5 greatest British Opens at St. Andrews
The Old Course at St. Andrews hosts the British Open for the 29th time this week.
Despite it being the Home of Golf, the Scottish links only ranks second on the all-time list of most frequented major championship venues. Augusta National, annual host to 79 Masters tournaments, is clearly No. 1.
However, while St. Andrews may not have seen the most majors unfold on its hallowed ground, it has the deepest history of any modern major course, first hosting golf’s oldest major championship in 1873. After Prestwick hosted the first dozen Opens, St. Andrews joined the earliest Open rotation along with Musselburgh.
St. Andrews has seen the Open evolve in myriad ways. It was the last venue to host a 36-hole British Open. It’s seen equipment change from the feather-stuff ball to the gutta percha ball to the modern multi-piece ball, and driver heads shift from persimmon to steel to titanium. It withstood the scourge of the anchored stroke and will see it fade from golf.
With nearly a century-and-a-half of Open history, it’s hard to boil down the 28 previous Opens to a list of the five best. But we tried. Enjoy.
5. 1900 — Just before the turn of the century, Englishman J.H. Taylor won his second Open at St. Andrews with a dominating performance. He shot 309 in the 72-hole event to beat Harry Vardon by eight shots. The wire-to-wire win marks the only time in major championship history that a player had the lowest score of the day in all four rounds.
4. 1927 — Bobby Jones won his second consecutive Claret Jug, taking the title by six shots at 3-under 285, which, at the time, was the lowest score ever recorded in the U.S. Open or British Open. The wire-to-wire win complemented a U.S. Amateur title in the same year.
3. 1960 — After winning the Masters and U.S. Opens to start the year, Palmer made the trek overseas to compete in the Open. He was hopeful to complete what he defined as the modern Grand Slam, but was denied by South African Kel Nagle. Nagle held on for a one-shot win at 10-under 278. However, in defeat, Palmer reinstated the Open’s proper place in the minds of American golfers and golf fans.
2. 2000 — Tiger Woods’ performance at the Old Course in 2000 is arguably the greatest effort in Open history. Woods completed the career Grand Slam for the first time at the Home of Golf, finishing at 19 under par and eight clear of co-runners-up Thomas Bjorn and Ernie Els. Woods didn’t find a single one of St. Andrews’ 112 bunkers throughout the course of the week, an incredible feat.
1. 1984 — There’s little doubt that this was the most dramatic of the 28 Opens played at St. Andrews. Seve Ballesteros won his second Open title, denying Tom Watson a record-tying sixth Claret Jug. In the final group behind Ballesteros, Watson made a critical bogey on the Road Hole, a mistake he chalked up this week to “ego.” The Spaniard birdied the 18th hole and celebrated with a military-style fist-pump celebration that became his trademark and logo.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
