General knowledge · Sport
First played 17 October 1860
Sport — the oldest of golf's four majors
The oldest of golf's four major championships, first played at Prestwick on 17 October 1860 when eight professionals went three times round the twelve-hole links and Willie Park Sr of Musselburgh won by two from Old Tom Morris. The first prize was the Challenge Belt, red Moroccan leather with silver panels; Young Tom Morris won it three years running and kept it, leaving no trophy and so no championship in 1871. The Claret Jug, inscribed The Golf Champion Trophy, replaced it from 1872. Run by the R&A, it is played on a rota of links courses in Britain and Ireland and is the only major held outside the United States.
Eight professionals went three times round a twelve-hole links at Prestwick on 17 October 1860, and Willie Park Sr of Musselburgh won by two shots from Old Tom Morris (1860)
The first playing; the contest was set up to settle who had succeeded Allan Robertson as champion golfer
The original prize was a belt of red Moroccan leather with silver panels; a teenager won it three years running and kept it, so there was no contest at all the following year (1870)
Young Tom Morris took the Challenge Belt outright in 1870; with no trophy left, 1871 was skipped
The replacement trophy, made by Mackay Cunningham of Edinburgh and inscribed The Golf Champion Trophy, was not ready in 1872, so that year's winner got a medal instead (1872)
The Claret Jug. Young Tom Morris's name was engraved first, but Tom Kidd in 1873 was the first man actually handed it
Harry Vardon won it six times between 1896 and 1914, a record no one has equalled (1914)
Peter Thomson and Tom Watson are next, on five each
Watson and Nicklaus traded shots over the last two rounds at Turnberry in 1977, finishing ten strokes clear of the rest of the field (1977)
The Duel in the Sun; Watson won by one with a closing 65
Bob Charles of New Zealand won it in 1963 at Royal Lytham, the first left-hander to take any of golf's four majors (1963)
It was 63 years before another New Zealander won it
Ryan Fox birdied the last at Royal Birkdale in July 2026 to finish ten under, one clear of Cameron Young (2026)
The 154th playing, and Fox's first major at 39
Alone among golf's four majors it is played outside the United States, on a rota of seaside links run from St Andrews
Administered by the R&A; the Old Course at St Andrews has staged it more often than anywhere else