The 1953 Open Championship of Ireland

Belvoir Park Golf Course 29 - 31 July 1953

The line-up for the Irish Open was a veritable who's who of professional golf on this side of the Atlantic, all vying for the Championship Gold Medal and the £ 750 first prize while the amateurs who entered were chasing the Silver Gilt Medal and bragging rights. Teeing up were three Open Champions in Bobby Locke (1949,50 and 52), Max Faulkner (1951) and Fred Daly (1947) and it's little wonder when the prize money for the winner was £ 250 more than Ben Hogan received for finishing first in the Open Championship at Carnoustie in the same year.

The Golfing Union of Ireland had gone to great efforts to make this a success with the prize-fund doubled from the previous championship held at Royal Dublin in 1950 when the first prize was £400. The Open Championship was being played at Royal Portrush in 1951 and the GUI decided it would be better to focus on this single championship than have two (as the Irish Open generally followed the Open Championship) in quick succession.

Eric Brown, the Scotsman, was the wire-to-wire champion when he opened with a 66 but the now ubiquitous and then big hitting twenty-one-year-old, Peter Alliss, was trailing him by one shot after the second round where he match Brown's opening score. J B Carr, the then reigning (British) Amateur Champion, threw in an amateur course record of 68 but still seven shots behind the leader. It was already looking like a four horse race with Harry Weetman and Bobby Locke three and five shots back respectively. The stalwarts of Irish golf, Harry Bradshaw and O'Connor were hovering thereabouts but needed something special to take them into the melee.

The final day was over 36-holes and Eric Brown wasn't to be denied as a third sub-seventy round kept him just in front as Weetman closed the gap to one stroke while Alliss was still in the hunt tailgating the leaders just one stroke further back, the rest of the field was drifting backwards. Now it was down to these three and all three had seventies so the order remained unchanged. Eric Brown, an unattached professional at the time, won the Irish Open which wasn't to be played for another twenty-two years.

 

Golf Memorabilia

Bonhams Sporting and Golf Memorabilia Auction 1 June 2011 includes Eric Chalmers Brown's Gold Medal <click here> from the Championship.