Happy 160th, The Open!

[Marty Bonnar]

https://www.theopen.com/Latest/The-1st-Open-Allan-Robertson-1860

[Marty Bonnar]

My first memory (I think!) is Tony Jacklin in 1969. I was 8 and a half! Seem to remember watching it at my Gran’s house with my uncle who was a mad keen, decent (still is) golfer.
I’m struggling to recall if we saw it in colour, as that was about the time colour tv was catching on in the UK.
Hard to believe I’ve been around for 59 of them - so far!
What’s your earliest memory of THE OPEN!?
F.

[Ally Mcintosh]

My first real memory, where I was totally tuned in, was Watson in 1980.... soon after, my party trick became naming all the Open winners from 1860 on. My memory ain’t so good anymore.

[Colin Macqueen]

Dear FBD,


I am not able to play your game exactly as you want as my memory of being a three year old has dissipated in the ensuing sixty seven years!
However one afternoon I was sitting on my dear old Mum's knee in the bay window of our house, named Lismore, which is still standing at the end of The Esplanade in Carnoustie. This vantage point overlooks the eighteenth green at Carnoustie and who, on July 10th. 1953, should appear to putt out for a 68 and win The Open Championship but The Wee Ice Mon himself. Now as I confessed the memory is indistinct (not able to be recalled in political talk!!)) but the instance did occur. I blame my Mum and Ben Hogan for my long-standing, everlasting and tragic relationship with golf from this moment onwards!
Cheers Colin

[Niall C]

Colin


Can't compete with that Carnoustie story although the first Open I was at was Carnoustie in 1975. Before that I have vague memories of Trevino and Jacklin on TV with Trevino being my first sporting hero. Later on Watson would become my hero but in that first Open I was at I was supporting Newton in the play-off as I'd got his autograph whereas my brother had Watsons. In those days the players were much more approachable and accessible.


Niall

[Sean_A]

My first memory of The Open was Trevino running rough shod over poor Tony Jacklin in 1972 at Muirfield. My strongest memories as a kid are definitely the Duel in the Sun at Turnberry in 1977.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

The 1st Open was played in October and without checking I believe the event has been played as early in the year as May.
Perhaps The Open shouldn't be played in Mid-July as at present?
Same as maybe the dates for the other Majors, men and womens etc, could be revised?
Too much 'follow-the-sun'?
atb

[Adam Lawrence]

My first Open memory is 1978 at St Andrews, when Nicklaus won. I remember Simon Owen finishing joint second amid much 'Who is this guy?' talk from the TV comms.

[Adrian_Stiff]

The 1st Open was played in October and without checking I believe the event has been played as early in the year as May.
Perhaps The Open shouldn't be played in Mid-July as at present?
Same as maybe the dates for the other Majors, men and womens etc, could be revised?
Too much 'follow-the-sun'?
atb

They need the summer time to get the field around. Links golf needs the sun also, would be hopeless with no rough and wet greens. They will play the Open next year even without crowds.


1969 I can remember as it was all over the news with Tony Jacklin, same 70-71-72 where Jacklin dominated the UK golf news. TJ got a lot of people into golf. 1975 first one I went too.

[Tommy Williamsen]

My first memory of the Open was the 1960 championship at Saint Andrews. Arnie had won the Masters and US Open and was on his way to winning in Scotland. Arnie started the last round four shots behind Kel Nagle, shot 68 and lost by one. Kel Nagle broke my heart. It was broadcast on ABC's Wide World of Sports. I think it was Jim McKay's first year broadcasting the Open. I couldn't believe how cool the course looked. From then on I waited every year for the Open. It was when my love affair with links golf began. Now after playing some 86 different links courses and hundreds of rounds, I can never get my fill.

[Thomas Dai]

They need the summer time to get the field around. Links golf needs the sun also, would be hopeless with no rough and wet greens. They will play the Open next year even without crowds.

