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The Open Championship

Major championship Established 1860

The R&A stages The Open Championship, usually in July, on links courses. Players compete over 72 holes of stroke play for the Claret Jug.

American Golf Archive illustration of the Claret Jug presented at The Open Championship.
1860The Open Championship

Winner: Willie Park Snr

The Open began at Prestwick in 1860, decades before the modern men’s major canon existed.

Prestwick

Champions by year

154 completed editions, 1860–2026 · not held 1871, 1915–1919, 1940–1945, 2020

The Open Championship editions, 1940s
EditionChampionHost
1949 The 78th Open Bobby Locke The Royal St. George's Golf Club
1948 The 77th Open Henry Cotton Muirfield
1947 The 76th Open Fred Daly Royal Liverpool Golf Club
1946 The 75th Open Sam Snead St. Andrews
1945 The Open Not held
1944 The Open Not held
1943 The Open Not held
1942 The Open Not held
1941 The Open Not held
1940 The Open Not held

Origins and identity

The Open began at Prestwick in 1860, decades before the modern men’s major canon existed. It was one of the leading championships in Bobby Jones’s 1930 Grand Slam, alongside two amateur championships, so its foundational place in golf history belongs to an older arrangement as well as today’s four-event one.

  1. The Open Championship
    Champion
    Bobby Jones

The links venues

Prestwick was the birthplace and sole early home of The Open; St Andrews and other links later expanded its geography.

Clubs with six or more completed editions recorded

All 14 host Clubs and their years

How players qualify today

The field combines exemption categories with several qualification pathways that are reviewed for each edition.

Those pathways include international tour events and final qualifying, preserving routes into the Championship beyond automatic exemption.

The title is decided over four stroke-play rounds.

Why it mattersThe full essay

The championship

The R&A stages The Open Championship, usually in July, on links courses. Players compete over 72 holes of stroke play for the Claret Jug.

Origins and identity

The Open began at Prestwick in 1860, decades before the modern men’s major canon existed. It was one of the leading championships in Bobby Jones’s 1930 Grand Slam, alongside two amateur championships, so its foundational place in golf history belongs to an older arrangement as well as today’s four-event one.

Competitive character

The Championship’s defining landscape is linksland. Moving among recurring links courses allows firm ground, exposed terrain and wind to alter the questions asked of the field, while the Claret Jug and the title Champion Golfer provide continuity across venues and generations.

Qualifying and format

The field combines exemption categories with several qualification pathways that are reviewed for each edition. Those pathways include international tour events and final qualifying, preserving routes into the Championship beyond automatic exemption. The title is decided over four stroke-play rounds.

Places

Prestwick was the birthplace and sole early home of The Open; St Andrews and other links later expanded its geography. The recurring venue tradition now returns the Championship to established links while preserving Prestwick as a former venue central to the origin story.

Sources and record notes
Sources and record notes 19 references

Record evidence

Editorial sources by chapter

Opening and essential facts

Origins and identity

Place and competitive character

Traditions, qualification and evolution

Edition sources

  1. The Open 154th Open final-round report

    The official final-round report names Ryan Fox Champion Golfer of the Year at The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale. The official Championship page https://www.theopen.com/royal-birkdale-154th-open independently confirms the result, ordinal, and venue. The official event guide https://www.theopen.com/latest/all-you-need-to-know-154th-open-royal-birkdale explicitly states that Championship play began Thursday 16 July and concluded Sunday 19 July 2026.

    Verified

  2. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register directly enumerates this playing with ordinal, venue, and champion. Historical venue and champion spellings follow that register; any trailing parenthesized win count is occurrence metadata and is not part of the recorded winner name. The official Previous Opens decade record independently cross-checks the reviewed identity. Dates are null because the reviewed register does not state them, and no date was inferred.

    Verified

  3. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 2020 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/2020/04/theopencancellation2020 establishes that The R&A cancelled the Championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  4. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register directly enumerates this playing with number 111, venue, and champion but misrenders the ordinal as 111st. The higher-resolution official Previous Opens record supplies the correct official name The 111th Open. Historical venue and champion spellings follow the longitudinal register; any trailing parenthesized win count is occurrence metadata and is not part of the recorded winner name. Dates are null because the reviewed official records do not state them, and no date was inferred.

    Verified

  5. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1945 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/longest-intervals-between-open-wins establishes that no Championship was held due to World War II. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  6. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1944 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/longest-intervals-between-open-wins establishes that no Championship was held due to World War II. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  7. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1943 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/longest-intervals-between-open-wins establishes that no Championship was held due to World War II. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  8. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1942 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/longest-intervals-between-open-wins establishes that no Championship was held due to World War II. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  9. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1941 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/longest-intervals-between-open-wins establishes that no Championship was held due to World War II. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  10. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1940 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/longest-intervals-between-open-wins establishes that no Championship was held due to World War II. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  11. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1919 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/decades-of-the-open-1910s establishes that no Championship was held due to World War I. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  12. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1918 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/decades-of-the-open-1910s establishes that no Championship was held due to World War I. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  13. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1917 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/decades-of-the-open-1910s establishes that no Championship was held due to World War I. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  14. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1916 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/decades-of-the-open-1910s establishes that no Championship was held due to World War I. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  15. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1915 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/decades-of-the-open-1910s establishes that no Championship was held due to World War I. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

  16. The Open Records and Statistics

    The official Champion Golfers register explicitly marks 1871 as No Championship; the audited official event-history source https://www.theopen.com/latest/2018/12/the-history-of-the-claret-jug establishes that the Championship was not held because there was no prize to present after Young Tom Morris won the Challenge Belt outright. Dates, playing number, venue, and winner are null because no Championship was held.

    Verified

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