DID YOU KNOW – FACTS ABOUT ROYAL TROON THE 145th OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
• Royal Troon Golf Club will be staging its ninth Open Championship and first since 2004.
• England’s Arthur Havers won the first Open on the Ayrshire links in 1923, beating Walter Hagen by one shot.
• American players will aim to continue with their outstanding record at Royal Troon. They have won six of the eight Open Championships’ held at Royal Troon. Indeed they have won the last six consecutive Opens’ here. They are: Arnold Palmer (1962), Tom Weiskopf (1973), Tom Watson (1982), Mark Calcavecchia (1989), Justin Leonard (1997) and Todd Hamilton (2004).
• At the 1989 Open Championship, history was made with the first four-hole play-off. This took place between Calcavecchia, who defeated Australians,’ Wayne Grady and Greg Norman.
• Royal Troon has witnessed two play-offs from their eight Opens,’ 1989 and in 2004, when Todd Hamilton defeated Ernie Els.
• The biggest margin of victory in an Open Championship at Royal Troon is six shots by Arnold Palmer in 1962. This the fifth equal largest winning margin in Open Championship history.
• The only wire-to-wire winner of an Open at Royal Troon was by Weiskopf in 1973. He won by three from Johnny Miller and Neil Coles.
• Gene Sarazen made Major Championship history in the 1973 Open Championship at Royal Troon’s eighth hole. He became the oldest player to achieve a hole-in-one, aged 71, at the famous Postage Stamp.
• Prior to Sarazen’s ace, David J Russell had a hole-in-one at Royal Troon in 1973. At aged 19 the then amateur became the youngest player in Major history to make a hole-in-one.
• Sandy Lyle, champion in 1985, will be making his 40th consecutive Open Championship appearance in 2016 and 41st overall. He has played 38 times as a professional and two as an amateur. He first played in 1974 as a 16 year old. His second appearance as an amateur was in 1977. He first played in the paid ranks in 1978. The Scot has played in every Open Championship since 1977.
