirfield
2012 Ernie Els -7 1 Stroke Royal Lytham & St Annes
2011 Darren Clarke -5 3 Strokes Royal St George's
2010 Louis Oosthuizen -16 7 Strokes St Andrews
2009 Stewart Cink -2 Playoff Turnberry
2008 Padraig Harrington +3 4 Strokes Royal Birkdale
2007 Padraig Harrington -7 Playoff Carnoustie
2006 Tiger Woods -18 2 Strokes Royal Liverpool
2005 Tiger Woods -14 5 Strokes St Andrews
2004 Todd Hamilton -10 Playoff Royal Troon
2003 Ben Curtis -1 1 Stroke Royal St George's

Format

Golf Ball, Tee and Scorecard

The completion take place over 4 days, staring on a Thursday and running through until the Sunday. The field often starts with around 156 players in total, which makes it one of the biggest golfing events of the year. Due to the time of year that the event is played means that the days are long, but it still requires players to start from both the first and tenth tee for the opening two days at least.

The tournament is a stroke play event, meaning that 72 holes will be played in total, broken down into 18 for each day. After 36 holes the cut will be enforced and players who aren’t within the top 70 and ties or within 10 shots of the lead are removed from the tournament. The remaining players then play out 36 more holes over the Saturday and Sunday before crowing the winner. The winner will be the players with the lowest gross score after 72 holes.

In the event that one or more players are tied at the end of 72 holes, a play-off will take place. This will be four holes after which, if there is still a tie, they will continue playing until they have a winner via sudden death.

Courses

Carnoustie Golf Course Hotel

The 2023 Open will be held at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England. The decision making process behind the courses within the rota allows for several different courses to host the event. The courses all have to be links based courses, which basically mean they are near the sea and have a more natural feel to how the course was created. Some state that it’s ‘as God intended golf to be played’.

The courses are mainly based throughout Scotland and England, with just one being based in Northern Ireland. The rota includes ten courses at any one time, but courses can be dropped should the committee feel that they are no longer up to scratch. In fact, in 2016 Muirfield was dropped from the Open rota for their refusal to allow Women to become members within their club. Following another vote in 2017, the decision to allow female members was overturned and in turn, the course was reinstated back on the Open rota.

Open Championship Host Courses

Course Location Opens Held Last Hosted Next Hosting
Royal Portrush Northern Ireland 2 2019 2025
Royal Troon Scotland 9 2016 2024
Royal Liverpool England 12 2014 2023
St Andrews Scotland 30 2022 TBC
Royal St George’s England 15 2021 TBC
Carnoustie Scotland 8 2018 TBC
Royal Birkdale England 10 2017 TBC
Muirfield Scotland 16 2013 TBC
Royal Lytham & St Annes England 11 2012 TBC
Turnberry Scotland 4 2009 TBC

There are a further 4 golf course which have held the Open Championship but that are not currently on the host rota. None of these have been used since the early 20th century and include Prestwick Golf Club which held the first twelve tournaments.

Open Host Courses No Longer Used

Course Location Opens Held First Hosted Last Hosted
Prince’s GC Sandwich, England 1 1932 1932
Prestwick GC Prestwick, Scotland 24 1860 1925
Royal Cinque Ports GC Deal, England 2 1909 1920
Musselburgh Links Musselburgh, Scotland 6 1874 1889

Links Golf

British Coastal Golf Course

Photo © valenta (cc-by-sa/2.0)

As mentioned above, all of the Open courses are what’s known as links courses. This often provides a stern test of golf for the golfer as not only do they have to do battle against a very tough golf course, but also the elements.

With a lot of the courses within the Open rota, to look at them purely by numbers in terms of distance and layout, by modern day standards most are quite short and don’t actually pose that much of a threat. But, with high winds, no shelter from any trees (because there aren’t any) and courses perfectly set up to catch unforgiving shots, makes links golf about as tough as you will find.

One of the key traits that a golfer must posses to do well on these types of courses is that of a solid short game. There are going to be times where tee shots and even approach shots go off line and you are going to need to get up and down to save par. Players who are good chippers and solid putters generally do well.

This is backed up with previous winners in recent years including Jordan Spieth, Zach Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Darren Clarke, Stewart Cink and Padraig Harrington.

