Since 1894 fourteen golfers have raised The Claret Jug at Royal St George’s. J.H Taylor won the first championship outside of Scotland. It is also a site that has seen both Harry Vardon and Walter Hagen win twice – Harry in a 36 hole play-off back in 1911. Then the rare sight of the opponent, Arnaud Massy gave up at the 35th hole. During the years the links country Sandwich have offered several stunning shows. 1934 Henry Cotton shot a 65 in the second round, and thus got a golf ball named after him, Dunlop 65. 1938 was the year of the big storm which did not only bring all the tents with it it also affected the scores. The victor, Reg Whitcombe’s last round was 78 shots. 1949 Harry Bradshaw Decided to hit the ball from a broken beer can on the fifth hole in the second round. By this he paid back dearly as he lost a shot on that and the lost the play-off against Bobby Locke. Not until 1982 did the championship return to Sandwich. Then the course had had several changes. One thing was that they had balanced the first and second nine, earlier there was a 500 yard difference. 1985 Sandy Lyle won after doing birdies on the 14 & 15th holes during the last round. 1993 the rain had made the course softer than usual and Greg Norman set a difficult record, when in the final round he went 13 under par. 2003 we remember Thomas Björn who the same as Jesper Parnevik had the chance to get the first Scandinavian title in a major. Thomas was however forced to strike 3 shots in the bunker at the 16th. 2011 was the year of rain and wind, the only one to master the course then was Darren Clarke.
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