Legendary Open Championships at Royal Troon

This will be the 10th Open Championship to be staged at Royal Troon. Here is a brief look back at what happened in each of the others: 

58th Open, 1923

The Open came to Troon for the first time in 1923. The American challenge was led by the defending champion Walter Hagen, who had won the first of his four Opens at Royal St George’s the previous year, and was in contention throughout, as was his compatriot MacDonald Smith. On the strength of three consecutive rounds of 73, Arthur Havers, an Englishman, led Joe Kirkwood, of Australia, by one stroke going into the final round. Trailing by another shot was Hagen. Havers’ approach on the 18th found a greenside bunker where he holed out for a three and a closing 76. Kirkwood slipped to 78 on his final round but Hagen was close to Havers’ all day. He came to the final hole needing a three to tie. Hagen’s approach from 160 yards found the same bunker Havers had been in. With his customary dramatic flair, Hagen had the pin removed. While his shot was close it didn’t find the hole. Havers was Champion, his total of 295 beating Hagen by a stroke with Smith in third. Hagen’s prize? £75.

78th Open, 1950

It was 27 years since the Open had been played at Troon. The dominant players of the day were Peter Thomson and Bobby Locke the defending Champion. South Africa’s Locke took advantage of the firm conditions at Old Troon, he hardly used a driver and barely missed a fairway. His relentless, careful skilful play over the two rounds played on the final day resulted in a total of 279. It was two better than Roberto De Vicenzo with Ireland’s Fred Daly and Wales’ Dai Rees leading the home challenge. Locke had effectively defended the title that he had won the year before. The South African won the second of his four Open Championships at Troon in 1950. His score of 279 was a new record, beating the former best of 283. Locke won £300.

91st Open, 1962

This marked a turning point for The Open. Arnold Palmer was determined to boost the tournament. Even though the limited prize money meant that most international players lost money if they crossed the Atlantic to compete. Palmer believed that a true champion needed to master the great British links and lift the Claret Jug to prove themselves. His fellow Americans at Troon included Jack Nicklaus, Phil Rodgers and even Sam Snead. Nicklaus would take 10 at the 11th, the Railway Hole, in the opening round. Palmer was at his peak, saying afterwards: "I have never, I mean never, played better golf." By the midpoint, Palmer was two shots ahead of the Australian Kel Nagle. Nagle took the lead from Palmer early in their 36-hole final on Friday with birdies on the first two holes and a Palmer bogey from a fairway bunker on the fourth. Back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth put Palmer back in the lead by a stroke. He saved par at the 12th, then birdied the 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th. By the end of 54 holes he was five clear of Nagle. His third-round 67 broke the course record by two shots. By the time Palmer was finished, his 276 total was six better than Nagle, the only other player under par.

102nd Open, 1973

Amid wet and windy conditions, Tom Weiskopf led from the start, a 68 taking him a shot clear of Jack Nicklaus and two ahead of Johnny Miller. Miller tried to keep pace with Weiskopf who was never quite caught. When Nicklaus slumped to a third-round 76, the position of Weiskopf improved. England's Neil Coles birdied four holes on the way home to close with a 66 and move into third, while Nicklaus came back to move into fourth. Weiskopf, however, added a round of 70 and that was good enough to finish the week three clear of Miller, with Coles a shot further back. The enduring memory of the week was of the veteran Gene Sarazen, Open champion at Prince’s some 41 years earlier, who made a hole-in-one at the Postage Stamp in the first round. Fortunately his perfect 5-iron shot was caught on film. He made a two the following day, meaning it had taken him a mere three blows to play the par three hole twice. Weiskopf matched Arnold Palmer’s Open record of 276. Tom Weiskopf was the champion, in what would prove to be the tall, elegant American’s only major success.

111th Open, 1982

The club had celebrated its centenary and gained its Royal title before this Open. The favourite was Tom Watson, already a three-time Open champion. Bobby Clampett carded a 67 to take the lead and then 66 to take the halfway lead by seven strokes but his final two rounds were poor. The first beneficiary was Nick Price, a 25-year-old from Zimbabwe, who had a three-shot lead on the 13th tee. He played the closing holes four over par, with a double-bogey at the 15th where Watson had also dropped a shot. Watson produced a final round of 70 including an eagle on ‘The Railway’. Watson won his fourth of five Open Championships at Troon in 1982 for his second-straight major. He beat Peter Oosterhuis and Price by a single stroke. "When I came off 18, I thought I’d lost," Watson said. "It’s a funny feeling to win this way because I wasn’t prepared for it. I’ve never had one given to me. I cried and I’m sure they’ll cry a little, too." Watson joined a short list of champions who had won both Opens in the same year, Bobby Jones (twice), Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino. Tiger Woods is the only player since to join them.

