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Muirfield

Coordinates: 56°02′31″N 2°49′16″W / 56.042°N 2.821°W / 56.042; -2.821
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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tewapack (talk | contribs) at 15:02, 17 July 2013 (Undid revision 564636252 by 80.254.148.83 (talk)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
For other uses, see Muirfield (disambiguation).
Muirfield
Muirfield in July 2005
Map
Club information
LocationGullane, East Lothian, Scotland
Established1744 (1891)
TypePrivate
Total holes18
Events hostedThe Open Championship,
The Amateur,
Senior British Open
Websitemuirfield.org.uk
Designed byTom Morris, Sr.
Par71
Length7,245 yards (6,625 m)
Course rating73 [1]
Muirfield is located in Scotland
Muirfield
Muirfield
class=notpageimage|
Location in Scotland

Muirfield is a privately owned links which is the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Located in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland, overlooking the Firth of Forth, Muirfield is one of the golf courses used in rotation for The Open Championship.

Muirfield has hosted The Open Championship fifteen times, most recently in 2002 when Ernie Els lifted the trophy. Other past winners at Muirfield include Nick Faldo (twice), Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Henry Cotton, Alf Perry, Walter Hagen, Harry Vardon and Harold Hilton. Muirfield has also hosted The Amateur Championship (ten times), the Ryder Cup in 1973, the 1959 and 1979 Walker Cups, the 1952 and 1984 Curtis Cups, and many other important tournaments.

Although Muirfield is a links course, it has an unusual layout. Most links courses run along the coast and then back again leading to two sets of nine holes, each of which face roughly in the same direction. Muirfield, however, was amongst the first courses to depart from this arrangement and is arranged as two loops of nine holes, one clockwise, one anticlockwise. This means that, assuming the wind direction remains the same throughout a round, every hole on the course has a different apparent wind direction from the tee. No more than three consecutive holes follow the same direction at any stage.

Jack Nicklaus won three Open Championships, the first at Muirfield in 1966, which completed the first of his three career grand slams. Nicklaus has described Muirfield as "the best golf course in Britain."[2] He later developed a championship golf course and community in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of his hometown of Columbus. Opened in 1974, Nicklaus named it Muirfield Village; it has hosted his Memorial Tournament, a top invitational event on the PGA Tour since 1976.

Muirfield has halted the two most recent attempts at the grand slam, denying the third major of the year to winners of the first two, the Masters and U.S. Open. Nicklaus was runner-up by a stroke in 1972 to Trevino, and Tiger Woods ran into gale-force winds and rain in the third round in 2002 and shot an 81; he rebounded with a 65 on Sunday to finish at even-par, six strokes out of the playoff in a tie for 28th place.

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, now based at Muirfield, holds the claim of being the oldest verifiable organised golf club in the world, although the game of golf is several centuries older. The club's records date continuously back to 1744, when it produced thirteen "Rules of Golf" for its first competition which was played at Leith Links for the "Silver Club".[3] The first competition was won by John Rattray, who signed the rules and became the first club captain.[4] The club played on the five holes at Leith Links for nearly a century, but overcrowding forced a move in 1836 to Musselburgh Old Course's 9-hole Old Course. Musselburgh, like many prestigious Scottish courses including St Andrews, is a public course, and this course also eventually became too crowded for the liking of the HCEG's members.

In 1891, the club built a new private 18-hole course at Muirfield, taking the Open Championship with them. This situation caused some ill feeling at Musselburgh, which lost the right to hold the Open from that point forward. Old Tom Morris designed the new course, which met with wide approval from the start; it has been modified and updated several times since, in significant ways up to the late 1920s, after which it has remained stable.[5] The first Open held on the new course in 1892 was the first tournament anywhere contested over four rounds, or 72 holes.[6]

Course

The course has been extended by 211 yards (193 m) since the 2002 Championship to 7,245 yards (6,625 m).[7]

Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total
Yards 450 367 379 229 561 469 187 445 558 3,645 472 389 382 193 478 447 188 578 473 3,600 7,245
Par 4 4 4 3 5 4 3 4 5 36 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 35 71

Source:[7]

Lengths of the course for Opens since 1950:[8][9]

  • 2013: 7,192 yards (6,576 m), par 71
  • 2002: 7,034 yards (6,432 m), par 71
  • 1992: 6,970 yards (6,373 m), par 71
  • 1987: 6,963 yards (6,367 m), par 71
  • 1980: 6,926 yards (6,333 m), par 71
  • 1972: 6,892 yards (6,302 m), par 71
  • 1966: 6,887 yards (6,297 m), par 71
  • 1959: 6,806 yards (6,223 m), par 72

The Open Championship

The Open Championship was first held at Muirfield in 1892 and has hosted fifteen times.
Last held in 2002, it is scheduled to return in 2013.

  Year   Winner Score Winner's
share (£)
R1 R2 R3 R4 Total
1892 England Harold Hilton (a) 1st 78 81 72 74 305 (Am)
1896 Jersey Harry Vardon 1st 83 78 78 77 316 PO 30
1901 Scotland James Braid 1st 79 76 74 80 309 30
1906 Scotland James Braid 3rd 77 76 74 73 300 30
1912 Jersey Ted Ray 71 73 76 75 295 50
1929 United States Walter Hagen 4th 75 67 75 75 292 100
1935 England Alf Perry 69 75 67 72 283 (−5) 100
1948 England Henry Cotton 3rd 71 66 75 72 284 (−4) 150
1959 South Africa Gary Player 1st 75 71 70 68 284 (E) 1,000
1966 United States Jack Nicklaus 1st 70 67 75 70 282 (−2) 2,100
1972 United States Lee Trevino 2nd 71 70 66 71 278 (−6) 5,500
1980 United States Tom Watson 3rd 68 70 64 69 271 (−13) 25,000
1987 England Nick Faldo 1st 68 69 71 71 279 (−5) 75,000
1992 England Nick Faldo 3rd 66 64 69 73 272 (−12) 95,000
2002 South Africa Ernie Els 1st 70 66 72 70 278 (−6)PO 700,000
2013
  • Note: For multiple winners of The Open Championship, superscript ordinal identifies which in their respective careers.
  • (a) denotes amateur

The Senior British Open

The Senior British Open Championship was first held at Muirfield in 2007.

  Year   Winner Score Winner's
share (£)
R1 R2 R3 R4 Total
2007 United States Tom Watson 3rd   70 71 70 73 284 (E) 157,800

Source:[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Course layout". Muirfield. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
  2. ^ "Muirfield club steeped in tradition". The Phoenix. 14 July 1980. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  3. ^ "Scottish Golf History: The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfersinto History". Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  4. ^ Allan Burnett (summer 2010). "Slicing into History" (pdf). Discover NLS - Magazine Issue 16. National Library of Scotland. pp. 16–19. Retrieved 24 July 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ The Golf Course, by Geoffrey Cornish and Ronald Whitten, 1981.
  6. ^ The World Atlas of Golf, second edition, 1987, Mitchell Beazely publishers, London.
  7. ^ a b "The Course". Muirfield: The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  8. ^ "Media guide". The Open Championship. 2011. p. 203. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  9. ^ "British Open: hole-by-hole analysis". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. July 18, 2002. p. 3C.
  10. ^ "Major Tom: Watson captures a third Senior British Open". European Senior Tour. July 29, 2007. Retrieved July 2, 2012.

56°02′31″N 2°49′16″W / 56.042°N 2.821°W / 56.042; -2.821

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