THE 39 STEPS

THE MOMENTS THAT DEFINE THE GAME'S GREATEST MAJOR

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01. A family affair PRESTWICK 1860

The Open Championship was first played on October 17, 1860, at Prestwick Golf Club, the tournament devised to determine who would succeed the recently deceased Allan Robertson as the ‘Champion Golfer’. From a field of eight men, that man turned out to be Willie Park Snr, a two-stroke winner from Tom Morris Sr. But it was Old Tom who quickly took a stranglehold on the tournament, winning four of the first eight installments, all played over Prestwick’s links. The most notable moment of those formative years came, however, in 1868, when Old Tom was denied a fifth victory in dramatic fashion, beaten into second place by his own son, Young Tom. Aged 17 years and 156 days, this was the year Young Tom came of age, prevailing by three strokes to win the first of four consecutive Open Championships.

02. The Claret Jug is born 1873

Up until 1873, Open hopefuls were playing not for the iconic Claret Jug, but for the Challenge Belt, an expanse of Moroccan leather embellished with silver panels. When that belt was won for a third consecutive time and therefore outright by Young Tom Morris in 1870, St Andrews, Musselburgh and Prestwick golf clubs finally agreed to host The Open, each donating £10 towards the cost of a new trophy. They ordered an ornately decorated silver claret jug made by Edinburgh silversmiths Mackay Cunningham & Co. The jug stands 20-inches tall and weighs approximately 5.4Ibs. The R&A currently has five versions of the Jug, the original from 1873, a replica made in 1927 and three relatively modern versions. The Champion Golfer of the Year receives the 1927 version of the Jug to keep for a year, then gets a smaller version to keep forever.