Fair point about the summer time to get the field around although this also says something about the hugeness of the events logistics and the pace of modern play Remain to be convinced about wet greens. Links courses are frequently in splendid condition out-with the main summer period. Chillier weather and colder winds as well.
Without crowds might be pretty cool ... ought to be easier to hold it at some other locations as well.
Atb

[Paul Rudovsky]

I faintly remember reading in Sports Illustrated about Arnie almost winning in 1960 at The Old Course (this was probably the first time I had really known about The Old Course, and then his win at Royal Birkdale in 1961 (highlighted by his shot out of a gorse bush on the 70th hole).


My first substantive and clear Open Championship memory was in 1962.  I had joined Arnie's Army in April 1962 when Arnie chipped in on the 16th hole of a playoff against Player and Finsterwald.  I cannot be sure of this but if my memory is correct that chip was very similar with the line Tiger took in 2005.  After the Open Championship three months later, SI had an outstanding article about how Arnie played the 11th hole at Troon (before it became a "Royal") and the weather that entire week.  I remember saying to myself that I needed to get there to play Troon.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

I couldn't remeber the first year I watched the Open, but I like everyone else remembers the shock leaders after the 1st or 2nd rounds. I remember Bill Longmuir, so had to check the year; it was 1979. That was the year I started to play golf.

[John Emerson]

My first memory was John Daly.  Cinderella story if you will

[David_Tepper]

I was much more of a tennis player than a golfer in the 1960's & 70's. I even got to spend two very memorable days at Wimbledon in 1977. But I do remember watching some of the Watson-Nicklaus "Dual in the Sun" at Turnberry on TV that same year while I was in Cambridge, MA for a cousin's wedding. 

[Duncan Cheslett]

My grandfather took up golf in late 1960s upon his retirement and move with my grandmother to a bungalow in Lytham St Annes. He joined a club called Lytham Green Drive and I spent many happy hours there with him during my regular stays during school holidays. Once out of view of the clubhouse he'd let me have a go with with some old Dia Rees "Pinseeker" irons he'd cut down for me.


One day in 1974 he announced to my brother and myself that he was marshalling at some tournament being played not at his club, but at the big posh club a couple of hundred yards from his front door. Would we like to tag along?


He duly smuggled us in early the next morning and immediately left us to our own devices, as he had to report for duty. We then had a fabulous day wandering around Royal Lytham getting right up close to names we had vaguely heard of such as Jack Nicklaus,Tony Jacklin, and Lee Trevino. It was Trevino who impressed us the most as he wise-cracked his way round the course with his cap at a permanently jaunty angle. The other players seemed boringly serious in comparison - he must have driven them mad! We followed Trevino's group for several holes and I've been a fan ever since.


We managed to secure seats in the grandstand by the 18th green for the climax of the day, and I was delighted to see my personal hero Gary Player in contention. My grandfather had given me a tuition book a couple of years earlier consisting of strip cartoons of Gary Player offering advice to a complete golfing numpty called Iain something or other. This had become my golfing bible.


001 by Duncan Cheslett, on Flickr

The crowd meanwhile, was rooting for Peter Oosterhuis, the great hope of English golf in the aftermath of the precipitous collapse in fortunes of previous god Jacklin, who to my consternation was treated with near contempt by the middle aged club golfers surrounding us in the stands. I've never been able to work out what he'd done to upset them - apart from only winning two majors!

Typing this, I'm struck for the first time by the paradox of South African Player facing off against Englishman Oosterhuis. Ah, well.

When Player put his approach to the last green up against the clubhouse wall a faint ripple of hope spread among the crowd that his three shot lead might be vulnerable. It wasn't to be - his left handed shot with the back of his putter secured the Championship. We went home happy after a grand day out.

Sadly my early golfing career ended a few years later when Grandad's health failed and he finally passed away after a long illness. I discovered other distractions which evolved into family and business commitments and I didn't pick up a golf club again for another 35 years - at the age of fifty. 

I've still got the cut down irons however, and I've still got the Gary Player book!


Happy days!

