The Open Championship: Top 10 moments in history

1. Tom Watson vs. Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry in 1977

While the battle between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon in 2016 was a sight to see, there may be no more famous battle at The Open than the one that occurred between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus at Turnberry in 1977 that would go on to be known as “The Duel in the Sun.”

With four titles at The Open between them coming in (Nicklaus-3, Watson-1), two of the game’s all-time greats engaged in a showdown of epic proportions all week long, seemingly matching one another shot for shot as the tournament went along. Both shot an opening-round 68 and were two behind leader John Schroder. They shot matching 70s in the second round to sit one behind 36-hole leader Roger Maltbie and again matched each other with third-round 65s to sit three clear of the field heading into Sunday’s final round and the match was on.

In the early going, it seemed that Nicklaus, looking to add to his record of 14 major wins at the time, had the advantage as he took a two-stroke lead on the second hole when he birdied and Watson bogeyed the hole. He extended that lead to three with a birdie at the fourth but Watson, the reigning Masters champion, wasn’t going to go away quietly. As Nicklaus reeled off pars, Watson made birdies at five, seven and eight to tie before dropping a shot at the ninth, perhaps due to the excited crowd breaking through the ropes and causing a 15-minute delay.

Down one at the turn, Watson saw his deficit climb to two when Jack holed a 22-foot birdie putt at the par-4 12th, breaking a string of seven consecutive pars, but would come right back with a 12-foot birdie of his own at the 13th. After both made pars at 14, Watson made the unlikeliest of birdies at the par-3 15th to tie. After his tee shot came to rest off the green some 60 feet from the hole, Watson elected to putt and watched as his ball hopped off the ground upon impact, rolled on, hit the flag and dropped in for a two as the crowd roared.

Both would make par at the 16th and both were in great position to make birdie at the par-5 17th. Watson had gotten on in two and two-putted for his four to get to 11-under for the tournament and Nicklaus seemingly would tie with a little three-footer but much to the surprise of everyone in the golf world, he missed the putt and settled for a disappointing par, giving Watson a one-shot lead going to the last.

Watson blasted a beautiful 1-iron down the fairway, making Nicklaus get a little more aggressive than he probably wanted to with his tee shot. He hit his driver way to the right into the rough and up against a gorse bush. Watson was the first to play and hit one of the best 7-iron shots of his career to about two feet, seemingly all but wrapping up The Open title. But Nicklaus wasn’t done either. He hit a phenomenal 8-iron to 35 feet and rolled in the birdie putt to a thunderous roar, putting a little more pressure on his opponent. But Watson had just hit it too close and he tapped in for his birdie to win by one.

Always the sportsman, Nicklaus walked up, wrapped his arm around Watson’s shoulder and walked him off the green in one of the great moments in golf history and the best moment in the history of The Open Championship.

Next: Top 10 shots in Masters history

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