This week, The Open Championship returns to Muirfield for the 16th time. The revered links situated in the small town of Gullane, in East Lothian. It’s a course that many of the greatest players in the game regard as being the best on the Open Rota. Certainly, the impressive list of former winners at Muirfield would suggest that it is a test that allows the truly great players to flourish. Vardon, Braid, Hagen, Cotton, Player, Nicklaus, Trevino, Watson, Faldo and Els have all won at this ingenious course. They are all deserving members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, and Muirfield itself is a venue that has managed to identify the best players of each era over a period spanning a century.
It’s difficult to definitively say why Muirfield, home to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, has managed to consistently be the playground of the greats. It is a course that requires, in the words of Gary Player; “more variety of shots than any course I know.” It is also an intellectual challenge for the players, as uniquely Muirfield is laid out in two loops of nine holes, contrary to the “out-and-back” that we typically see at links courses. The effect of that is important, with the front nine looping clockwise and the back nine looping inside the front nine in an anti-clockwise direction. No more than three holes are in the same direction, and that means that a player could quite conceivably face a different wind direction on each tee. That provides a challenge of managing your game effectively, playing for the conditions and controlling the golf ball. It is also a course that is intelligently bunkered, so it is crucial for players to plot their way around in an equally intellectually strategic manner. With the course playing firm and fast as it is this week, playing strategically becomes even more of an emphasis, as players will have to consider the bounces and lengthy roll on the ball that they will encounter. Two of the greatest minds in the history of the game have won at Muirfield; Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo, but it is also a course that places a priority on shot making.
Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Ernie Els are three of the greatest shot-makers in the history of the modern professional game, and all have won at Muirfield. The greens here are fairly small, so it becomes a challenge to find them in regulation, particularly if the course is playing firm and breezy. Ernie Els said on Monday: "Every links shot you can imagine, you're going to play it this week."
Muirfield is a layout that tests all facets of a player’s game. That is why it has consistently identified the best since it first hosted The Open in 1892.
The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which is the oldest verifiable golf club in the world, was founded in 1744. That dates back to around the time of the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, and 30 years prior to the American Revolutionary War. The Company enjoyed a fascinating history within the game, and actually contributed to the Claret Jug in 1872. They remained part of the organisation of The Open Championship until 1919.
However, by 1891, the Company relocated from Musselburgh to Gullane, where they built their own course; Muirfield. Designed by the legendary Old Tom Morris, the new home of the Company would host the Open within a year of its opening.
In 1892, Harold Hilton became the second amateur to win The Open, in a championship that would be the first ever contested over four rounds of 18 holes. Muirfield’s debut as a host of the Championship was so well received, that it returned four years later. On this occasion, it was the Open Championship’s most prolific winner, Harry Vardon, who prevailed by defeating J.H. Taylor in a playoff to win his first of six Opens.
As the 20th century got underway, in 1901 James Braid won the first of his five Open Championships by completing a three shot win from Vardon himself. Five years later, the Open would once again return to Muirfield, with James Braid winning once again, as he successfully defended the title he had won 12 months previously at St Andrews. In 1912, Ted Ray won a first prize of £50 as he won The Open Championship 11 months before his famous playoff defeat in the U.S. Open to Francis Ouimet at Brookline.
Muirfield would then take a 17 year hiatus from hosting golf’s greatest Championship, before it returned in 1929. Legendary American Walter Hagen, who had already won three Open Championships, claimed a six shot victory at Muirfield, in what would be his final major win in a career that saw him claim 11.
Hagen didn’t return to Muirfield, but the Open did in 1935. It was on this occasion that Englishman Alf Perry won his only Open title, in a period that was dominanted from players from south of the Scottish border. This trend would continue at Muirfield in 1948, as the legendary Henry Cotton claimed his third Open title, 14 years after he won his first at Royal St Georges.
Each winner of the Open at Muirfield since the Second World War is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
In 1959, a 23-year-old South African called Gary Player rose through the field in the final round to win his first of nine major championships after a round of 68. Despite finishing with a double bogey, Player held the clubhouse lead and he had to anxiously wait to see if he would become Open champion. The now 77-year-old reflected on the experience: "I had a long time to wait and went back to the hotel for a shower. I dressed in a white suit and then paced up and down from the clubhouse to the main road over and over again. I was so agitated and uptight; I thought I had blown it. The club kindly invited me into the upper section of the clubhouse to watch the last twosome finish.”