[Ben Stephens]

My first Open that I really watched on TV was the 1988 Open at Lytham with the Monday finish. There was lots of cracking golf played and the Champion - wow! after that I was playing more golf with a half set of Slazenger kids blades.


The first Open I attended was Carnoustie in 1999. I was in my last year at University of Dundee and was part of the golf team that was invited to meet Gary Player who was given an honorary degree at the University. My university golf club was given the responsibility of running the scoreboard on the 12th green.


My dad and I had the opportunity to play Carnoustie 1 month before the Open just before they were closing the course. Then the rough was a bit sparse and I did see a greenkeeper spraying fertiliser in the rough. Then the following month had unseasonal warm and wet weather which brought out the fiercest rough ever seen at a Open.


During the last round my friends and i all grouped together to see the last group coming through which was Craig Parry and Jean Van De Velde. Jean hit a wayward shot that almost fractionally hit me on the head - i was fortunate to move away just a few seconds where i was that the ball would have definitely had hit me.


Alongside Doug Sanders miss at St Andrews, Watson's bogey at Turnberry - Van De Velde's collapse on the 18th is one of the Open biggest tragedies he was far the best player that week for 71 holes.

[Ben Stephens]

My first Open that I really watched on TV was the 1988 Open at Lytham with the Monday finish. There was lots of cracking golf played and the Champion - wow! after that I was playing more golf with a half set of Slazenger kids blades.


The first Open I attended was Carnoustie in 1999. I was in my last year at University of Dundee and was part of the golf team that was invited to meet Gary Player who was given an honorary degree at the University. My university golf club was given the responsibility of running the scoreboard on the 12th green.


My dad and I had the opportunity to play Carnoustie 1 month before the Open just before they were closing the course. Then the rough was a bit sparse and I did see a greenkeeper spraying fertiliser in the rough. Then the following month had unseasonal warm and wet weather which brought out the fiercest rough ever seen at a Open.


During the last round my friends and i all grouped together to see the last group coming through which was Craig Parry and Jean Van De Velde. Jean hit a wayward shot that almost fractionally hit me on the head - i was fortunate to move away just a few seconds where i was that the ball would have definitely had hit me.


Alongside Doug Sanders miss at St Andrews, Watson's bogey at Turnberry - Van De Velde's collapse on the 18th is one of the Open biggest tragedies he was far the best player that week for 71 holes.


The Opens I have attended are:



Carnoustie 1999
Lytham 2001
Birkdale 2008 (bloody freezing)
Muirfield 2013
Birkdale 2017

[Niall C]

My dad and I had the opportunity to play Carnoustie 1 month before the Open just before they were closing the course. Then the rough was a bit sparse and I did see a greenkeeper spraying fertiliser in the rough. Then the following month had unseasonal warm and wet weather which brought out the fiercest rough ever seen at a Open.

Ben


I'd dispute the bit about it being the fiercest rough at an Open ever. It was still fairly sparce in a lot of places but for whatever reason the players, principally lead by Duvall (IIRC), who was the world no. 1 (again IIRC) got it into their head that the set up, including the width of the fairways in part was unfair. That then became the legend and is now what that Open is known for along with Van de Veldes 18th hole escapades.


Niall

[Ben Stephens]

My dad and I had the opportunity to play Carnoustie 1 month before the Open just before they were closing the course. Then the rough was a bit sparse and I did see a greenkeeper spraying fertiliser in the rough. Then the following month had unseasonal warm and wet weather which brought out the fiercest rough ever seen at a Open.

Ben


I'd dispute the bit about it being the fiercest rough at an Open ever. It was still fairly sparce in a lot of places but for whatever reason the players, principally lead by Duvall (IIRC), who was the world no. 1 (again IIRC) got it into their head that the set up, including the width of the fairways in part was unfair. That then became the legend and is now what that Open is known for along with Van de Veldes 18th hole escapades.


Niall

Oh god yes I can remember the constant whinging from the cotton wooled pros that they had not come across a tough set up and Carnoustie had just returned to the Open rota then it was and still is the toughest of all the courses on the rota.