The conditions at some point in the event are going to be wet and windy. It’s Britain, in summer time, so it’s almost certain it will rain. This means that players will need to be able to control their ball flight in order to stay under the wind, with many playing more bump and runs in a single round of links then they will likely play all year.

The flip side of that is when you get really dry spells and the courses can, because of the wind, dry out in a matter of hours. Some of the most exciting Opens have come where it’s been rock hard on course and players were having to land the ball 20-30 yards short of the green just to get the ball to stop.

Open Qualification Series

One of the beauties of the Open is that players of all abilities will have the chance to qualify. Well, they need to be off a handicap of 1 or better, but they don’t need to be a pro.

A large number of places are made up through automatic qualifiers, such as top 50 ranked players in the world, top 30 from previous seasons Race to Dubai and top 30 from the Tour Championship. The interesting part comes from the Open Qualifying Series, where players from all over the world can take part in a number of events leading up to the Open to gain their spot. Depending on the profile of each tournament, 1 to 4 spots will be up for grabs at each event.

As a step into these events, there is also a series of regional qualifiers, before entering final qualifying. For professionals, the final two events that can secure your spot in the Open is winning that of the Scottish Open or the John Deere Classic based in America.

2022 Open Qualifying Series

Month Tournament Location
November 2021 Joburg Open Randpark Golf Club, Johannesburg, South Africa
January 2022 Singapore Open Sentosa Golf Club Serapong Course, Singapore
February 2022 Vic Open 13th Beach Golf Links, Barwon Heads, Australia
March 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Florida, USA
May 2022 Mizuno Open JFE Setonaikai Golf Club, Kasaoka, Japan
May 2022 Dutch Open Bernardus Golf, Cromvoirt, Netherlands
June 2022 RBC Canadian Open St. George’s Golf & Country Club, Toronto, Canada
June 2022 Korea Open Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, Cheonan, South Korea
June 2022 Final Qualifier Fairmont St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
June 2022 Final Qualifier Notts Golf Club (Hollinwell), Nottinghamshire, England
June 2022 Final Qualifier Prince’s Golf Club, Kent, England
June 2022 Final Qualifier St Annes Old Links, Lancashire, England
June 2022 Irish Open Mount Juliet Golf & Spa Hotel, Thomastown, Ireland
June 2022 John Deere Classic TPC Deere Run, Illinois, USA
July 2022 Scottish Open The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland
July 2022 Barbasol Championship Keene Trace Golf Club, Nicholasville, Kentucky, USA

Silver Medal

The Silver Medal is awarded to the amateur with the lowest score after 72 holes. To qualify for this they must make the cut and if no amateur’s make the cut, then the awarded won’t be presented.

Quite a prestigious range of players have won this in the past, including Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Chris Wood, Peter McEvoy and Hal Sutton.

Silver Medal Winners that have Won a Major

Player Year Position Majors
Matt Fitzpatrick 2013 44th (Tied) 1
Rory McIlroy 2007 42nd (Tied) 4
Justin Rose 1998 4th (Tied) 1
Tiger Woods 1996 22nd (Tied) 15
Jose Maria Olazabal 1985 25th (Tied) 2
Hal Sutton 1981 47th (Tied) 1

Statistics

In recent years, there has been a real mix of players from different nationalities that have done well at the Open. The US went on a great run from 1995 through to 2006 winning all but two of the Open Championships, these days, however, things are much more open.

Whilst you would think players from the UK and Ireland would dominate an event like this, given they are playing on what most would have grown up on, they have a pretty bad record in recent years. In fact, the last Englishman to win the Open was Nick Faldo back in 1992. The last Northern Irishman was Rory McIlroy in 2014.

Chart Showing the Nationalities of the Open Championship Winners Between 1946 and 2022

The greatest winning margin for the Open came about in 1862 when Old Tom Morris won by 13 shots, a record that stood in all majors until Tiger Wood’s obliterated the field at the US Open in 2000, winning by 15 shots.

The lowest round at the Open was recorded in 2017, by South African Branden Grace. He shot 62 at Royal Birkdale, which was not only a course record, an Open record but also the lowest round ever to be scored in any major ever.