118th Open, 1989

Greg Norman began the final round with six successive birdies but his closing 64 was not quite good enough to beat Mark Calcavecchia and Wayne Grady, with the latter left to rue a costly bogey at the short 17th. Calcavecchia, by contrast, could thank a long par-saving putt at the 11th and then an outrageous chip in at the 12th, the ball flying down the stick and into the holel. Further birdies would follow at the 16th and then on the last hole Calcavecchia hit a towering 8-iron from 161 yards out of the right rough on the 18th for birdie and a 68 that would tie Norman. Then Norman’s countryman, Wayne Grady parred the last to make it a threesome in what would be the first aggregate playoff in major championship history, played over the first, second, 17th and 18th. Norman began with two birdies, one clear of Calcavecchia. He made bogey at the 17th leaving the two men tied. After Calcavecchia had found the rough, Norman unleashed a drive that reached a bunker he considered out of play. The American hit the shot of his life with a 5-iron to seven feet while Norman was only able to hit from one bunker to another. His third shot went through the green out of bounds. Calcavecchia was the champion and he said afterwards: "I will remember Royal Troon in 1989 as the place and the time when the course, the weather and my game all came together for one glorious week."

126th Open, 1997

There was more American success at Royal Troon in 1997. Only five players broke 70 on a grey opening day. Darren Clarke and Jim Furyk were ahead after 67s but Jesper Parnevik was the only man in the field to match par on the inward half. Parnevik had let the championship slip away three years earlier. He led Clarke by two shots going into the final round. Clarke’s hopes disappeared when he shanked a 3-iron off the second tee. Justin Leonard, a 25-year-old American, was five shots behind Parnevik beginning the final round and went out in 31, hitting every green and making six birdies against a lone bogey when he three-putted the fifth. Still, after a birdie four on The Railway, the Swede remained two clear of the American. Parnevik bogeyed the 13th when he missed the green while Leonard closed in with a pair of crucial 15-footers at the 15th and 16th, the first for par, the second for birdie. He added another birdie at the 17th. Parnevik missed his three-footer for birdie at the 16th and bogeyed home to finish three behind, tied with Clarke. Leonard’s stunning 65 meant he won by three for his only major.  

133rd Open, 2004

While continually failing in his attempts to make it on the PGA Tour, Hamilton won 11 times in Asia. The American finally won a PGA Tour card for the first time in 2003. The following year, he won the Honda Classic and with it a place in The Open. He would be the sixth-successive American champion at Royal Troon, and the least expected winner since Arthur Havers. Hamilton’s secret weapon was a 17-degree hybrid he’d bent to 14-degrees. He used it as a rescue, a fairway wood and as a chipping club on the tight lies around Royal Troon’s greens. Ernie Els had a 10-footer on the 72nd hole to win the championship but missed on the left. Phil Mickelson finished a shot out of the Els/Hamilton playoff. Using the same holes as 1989, both parred Nos. 1 and 2. On the third hole, the par-3 17th, Els pulled his tee shot left of the green, played a bump and run and missed the 12-footer, making a bogey to Hamilton’s par. At the 18th, Hamilton left his approach short of the green. Using the hybrid, Hamilton thumped his ball along the turf to two feet. Els had a 12-footer to send them into sudden death but missed.

145th Open, 2016

Henrik Stenson came out on top over Phil Mickelson in an epic final round, named ‘Duel in the Sun 2’. The pair played 36 holes together at Royal Troon, trading shot for shot, blow for blow, and pulled away from the rest of the field as the weekend passed with the eventual gap between Stenson and third-placed JB Holmes and incredible 14 strokes. Stenson’s battle with Mickelson over the Ayrshire links will go down as one of the most historic head-to-heads in the history of The Open. While the rest of the field struggled, Stenson compiled an incredible 63 while Mickelson shot a 65. Stenson’s round began with a bogey and included 10 birdies while Mickelson’s bogey-free 65, featured four birdies and an eagle. With five holes to play, they were tied for the lead. Stenson birdied four of them. Mickelson played the same stretch in one under par. The Swede’s ball-striking, especially his long and mid-iron play, was simply peerless and he won by three, breaking his major duck at the 41st time of asking with a 20-under-par 264. Stenson said "There have been many great players from my country who have tried and there have been a couple of really close calls. This is going to be massive for golf in Sweden."

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