Muirfield

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For other uses, see Muirfield (disambiguation).
Muirfield
250px18th Hole at Muirfield, The Open 2013 .jpg
The Open at Muirfield in July 2013
Club information
Location Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland
Established 1744 (1891)
Type Private
Total holes 18
Tournaments hosted The Open Championship,
The Amateur,
Senior British Open
Website muirfield.org.uk
Designed by Tom Morris, Sr.
Par 71
Length 7,245 yards (6,625 m)
Course rating 73 [1]
Muirfield is located in Scotland
Muirfield
Muirfield
Location in Scotland
Muirfield is located in East Lothian
Muirfield
Muirfield
Location in East Lothian, 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 sixteen times, most recently in 2013 when Phil Mickelson lifted the trophy. Other past winners at Muirfield include Ernie Els, 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.

Muirfield has an unusual layout for a links course[according to whom?]. Most links courses run along the coast and then back again leading to two sets of nine holes, the holes in each set facing roughly in the same direction. Muirfield, however, was among the first courses[citation needed] to depart from this arrangement and is arranged as two loops of nine holes, one clockwise, one counterclockwise. 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 two post-war 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]

Membership policy

Though women can play the course as guests or visitors they are barred from holding membership of the Company.[7][8]

Course

The course has been extended by 211 yards (193 m) since the 2002 Championship to 7,245 yards (6,625 m).[9]

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

Lengths of the course for Opens since 1950:[10][11]

  • 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 16 times, the last 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 (+12) 100
1935 England Alf Perry 69 75 67 72 283 (−5) 100
1948 England Henry Cotton 3rd 71 66 75 72 284 (E) 150
1959 South Africa Gary Player 1st 75 71 70 68 284 (−4) 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 United States Phil Mickelson 69 74 72 66 281 (−3) 945,000
  • 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:[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  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. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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