1861 Open Championship

The 1861 Open Championship was a golf competition held at Prestwick Golf Club, Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the second Open Championship and the first to open to amateurs as well as professionals. Ten professionals and eight amateurs contested the event, with Tom Morris, Sr. winning the championship by 4 shots from Willie Park, Sr.

1861 Open Championship
Tournament information
Dates26 September 1861
LocationPrestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland
Course(s)Prestwick Golf Club
Statistics
Field18 players
Champion
Scotland Tom Morris, Sr.
163
Tom Morris, Sr. winner of the Challenge Belt in 1861

As in 1860 the contest was held over three rounds of the twelve-hole links course. There was no prize money, the winner receiving the Challenge Belt for the next year. Whereas the 1860 event was only open to professionals, from 1861 it was "open to all members of established golf clubs and professionals".[1]

Following the success of the first event there was a large entry of 18. The Dunn brothers travelled from London for the event while a number of gentlemen entered. The professionals played in five pairs.[2]

Park led by two at the start of the final round. However, at the 2nd hole Park attempted to "cross the Alps" in two but he landed in a hazard and lost three strokes, who later played the same hole more conservatively. Morris increased his lead to two at the 4th hole but by the 6th they were level. Morris picked up shots on Park at the 8th, 9th and 10th holes to go three ahead and further increased the lead to four when he holed the short 11th in two strokes. Park had finished on 167 but at the last Morris's tee shot landed in some long grass at the edge of a pool of water. Rather than take a penalty drop he elected to play the ball and kept his four shot lead.[2][3]

Final leaderboard

Source:[4]

PlacePlayerScore
1Scotland Tom Morris, Sr.54-56-53=163
2Scotland Willie Park, Sr.54-54-59=167
3Scotland Willie Dow59-58-54=171
4Scotland Davie Park58-57-57=172
5Scotland Robert Andrew58-61-56=175
6Scotland Peter McEwan, Sr.56-60-62=178
7Scotland Willie Dunn, Sr.61-59-60=180
8Scotland James Ogilvie Fairlie (a)184
9England George Daniel Brown60-65-60=185
10Scotland Robert Chambers, Jr. (a)187

Individual round scores are only known for the professionals.

References

  1. "Prestwick Golf Club". Fife Herald. 19 September 1861. Retrieved 21 December 2014 via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. "The Prestwick Golf meet. - The Challenge Belt". Fife Herald. 3 October 1861. Retrieved 21 December 2014 via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. "The Open - 2nd Open - Prestwick 1861". Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  4. Brenner, Morgan G. (2009). The Majors of Golf: Complete Results of the Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters, 1860-2008. Vol. 1. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3360-5.
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