Henrik Stenson has the lowest ever 72 hole score of 264 when he won at Royal Troon in what was one of the best final rounds of the Open era, going head to head with Phil Mickleson.

Lowest Open Championship Winning Scores

Player Year Course Score To Par Winning Margin
Henrik Stenson 2016 Troon 264 -20 1 shot
Collin Morikawa 2021 Royal St George’s 265 -15 2 shots
Greg Norman 1993 Royal St George’s 267 -13 2 shots
Cameron Smith 2022 St Andrews 268 -20 1 shot
Jordan Spieth 2017 Royal Birkdale 268 -12 3 shots
Nick Price 1994 Turnberry 268 -12 1 shot
Tom Watson 1977 Turnberry 268 -12 1 shot
Shane Lowry 2019 Royal Portrush 269 -15 6 shots
Tiger Woods 2000 St Andrews 269 -19 8 shots
Tiger Woods 2006 Royal Liverpool 270 -18 2 shots
Nick Faldo 1990 St Andrews 270 -18 5 shots
Rory McIlroy 2014 Royal Liverpool 271 -17 2 shots
Tom Lehman 1996 Royal Lytham St Annes 271 -13 2 shots
Tom Watson 1980 Muirfield 271 -13 4 shots

History

Sign for Pretwick Golf Course
Photo © Billy McCrorie (cc-by-sa/2.0)

The Open was first played in 1860 and took place at Prestiwck Golf Club. Interestingly, the first tournament was actually held for professional players only, and had a field of just 8 players as a result. Willie Park Sr. won the tournament, beating Old Tom Morris by two storks.

After this event, it was decided that they needed to find the best golfer in the country and as a result set up a challenge belt where players would take part at a series of golf courses throughout England and Scotland.

The winner of this challenge received a red leather ball with a silver buckle. It was decided in 1870 to award Old Tom Morris the belt to keep after he won on 3 separate occasions. The following year they actually failed to host an event as they didn’t have anything to offer the players. As a result of this, the Claret Jug was created and it has been the same trophy presented to winners of the event ever since.

The Claret jug’s official name is actually the Golf Champion Trophy, and the winners of the Open will be formally announced as the Champion Golfer of the year, in respect of the first few outings of the tournament.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews

St Andrews Golf Course Club House

The Royal and Ancient or the R & A as they are more commonly known are part of the oldest and most prestigious gold clubs in the world, based in St Andrews, Scotland. They’ve been about since 1754 and with it are one of the key companies as a role as an authority within the game of golf. These days they are better known for their work improving the rules of golf, but have been known to host several tournaments in their time, none more prestigious than The Open.

Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris

Old Tom Morris is one of the most famous names in golf, even though he was born way back in 1821. He won the Open on four separate occasions between 1861 to 1867. He’d been playing golf since he was 10 years old and moved to Prestwick as a young boy.

We worked as a caddy in much of his early life for Allan Robertson, who is widely regarded as the world’s first professional golfer. Morris worked with him for four years, walking countless miles around the St Andrews links and learning his trade.

He later went onto become head green keeper of St Andrews in 1865, a role he held up until 1903. Amongst other things, he worked within the R&A and with several other golf courses to help use his skills to bring them up to the standards that he had set at St Andrews.

Young Tom Morris was of course, Old Tom Morris’s son. He also started playing golf from an early age, learning from his father mainly at the home of golf, St Andrews, and also at Prestwick Park where his father was head greenkeeper.

His first Open win came in 1868, but in what’s widely regarded as an astonishing feat, his father beat him the following year to win his fourth title in 1867. Between the pair they won eight Open Championships, with Young Tom Morris being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1975 and his father one year after in 1976.

The pair still hold the record for the youngest (Young Tom Morris, 17) and Oldest (Old Tom Morris, 46) winners of the Open ever.

Tom Watson

Golfer Tom Watson on Golf Course

Credit: Ian Tilbrook (cropped), Wikimedia Commons

Tom Watson will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest golfers of all time, let alone in The Open history. Watson won the Open five times in just eight years, from 1975 to 1983. In that time, he went on to beat some of the best there have been, none more special than his 1997 victory over Jack Nicklaus, which will go down as one of the greatest final rounds in golf major history.

