British Open: Old Tom to Young John

On Wednesday October 17, 1860, a field of eight British professionals teed off at the 12-hole Prestwick course in the quiet fishing town of that name on the Ayshire coast. After three rounds of play, Willie Park was ushered in as the first winner of the British Open with a score of 174, exactly 58 strokes ahead of the last place finisher.

The following year proved the first of Old Tom Morriss' four Open victories. Old Tom was eventually dethroned by his son, fittingly enough known as Young Tom, who held a death grip on the championship belt until his own abrupt passing at the age of 24 on Christmas day, 1925. For golf purists, the 1861 shindig is revered as the first true British Open since amateurs were no longer barred and the contest was unequivocally declared "open to all the world."

Those words proved especially relevant to the 1976 British Open from its opening round last Wednesday up to the 72nd and final hole, as unheralded 19 year old Spaniard Severiano Ballesteros upstaged the international field to finish tied for second only after succumbing to a withering closing round of 66 fired by America's Johnny Miller.

Miller's initial success in the Open came in 1973 when he was runner up after winning the United States Championship the same year. He first came into the limelight while still a 16-year-old sophomore at Brigham Young, finishing eighth in the U.S. Open at Olympic.

Miller's rounds in the major tourneys over his career bear close resemblance to the fever chart of a malaria victim. In his U.S. Open victory he parlayed a disastrous third round 76 into a closing rush for 63, the lowest round to hit the books in either the British or U.S. championships.

Another 63 propelled him to second in the 1972 Bob Hope Desert Classic and in 1970 he carded a 61 in the Phoenix. Miller has been rather dryly described as "a Mormon of abstemious habits who strides freely along the fairways with an air of dedicated, almost detached, purpose." But on Saturday he once again confirmed his ability to shoot for the jugular, as he humbled Royal Birkdale with a brilliant salvo of shots that earned him four birdies and an eagle on the thirteenth.

Ballesteros supplied the Open with an international flavor lacking since Taiwanese pro Lu Liang Huan labeled as "Mr. Lu" became a gallery favorite in 1971 while finishing second. With an uncanny knack for getting the ball up and down from around the green, Ballesteros during his final round of 74 succeeded in "defying the percentages" as Miller later put it, repeatedly extricating himself after slapping shots into Birkdale's yawning bunkers and unyielding willow scrub rough.

His inexperience and obscurity aside, Ballesteros's presence at the top of the leader board was also surprising because up until recently golf has been singularly slow to take hold in Spain.

The first course in Spanish territory was the Las Palmas G.C. in the Canary Islands formed in 1891, which is incidentally the home course of two-time Ivy League champion and Harvard's leading golfer, Alex Vik. It was another 13 years until golf sunk roots in the mainland with the establishment of the Madrid Polo Club. As late as 1959, though, Spain could boast of only fourteen clubs. By 1970, the number has sprouted to 35.

Ballesteros's top-notch play is indicative of the emergence of Spain as the leader in continental golf, beginning with the careers of the Miguel brothers and Ramon Sota, who is the cousin of young Severiano.

Angels

While the Miguel brothers, Angel and Sebastian, were at the height of their prestige, Sota scrapped his way into the pro ranks after learning the game as a caddie. In 1963, he won the Spanish Open and the same year teamed up with Sebastian to come within three strokes of winning the World Cup. Only a blitz by Nicklaus, who was paired with Arnold Palmer, staved off an American loss in the fog-ridden final at Paris.

Sota finished sixth in the 1965 Masters, which remains the highest finish by a continental player. After a two-year bout with rheumatism, he achieved a golfing first of dubious merit during the 1972 Double Diamond Tournament when he became the only professional to ever be penalized for slow play in Britain. This unparalleled humiliation evoked heated resentment on the home front and hastened Sota's untimely retirement.

Not only can the international caliber of this year's Open trace its origins to that solemn declaration of 1861, but it was further in keeping with the Open's oldest traditions that the site for this year's contest was Royal Birkdale.

Birkdale, in the mold of Prestwick where the first Open was held, is an unkempt links-land course whittled by the elements, running along the railway line between Liverpool and Southport. The dunes that straddle the fairways and perpetually tearing winds along with four par fives in the last six holes exact the utmost of poise, resilience and control from the field.

More than any other Open in history, the 1961 event at Birkdale reaffirmed the early goal of deciding the most formidale player in the world. The prestige of the tournament had been gradually eroded in the post-war years since American pros were lured away by the more lucrative home circuit. This decline allowed Peter Thomson and Bobby Locke to dominate the tournament with eight victories between them in the space of ten years.

1961 proved the watershed year because Arnold Palmer, then the premier trendsetter in golf, turned the trick at Royal Birkdale for his first British Open win.

Palmer's decisive victory revived American enthusiasm and restored the British Open to its exalted present day position as the major golf championship that is truly "open to all the world." Last week's event won by America's top pro of the next generation followed by an unvaunted Spaniard once again demonstrated the universal appeal of the world's oldest Open.