championship
Open Championship HistoryThe Beginning - 1860The first Open Championship was played over three rounds of Prestwick's 12-hole course on October 17, 1860. The event was inspired by the Earl of Eglinton and Colonel James Fairlie and at their instigation the members of Prestwick contributed funds for an extravagant belt of red leather adorned with silver buckle and decorations.
St Andrews - 1873TOM KIDD HOMETOWN CHAMPION IN 187302-Dec-1999 13:56 (GMT) - Post Event 1999The Millennium Open will be the 26th time that the world's oldest championship has been played over the Old Course at St Andrews. In the weeks leading up to this milestone event we will be telling the story of how all 25 previous titles since 1873 were won or lost.
Tom Kidd Hometown Champion in 1873Torrential rain in the days leading up to the Open Championship on October 4, 1873, left the Old Course puddled with water and caused a rash of high scores. Under the rules in force at the time, there was a one-stroke penalty for removing the ball from casual water.
The 26 competitors who completed 36 holes in one day suffered many such penalties and the winning score of 179 was the highest ever recorded until the event was expanded to 72 holes in 1892.
The long hitting of local caddie Tom Kidd helped him to scores of 91 and 88, which gave him victory by one stroke and the first prize of £11. In second place was fellow St Andrean Jamie Anderson, Costa Rica real estatewho was later to establish a record by winning the championship three times in a row from 1877.
Kidd was a powerful but far from stylish player. Yet he understood the game well and, when giving instruction, emphasised the importance of grip and stance. He died of heart disease in 1884.
St Andrews - 1876THE PLAY-OFF THAT NEVER WAS11-Jan-2000 13:45 (GMT) - 2000 Jan-MarThe second Open Championship to be held in St Andrews was decided by a play-off that never took place. Chaos and controversy surrounded the 1876 event in which Davie Strath refused to take part in the play-off and Bob Martin walked the Old Course to claim the title.
The Open was played during the R&A autumn gathering and many members of the club were enjoying their own brand of golf in the midst of the 34 Open competitors during the second round. There were many delays and much bad tempered muttering.
With Martin completing his second round in 90 for a total of 176, Strath had to play the final two holes in 10 strokes to take the title. His third shot to the 17th was played while the group in front was still on the green. His ball hit one of the players and stopped close to the hole when it might have run through on to the road. He was down in two putts, but then took six at the last to tie Martin.
A complaint had been lodged about his play at the 17th and the R&A committee decided that a play-off should be held on the following Monday, after which a ruling would be given. If the complaint was upheld the only penalty was disqualification and Strath, not unreasonably, felt that the decision should be made before any play-off.
But he was over-ruled and Martin went through the formality of walking the course to become champion. Strath was destined never to win the Open and died three years later in Australia.
St Andrews - 1879TRIPLE CHAMPION JAMIE ANDERSON18-Jan-2000 16:13 (GMT) - 2000 Jan-MarJamie Anderson was a man who never wasted a moment on the golf course, a characteristic he proved during the 1879 Open at St Andrews. His calculation of the shot to be played was carried out as he walked towards the ball. He took his stance quickly, glanced towards the hole and hit the shot - no practice swings, no preliminary waggles, no fuss.
He also had an exceptional temperament for the game. Nothing, it seemed, could upset his imperious progress around the links and when the Open returned to St Andrews he had already won the two previous contests at Musselburgh and Prestwick.
His second victory was achieved by holing a full iron shot at Prestwick's 15th hole and recording the first hole-in-one during an Open at the 17th. The completion of his hat-trick of wins was less spectacular but none the less convincing, pulling clear of Andrew Kirkaldy and Jamie Allan by three shots with another impressive run of figures in the closing holes.
Anderson was the second player to record three consecutive Open victories, following the exploits of Young Tom Morris, who had captured four in a row. He was to be followed immediately by another triple champion, Bob Ferguson, from 1880-1882, but it was not until 1954-1956 that Australian Peter Thomson matched this outstanding feat which has yet to be repeated.