The press joined the pros bandwagon and called the course Carnasty which I felt disrespected the locals and the people who worked leading up and during the Open however the 'Tayside Terror' was a better moniker for the course for me.


I have played Carnoustie a few times and can't remember the rough being thicker and the fairways being that narrow - it was certainly set up for the best players in the world and these players came unprepared for the challenge that they were to take on. Paul Lawrie played fantastic on the last day and especially over the 4 hole playoff against Jean Van De Velde and Justin Leonard.


Also played the course a month before the 2007 Open and it was very forgiving and lost a bit of its usual bite as the R&A were more nervous how the pros would react. It wasn't until 2018 when the course was more its self and Molinari played stunning golf that week.


Cheers
Ben

[Niall C]

Ben


Like you I was there every day including the practice days and recall following Duvall on a practice round. He pulled his drive at the fifth into the rough right beside where I was standing. It was lying in very light wispy "rough", the sort of stuff us lesser players have trouble with as the longer strands of grass grab onto the hosel of the club on the way through. I was very much looking forward to seeing how the world no.1 was going to play it.


As it turned out he didn't even bother playing it. He stood in the middle of the fairway and signalled for me to toss him the ball. No words, just a gimme signal with his hand. I threw it to him underhand. Not even a thank you. To this day I deeply regret not pitching the ball at his head.Now what that told me about Duvall, apart from the fact he was an arrogant tosser, was that he'd no chance and so it proved.


With regards to other Opens, I've attended for at least one day all of the Opens held in Scotland since 1975, bar one at Muirfield and I think maybe another at St Andrews, and I've seen rough just as tough or tougher. As you know a lot depends on the weather conditions before. Also these days they keep everyone out of the rough in the lead up so that it's pristine. When I marshalled at Turnberry in 2009 in some parts it was lost ball territory just a yard or so off the fairway. Of course after a few days of players, caddies and marshals walking through it looking for balls it became easier.


Niall

[Marty Bonnar]

Our club marshalled at the 95 Open in St A on the stands behind 7 & 11 green/8 & 12 tees.
I remember watching the guys on practice days thinking they were hopeless on the par 3 eighth. Balls everywhere except near the cup. Only on the Thursday, did I realise they had been firing at the competition pin positions, completely ignoring where the flag was in practice.
I was standing at The Jigger Inn after Big John won the playoff. He walked directly towards me, heading for the hotel, puffing on a ciggie and gave me a huge grin as he passed.
Trivia Q: Where did he finish in the 94 Open at Turnberry?
After Tiger holed out on 11 on the final day, the entire Standful of people started getting out of their seats, with players still teeing off and holing out all around - it’s a busy corner! I shouted at the top of my voice “Stand still, please!!!” To my amazement, nearly two thousand people listened to me and stopped dead in their tracks. Nancy tells me my voice, ahem, ‘carries’! 
F.


Edit: Given it was Tiger’s last Open as an amateur and people were interested in him, but not that much, maybe it was Rocca or Daly coming through 11....25 years and a lot of whisky has flown under the bridge!

[Peter Flory]

I came across an interesting article from 1898.

PRESTWICK





At the time, the 36 hole course record was 150. 

This course was a monster compared to what we're used to in terms of the approach shots- many requiring a fairway wood to reach.  The asterisk on 17 just points out that the reason that it is a 3 shotter at that length is the alps hill. 

I think this gives the feel for it-
https://youtu.be/nDN6KWp2WNY?t=129

[Thomas Dai]

Nice post Peter.
Imagine Brysons distances applied to clubs hit at Prestwick in 1898 .... 16xDriver, 10xBrassie plus a few cleeks, various irons and mashies ..... it would be a long course ..... and it would need to be a big piece of land as well.
atb

[Niall C]

By my calculation that's 6 par 5's and that is for the very good players. While I'm better with a fairway wood/hybrid than a mid to long iron I can't say I'd relish playing that many shots or long holes. It just sounds like a slog. Thank god for technology.


Niall