BRITISH OPEN '25: Tiger Woods and Tom Watson part of history at golf's oldest championship

Associated Press

16-07-2025

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — A capsule look at key anniversary years at the British Open, including the AP story from those victories:
150 years ago (1875)
Site: Prestwick.
Winner: Willie Park Sr.
Runner-up: Bob Martin.
Score: 56-59-51--166.
Margin: 2 shots.
Winner's share: 8 pounds.
Noteworthy: Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris did not play because the wife of Young Tom Morris died six days before the championship while giving birth. Young Tom Morris also died later that year.
The Glasgow Herald: The annual competition for the golf championship of Scotland took place on Prestwick Links, and resulted in favour of Willie Park, of Musselburgh. The game consisted of 36 holes, and was completed by Park in 166 strokes. In the absence of the famous Morrises of St. Andrews, who are at present mourning a severe domestic calamity, only two representatives of the 'Kingdom' were present, but one of them, Bob Martin, won second place in the competition.
125 years ago (1900)
Site: St. Andrews.
Winner: J.H. Taylor.
Runner-up: Harry Vardon.
Score: 79-77-78-75--309.
Margin: 8 shots.
Winner's share: 50 pounds.
Noteworthy: This was a period when Taylor and Harry Vardon had won five of the previous six British Open titles.
AP story: J.H. Taylor won the open golf championship on the St. Andrews links today. Taylor's win was a popular one. His score was 309 for the four rounds, being thirteen strokes better than his victory on the same grounds in 1895. The weather was dull, but favourable for good scoring. By his victory at St. Andrews yesterday Taylor scores his third triumph in the English open championships. His first success was gained in 1894 over the same links, and it is a noteworthy fact that up to that time the title had never been won by an English professional.
100 years ago (1925)
Site: Prestwick.
Winner: Jim Barnes.
Runners-up: Archie Compston and Ted Ray.
Score: 70-77-79-74--300
Margin: 1 shot.
Winner's share: 75 pounds.
Noteworthy: This was the final British Open held at Prestwick. Troon replaced it as the links in the southwest of Scotland.
AP story: The British open golf championship will be carried back to the United States by 'Long Jim' Barnes, who won it today. His score of 300 strokes for the 72 holes over links at Prestwick led all the others of the 83 competitors. His victory marked the fourth in five summers of the Americans in the historic tournament. The Britons, Edward Ray, champions of years ago, and Archie Compston of North Manchester, failed by but one stroke of equaling Barnes' winning score. Each scored a 301. They both missed final putts on the last green and lost their chance to tie Barnes.
75 years ago (1950)
Site: Troon GC.
Winner: Bobby Locke.
Runner-up: Roberto De Vicenzo.
Score: 69-72-70-68--279
Margin: 2 shots.
Winner's share: 1,500 pounds.
Noteworthy: Locke set the 72-hole scoring record, which he matched seven years later.
AP story: Bobby Locke, walking as if the Troon fairways were carpeted with eggs, came up with a fourth round 68 today that won him the British Open Golf title for the second straight year and lowered a scoring mark that had stood since 1932. The South African finished with a 279 on rounds of 69-72-70-68 over the par 70 course. His aggregate wiped out the previous low winning total of 283 posted by Gene Sarazen 18 years ago. Behind Locke came Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina, who carded a 281 and also broke Sarazen's record. Only because it retained the championship for Locke did his hot round overshadow a sensational 66 which Frank Stranahan of Toledo, Ohio, fired in a vain attempt to place the open trophy beside the British amateur award he won earlier this spring.
50 years ago (1975)
Site: Carnoustie.
Winner: Tom Watson.
Runner-up: Jack Newton.
Score: 71-67-69-72-279
Margin: Playoff (Watson 71, Newton 72).
Winner's share: 7,500 pounds.
Noteworthy: This was the final 18-hole playoff at the British Open. It was changed to a four-hole aggregate playoff in 1985 (first used in 1989).
AP story: Tom Watson, a 25-year-old who has blown chances in three major championships, kept his cool Sunday and won the British Open golf championship on the rainswept 18th hole of a playoff when Jack Newton missed a tying par putt by inches. Watson, who finished the extra round in 1-under-par 71, holed a 30-foot chip for an eagle on the 14th to take a one-shot lead, then bogeyed the 16th, putting him and his 25-year-old Australian challenger even going to the 18th. Watson parred. Newton blasted out of a greenside bunker and needed a 12-foot putt to stay alive. He just missed, and the title and the $16,500 first prize belonged to Watson.
25 years ago (2000)
Site: St. Andrews GC.
Winner: Tiger Woods.
Runners-up: Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn.
Score: 67-66-67-69--269.
Margin: 8 shots.
Winner's share: 500,000.
Noteworthy: Woods played the ninth hole during the practice round with a replica of a gutta percha. He hit driver and 5-iron just over the back of the green and got up-and-down for par.
AP story: Five hundred years of legend and lore hardly prepared golf's hallowed home for Tiger Woods. On the same linksland that Old Tom Morris nurtured and Jack Nicklaus conquered, along came a 24-year-old with a keen eye for history. Woods not only became the youngest player to win the career Grand Slam, he completed it faster than any of the four greats who did it before him. The final piece came Sunday, when Woods held the silver claret jug under the cool, grey skies of St. Andrews after another record-breaking performance to win the British Open. Challenged briefly by David Duval, Woods pulled away for an eight-stroke victory. It wasn't quite as overwhelming as his 15-stroke victory in the U.S. Open last month, but it was the largest in 87 years of golf's oldest championship.
20 years ago (2005)
Site: St. Andrews.
Winner: Tiger Woods.
Runner-up: Colin Montgomerie.
Score: 66-67-71-70-274
Margin: 5 shots.
Winner's share: 720,000.
Noteworthy: Jack Nicklaus missed the cut in his 164th and final major championship. Woods won each of the four majors Nicklaus played for the final time.
AP story: Sunday brought yet another grand crossing over the Swilcan Bridge: The defiant return of Tiger Woods. Two days after Jack Nicklaus bade an emotional farewell to the majors, Woods took another step toward the Golden Bear's record with another ruthless performance at St. Andrews, closing with a 2-under 70 to win the British Open for his 10th career major. He won by five shots, the largest margin in any major since Woods won by eight at St. Andrews five years ago. This one also had a sense of inevitability, with Woods taking the lead on the ninth hole of the first round. No one caught him over the final 63. He joined Nicklaus as the only players to win the career Grand Slam twice, and Woods completed his own version of the slam that shows how their careers are so indelibly linked — he now has won all four majors that Nicklaus played for the last time.
10 years ago (2015)
Site: St. Andrews.
Winner: Zach Johnson.
Runners-up: Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman.
Score: 66-71-70-66--273
Margin: Playoff (Johnson 3-3-5-4; Oosthuizen 3-4-5-4; Leishman 5-4-5-4).
Winner's share: 1,150,000 pounds
Noteworthy: Rory McIlroy was the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 who did not defend his title because of an ankle surgery from playing soccer.
AP story: Zach Johnson cradled the silver claret jug in his arms. Jordan Spieth let it slip through his fingers. Spieth was right where he wanted to be in his spirited bid for the Grand Slam — tied for the lead with two holes to go in the British Open, right after making a 50-foot birdie putt that made it feel as though he were destined to win at St. Andrews for his third straight major. And he was still there at the very end Monday, but only as a spectator. The slam gone, Spieth graciously returned to the steps of the Royal & Ancient clubhouse to watch Johnson finish off a sterling performance of his own. Johnson rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that got him into a three-man playoff, and he outlasted Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman to win the British Open.
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