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Play St Andrews Links
Home / Play / The Home of Golf / The Open

The Open at St Andrews Links

St Andrews Links has a very special and unique history with golf’s most international Major Championship. St Andrews has welcomed the game's greatest players from near and far, all wishing to join golf's greats, Jones, Snead, Nicklaus, Ballesteros, Faldo and Woods on the champion's roll.

Always inspirational, truly original and hugely rewarding the Home of Golf has hosted The Open 29 times, more than any other venue. The Old Course, undoubtedly one of the most iconic courses in the world, has been the setting in which history has been repeatedly made.

Historic golf image


Golf's oldest major was first played at Prestwick, a Scottish course designed by Tom Morris and the site of his four Open victories and those of his son Tommy Morris. Ironically it was when the championship moved from Prestwick to the Morris's hometown in 1873 that another St Andrean Tom Kidd claimed victory and halted the four in a row winning sequence of young Tommy Morris.
 

Image of old Tom Morris golfing

Tom Morris won The Open four times but never on the Old Course. He still holds the record as the oldest ever winner at 46 years old.

Image of young Tom Morris wearing the Open Championship belt

Tommy Morris won four consecutive Open Championships before it moved to St Andrews. Tommy wears the Championship Belt above.

Tom Kidd was the first St Andrews champion in 1873 and since then some of the game’s greatest figures have won here at the Home of Golf. Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have all won on the Old Course and made their own special contribution to the illustrious history of St Andrews Links. When Nicklaus waved goodbye to his adoring fans from the Swilcan Bridge in his final round of professional golf at the 2005 Open it demonstrated the warmth and affection held for the place where the game started.

 

If a golfer is going to be remembered, he must win the title at St Andrews. At last it is my greatest dream come true.

Jack Nicklaus, St Andrews Open Champion, 1970 & 1978

Jack Nicklaus waving on top of the Swilcan bridge
Photo of Bobby Jones holding the 1927 St Andrews Open champion cup
 

If I had ever been told I was to play there and nowhere else I should have chosen the Old Course.

Bobby Jones, St Andrews Open Champion, 1927

 

Victory anywhere is sweet, but to win at St Andrews is so special it rises above everything else.

Seve Ballesteros, St Andrews Open Champion, 1984
Photo of Seve Ballestros cheering

In July, 2015 St Andrews Links hosted the 144th Open Championship in an event filled week which spilled over into a Monday finish for only the second time in history.

After 72 holes, Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman could not be separated, with all three locked on 15-under-par 273. It took a four-hole play-off played out in front of an rapturous crowd of over 35,000 where 2007 US Masters Champion, Zach Johnson, was deservedly crowned Champion Golfer of the Year in truly dramatic fashion.

The 150th staging of The Open will return to the Home of Golf in 2021.

Zach Johnson holding the Open Cup 2015
 

I'm grateful. I'm humbled. I'm honored. This is the birthplace of the game, and that jug means so much in sports.

Zach Johnson, St Andrews Open Champion, 2015