In the end, it was to be Player’s day and he was the champion: "I was so proud. To me the Open is the greatest tournament in the world."
Seven years later the game’s greatest ever player was to win at Muirfield, and complete the career grand slam. Having held the 36-hole lead, Nicklaus fell back with a third round of 75. Back then, the final round of the Open was on a Saturday. Going into the afternoon two shots back of fellow American Phil Rodgers, Nicklaus shot a fine round of 72 in difficult conditions to win his first Open title and complete the career grand slam of all four majors. Nicklaus, who would later describe Muirfield as “the best course in Britain” named his fabled Ohio layout Muirfield Village after this revered layout.
Nicklaus almost won at Muirfield again in 1972, after a final round of 66, but Lee Trevino held on to win by one shot after a 71. The decisive moment occurred at the 17th, where Trevino chipped in for a dramatic par that would ultimately see him clinch a fourth major championship. It was the third of four times that Nicklaus finished as a runner-up to Trevino in a major championship.
In 1980, Tom Watson was the dominant player in professional golf. He had already won the Open twice at Carnoustie and Turnberry, and came to Muirfield seeking his third title in five years. Watson, who described Muirfield as the “fairest course” on the Open Rota, pulled four shots clear of the field on Saturday after a 64, before maintaining that advantage to win his third Claret Jug.
33 years later, Watson who is just two months shy of his 64th birthday, returns to Muirfield for one final time. It will also likely be the five-time champion’s final Open appearance in his beloved Scotland, where he won four of his titles.
Watson reflected on winning at Muirfield: “Winning in Scotland is a different feeling to all my other wins elsewhere. I am a sentimentalist and something of a traditionalist and this, after all, is the birthplace of the game. You cannot but think of the champions whose footsteps you are following on a course like Muirfield.”
In 1987, it was Nick Faldo who would follow those footsteps at Muirfield. Going into the final round one shot back of Paul Azinger, Faldo, who had devastatingly lost the Open in 1983, produced an historic round of 18 consecutive pars to win the Open by one. It was his first of six major championships, and he reflected on the day:“ Having blown the 1983 Open at Royal Birkdale, when I led with five holes to play, I was surprisingly relaxed about the showdown,” he wrote later. I was a ‘new’ golfer as far as I was concerned and, even when Azinger came out like a greyhound from the gate with birdies at the 4th and 5th, I did not lose control of my game.
“I felt I had an advantage,” he added. “I realised players would need to manufacture shots, or hit a range of what I call ‘soft shots’, low, three quarter punches that ride rather than fight the wind, and I’d spent weeks practising this technique.”
Five years later, he would utilise that technique once again as he won his third Open at Muirfield in 1992. This year, Faldo, who will turn 56 on Thursday, will make a sentimental return to The Open Championship in what will be his 35th appearance.
“It will be the last walk at Muirfield,” Faldo said. “If I could just get in the right frame of mind, if I hit the golf ball solid, that’s as good as it gets. If it goes sideways, if I can’t put a score on the card, you’re going to have to accept that.”
One player who will be hoping to mix sentimentality with competitiveness is defending Open champion Ernie Els, who returns to the site of his first Open victory.
In 2002, Els won a dramatic Open Championship at Muirfield. The pre-tournament attention was on Tiger Woods, who had won the previous two majors. Entering Saturday, Woods was only two shots off the lead before succumbing to a third round of 81, as a storm ushered in some of the worst conditions seen in an Open Championship in living memory. Many players faded in the cold, gusty rain, but Els held his nerve and found himself with a two shot lead going into the final round.
After a thrilling final day, in the blustery sunshine, Els found himself tied with Thomas Levet, Steve Elkington and Stuart Appleby. A four-hole playoff followed, with Els and Levet still remaining level. The South African would win the first hole of sudden death to clinch his first Open title.
10 years later, Els would win the Open for a second time at Royal Lytham, and he returned to Muirfield hoping to successfully defend the Claret Jug at a venue that possess the sweetest memories.
Muirfield is a venue that has consistently identified greatness, and this 142nd Open Championship will be no exception. Stunning weather will result in an impressive spectacle, as thousands of spectators throng the classic layout. With the sentimentality of Watson and Faldo, a firm and fast course, and with Muirfield’s great history, we are certain to experience an Open Championship to remember.
Opens at Muirfield are measured in greatness.