St Andrews - 1882THREE IN A ROW FOR THE MUSSELBURGH CHAMPION25-Jan-2000 09:25 (GMT) - 2000 Jan-Marob Ferguson learned to play golf over his home links at Musselburgh and by the age of 18 proved his prowess in competition by winning the first prize of £10 over four rounds of the seven-hole course at nearby Leith. But he had to wait until the age of 32 before he was successful in the Open Championship of 1880 over his home course.
He won again the following year when he battled against gale force winds to beat his chief rival, Jamie Anderson, by three shots at Prestwick. Yet by the time he arrived at St Andrews in 1882 to attempt the capture the title for a third successive time, his form seemed to have deserted him.
He was always a man for the big occasion and a first round of 83 put him four shots ahead of Anderson, who had played well in the early part of the round but slipped badly on the way home.
Ferguson was to maintain that four-stroke advantage over his great St Andrean rival in the afternoon, even though he scored no better than an 88 for a total of 171. Anderson finished in a three-way tie for third as Willie Fernie, another native of St Andrews who was now professional at Dumfries, jumped ahead of him with a second round of 86 for a total of 174.
The following year at Musselburgh Ferguson came close to winning his fourth consecutive title. But this time Fernie tied with him over the regulation holes and won the play-off with a long putt on the final green.
St Andrews - 1885SECOND OPEN VICTORY FOR BOB MARTIN31-Jan-2000 16:10 (GMT) - 2000 Jan-MarWhen Bob Martin won his first Open in 1876 over his home links of St Andrews the glory was somewhat tainted by the fact that he had tied with Davie Strath but been given a walk-over in the play-off. Strath was under threat of disqualification, but the committee refused to make its decision until after the play-off. Under these circumstances Strath declined to take part.
Nine years later in 1885, when the championship was again played in St Andrews, there was no doubt about Martin's victory, although it was a slim one. He scored five shots better than when he claimed his first title, with rounds of 84-87 for a total of 171.
Archie Simpson of Carnoustie had led the first round with an 83, the lowest score of the championship, but faltered in the afternoon with an 89 to lose by a single shot. His brother, Bob Simpson, was tied with two others on 174 which today would have seen them all sharing fourth place. But in those days play-offs were used to decide all places and he eventually dropped to sixth spot.
The 1885 event had attracted the largest field the Open had ever known, with 51 players competing for a total of £35 in prize-money.
St Andrews - 1888THE PENCIL AND RUBBER OPEN08-Feb-2000 12:11 (GMT) - 2000 Jan-MarThe outcome of the 1888 Open at St Andrews was determined as much by a sharp-eyed member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club as by the efforts of the players involved.
None of the favourites for the title coped well with the strong cold wind from the north that persisted throughout the day and it was diminutive Ben Sayers, only 5 feet 3 inches, who set the target with rounds of 85-87 for a 172 total.
This was soon matched by St Andrews pair Davie Anderson and Jack Burns, who had taken up the post of greenkeeper and professional at Warwick Golf Club, and a three-way play-off was in prospect when an R&A member who was looking over the scorecards in the clubhouse found that the figures on Burns' card had been wrongly added up. When correctly totalled, he had a one-shot advantage over the other two.
The rule remains the same today - a player is responsible for ensuring the correct score is entered for each hole. Errors in addition should be checked and corrected by the event organisers.
There were no fortunes to be made as Open champion in those days and within a few years Burns had returned to St Andrews to work on the railways.
St Andrews - 1891HUGH KIRKALDY BEATS BIG BROTHER ANDRA14-Feb-2000 17:20 (GMT) - 2000 Jan-MarThere was many a fine contest between outspoken Andrew Kirkaldy and Hugh, his younger brother by five years, but none better than the 1891 Open over their home territory at St Andrews.
On a day of bitterly cold east winds and driving rain the scores of the leading players were remarkably good, the winning aggregate of 166 setting a new record five shots lower than any previous Opens over the Old Course.
