British Open 2017: 5 best moments in history
By John Buhler
The 146th playing of the British Open will begin on Thursday at Royal Birkdale Golf Course. Here are the five best moments in the history of The Open.
On Thursday, the center of the golfing world will be in Southport, England at the Royal Birkdale Golf Course, home of the 2017 British Open. This weekend will be the 146th playing of The Open Championship. All the big names but Tiger Woods will be there. Then again, he’s not a top 1000 player anymore.
However, he did win some majors overseas before and so have a lot of guys. Again, this will be the 146th playing for the iconic Claret Jug. Also, the prize money will be in dollar bills, y’all, and not the pound because of that whole Brexit thing. Anyway, it should be an exciting time if you’re up at a ridiculous time of night in America. Don’t let being productive the next day get in the way of you enjoying the British Open if that’s what you want to do.
Before the first trio takes to the tee box at Royal Birkdale at promptly 1:35 a.m. ET on Thursday morning, let’s take a look back at some of the best moments in the history of the event. Here are the five moments that really stand out from all the playings of The Open Championship.
5. The John Daly Show – 1995
Back in the early 1990s, former Arkansas Razorbacks standout John Daly came on the PGA Tour and shook everything up. He first joined the PGA Tour in 1991 and would The PGA Championship that same year after being a ninth alternate to make the event. His party boy persona really took off after he won his first major tournament, but his life would get a little out of hands.
Daly would have his issues with substance abuse and sobriety for the next few years. He was a brilliant golfer when everything was going well for him, but he quickly faded into somewhat of a one-event wonder by 1994. Then everything got interesting for him back in 1995 at The Open Championship at St. Andrews.
Daly would come out strong the first two days at St. Andrews, being atop the leaderboard at six-under through Friday. He would stumble a bit on Saturday, shooting one over par to fall back to fourth place and nine strokes back of Australia’s Michael Campbell.
In the final round, Daly would shoot a 71 (-1) to force a four-hole playoff with Italy’s Constantino Rocca. The four holes that were selected at St. Andrews were 1, 2, 17 and 18. Daly would come out of the gate in the four-hole playoff and stomp Rocca at St. Andrews. He would birdie No. 2 with Rocca simply fell to pieces. Daly played arguably his most composed game of golf to date. He would beat Rocca by four strokes in the playoff to win the 1995 Open Championship.