THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

THE IRISH CONNECTION

Recently the Royal & Ancient released the results of previous Open Championships online on The Open Championship website <click here> together with a brief synopsis of how the event unfolded. This provides a insight into how Irish players faired since the inaugural championship in 1860.

In the years since the first Open Championship at Prestwick in 1860 to 2010 just over 100 Irish players have taken part in the Open Championship. It was 1902 before the first of the Irish-born players (Harry Hamill and Hughie McNeill) entered The Open while the first player to represent an Irish club was Thomas Gilroy (a Scot) in the 1891 Open Championship at The Old Course, St. Andrews representing the Royal Dublin Golf Club. Michael Moran was the first Irish-born professional to make any headway in the Open when in 1913 he finished joint third but it was another thirty-four years before that feat was surpassed and this time is was Fred Daly who took the Claret Jug home with him. Daly would finish in the top three another three times. In 1949 Harry Bradshaw lost to Bobby Locke in a play-off after the infamous incident with a beer bottle derailed his opportunity of taking the coveted claret jug. Christy O'Connor snr. then took over the mantle by having three top-three finishes between 1958 and 1965 and twenty years later saw his nephew Christy jnr also take a top-three finish. Rory McIlroy was third in 1910 despite eighty strokes in the second round over a windswept St. Andrews links. Darren Clarke's grasp on the claret jug must have seemed all but lost as his two top three finishes came in 1997 and 2001 but ten years later his place in golf lore was secure with his victory in Royal St. Georges. Of course all this is eclipsed by Padraig Harrington's consecutive titles in 2007 and 2008.

Irish Players who played in Open Championships

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