But Hugh Kirkaldy's two rounds of 83, which beat his brother and Willie Fernie of Troon by two shots, were nothing like the record 74 he had set earlier, when he had reached the turn in 33. That would be a good score by any leading professional today, but was achieved with the gutta ball and hickory shafted clubs.
Although big brother Andra beat Fernie in the play-off for second place, it was unfortunate that sibling rivalry had stopped him from claiming the coveted trophy. He had already finished second three times, losing a play-off for the title against Willie Park junior at Musselburgh two years earlier, and continued to challenge strongly until the end of the century, finishing third three times and fourth twice.
Although he was destined never to win the championship he played successfully for many years and became the first honorary professional appointed to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, a position he held until his death in 1934.
By contrast his brother Hugh, Open champion of 1891, died of lung disease only three years after his victory, at the age of 29.
Muirfield - 1892The first four-round Open28-Sep-2001 08:00 (BST) - 2001 Sep-DecThe Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers had hosted the Open Championship six times over the nine-hole public course at Musselburgh before building the private course at Muirfield on which the 1892 championship was played. Only nine months elapsed between the completion of the course and the staging of the Open won by English amateur Harold Hilton.
It was also the first championship played over 72 holes. From its inception in 1860 the Open had traditionally been completed over 39 holes in one day. The first Muirfield Open in 1892 stretched players to four rounds in two days.
Hilton opened with 78 and 81 and on the second day treated the meagre crowd of little more than 100 spectators to sparkling scores of 72 and 74 to win by three clear shots. Although small in stature he was an aggressive player, the speed of his swing bringing him up on his toes at impact and often dislodging the cap he always wore.
His father had not wanted him to play at Muirfield, but he made a last minute decision and travelled overnight on the train from Hoylake, arriving just in time to take part in the championship without benefit of a practice round.
His successes in the Open and Amateur Championships spanned almost a quarter of a century - from Muirfield in 1892 to his fourth Amateur title at St Andrews in 1913. He claimed his second Open success in 1897 at Royal Liverpool and in 1911 won both the British and American Amateur Championships. He was the first editor of Golf Monthly magazine and later edited Golf Illustrated.
St Andrews - 189572-HOLE VICTORY FOR J.H. TAYLOR22-Feb-2000 08:21 (GMT) - 2000 Jan-MarThere were three significant changes in the format of the Open Championship by the time it returned to St Andrews in 1895. The well-established three-yearly rotation between Prestwick, Musselburgh and the Old Course had been broken - first by the move of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers from Musselburgh to their new course at Muirfield.
And it was at this new venue in 1892 that the event was extended from 36 holes in one day to 72 holes over two days. Then, in 1895, the championship moved out of Scotland for the first time when 94 players gathered at Royal St George's on the Kent coast at Sandwich.
That first non-Scottish Open was won by John Henry Taylor, a diminutive player who had mastered a deadly short game over his home links of Royal North Devon at Westward Ho! As defending champion in the first round at St Andrews, Taylor putted poorly for an 86, four shots behind local favourite Sandy Herd. By the end of that first day he had recovered with a fine 78, but found himself a further shot behind as Herd bettered him with a 77.
Yet Taylor's fortunes were to change as quickly on the second day as the notoriously fickle weather. He had closed the gap on Herd to three shots after the morning round and in a howling east wind and driving rain which swept the links in the afternoon completed the final 18 holes in a stunning 78, when no other player in the field scored better than 82.
Herd's challenge slipped away with a disappointing 85 and Taylor's margin of victory in the first four-round Open at St Andrews was an impressive four shots, Costa Rica tourismthird placed Andrew Kirkaldy 10 strokes behind the winner.
Taylor was the first Englishman to win over the Old Course and in a glittering career he was destined to improve on his record in the years to come.
http://www.enterbet.com
Sport for all the action as it happens - up-to-the-minute news, results, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories।
offers the best sports coverage from around the world। Comprehensive team news, fixtures, live scores, results, stats, video, photos and features .
Championship is a term used to refer to various forms of sports competitions in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the चैम्पियन.
Labels: championship, ncaa football picks, nfl betting odds, offshore sportsbook, Stats