Watson won the Open two more than his rival at the time, Jack Nicklaus, and is only one behind the all-time record of six, set by Harry Vardon from 1896 to 1914. Tom Watson has won eight majors in total and was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1988.

Whilst his five wins were remarkable, no doubt one of his biggest achievements came in 2009 when he rolled back the years to finish runner up. In a tournament that will be remembered more for the fact that Tom Watson, at the age of 59, finished second, rather than the ‘unfortunate’ winner that year, Stewart Cink, after a 4-hole playoff.

Primary Sidebar

Sports Betting Guides

  • American Football
    • Super Bowl
  • Athletics
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Boxing
  • Cricket
  • Darts
    • BDO World Darts Championship
    • PDC World Darts Championship
    • PDC World Matchplay
  • Football
    • Football Articles
    • Premier League
    • Premier League Big Six
    • Championship
    • Football Cups
    • FA Cup
    • Champions League
    • World Cup
    • European Championships
    • Football Awards
    • English Football Teams & Leagues
    • Scottish Football Teams & Leagues
    • Irish Football Teams & Leagues
    • Welsh Football Teams & Leagues
  • Formula 1
    • Circuits
    • F1 Constructors Championship
    • F1 Drivers Championship
  • Golf
    • Golf Tournaments
    • The Open Championship
    • US Open Golf
    • The Masters
    • Ryder Cup
    • US PGA Championship
  • Greyhound Racing
    • Greyhound Racing Tracks
  • Horse Racing
    • Horse Racing Articles
    • Horse Races
    • Major Meetings
    • Horse Racing Fixtures
    • Racecourses
      • England
      • Ireland
      • Scotland
      • Wales
    • Horse Racing Series
    • Prize Money
    • Race Classes
      • Grade 1
      • Grade 2
      • Grade 3
      • Group 1
      • Group 2
      • Group 3
      • Handicaps
      • The Classics
  • Ice Hockey
  • MotoGP
  • Motorsport
    • MotoGP Circuits
  • Rugby
    • Super League
    • Six Nations
    • Rugby World Cup
  • Snooker
    • Masters Snooker
    • World Snooker Championship
    • UK Championship Snooker
  • Tennis
    • Wimbledon
    • US Open
    • French Open
    • Australian Open
  • UFC/MMA

Events By Country

  • Countries
  • UAE (Dubai & Abu Dhabi)
  • South Africa
  • India
  • New Zealand
  • France
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • USA
  • Ireland
  • UK
  • Saudi Arabia

Banking

  • Apple Pay
  • Bitcoin
  • Entropay
  • Neteller
  • PayPal
  • Paysafecard
  • Skrill

Popular Articles

  • Picking Winners: How To Study Horse Racing Form
  • Betting & Tax In The UK – Do I Have To Pay Tax On My Gambling Winnings?
  • Both Teams to Score & Goals Galore Explained
  • Multiples Betting Explained
  • Dead Heat Rules – What Happens In The Event Of A Tie?

Latest Articles

  • Horse Racing Fixtures
  • Scottish Racecourses
  • Welsh Racecourses
  • English Racecourses
  • Premier League Golden Boot
  • European Golden Shoe
  • Motorsport
  • Youghal Greyhound Stadium
  • Kilcohan Park Greyhound Stadium (Waterford)
  • Kingdom Greyhound Stadium (Tralee)

Recently Updated

  • Australian Open: Past Winners, Stats & History
  • Pegasus World Cup
  • Farmers Insurance Open
  • Cotswold Chase
  • Clarence House Chase
  • Best Online Bookies & List of UK High Street Bookmakers
  • The American Express
  • Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
  • DP World Tour Championship
  • Nedbank Golf Challenge
  • Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
  • Open de France
  • Italian Open
  • BMW PGA Championship
  • Omega European Masters
  • Irish Open
  • BMW International Open
  • Porsche European Open
  • Dutch Open
  • British Masters
Copyright © 2023 BettingSites.co | 18+ BeGambleAware

Disclaimer: Please note that the legality of betting online varies between countries and it is your responsibility to verify that your actions are legal in the country you reside. All offers subject to terms and conditions. Please gamble responsibly - if you feel you may have a problem and need advice please visit Gamble Aware (UK) or Gamblers Anonymous.