Royal Troon - Previous Opens

Royal Troon in south-west Scotland has hosted the British Open six times since first staging the championship 81 years ago.

The Ayrshire links course hosts the 2004 Open from July 15 to 18.

Following are highlights of the British Opens played at Royal Troon:

1923 - Conditions could hardly have been tougher with rock-hard fairways and greens and gale-force weather during the week. American Gene Sarazen's cause was not helped beforehand when he and several other players from the United States were told the faces of their clubs were illegal because of bored holes. They were forced to leave them behind, and Sarazen failed to qualify. Unfancied Briton Arthur Havers did not look the type to handle the winds. He was tall and slight but his solid ball-striking helped him to launch his bid with three successive 73s. On the final day, defending champion Walter Hagen piled on the pressure but Havers hung on until the 18th where he bunkered his approach. Miraculously, he splashed out into the hole for a closing 76 and a 295 total. Moments later, Hagen found the same bunker but narrowly failed to match Havers's feat. The Englishman triumphed by a shot.

1950 - The championship returned to Troon to be defended by the portly, distinguished-looking South African Bobby Locke. He did not look like a modern golfer but he had a putting stroke that even Tiger Woods would have envied. On Troon's silky-smooth greens, he made full use of his skills. Rounds of 69-72-70-68 set a championship aggregate record of 279 and earned him a two-shot win over Argentina's Roberto de Vicenzo, who would have to wait another 27 years for his own Open title. The 123-yard Postage Stamp hole earned its fearsome reputation at the 1950 Open when the German amateur champion Herman Tissies ran up an ugly 15 there after visiting three bunkers.

1962 - Having won the Open the previous year at Royal Birkdale, American Arnold Palmer arrived at Troon brimming with confidence as the greatest player in the world. He would soon be eclipsed by his compatriot Jack Nicklaus, but not that week. Watched by the biggest crowds in Open history, the charismatic Palmer swept all before him with a swashbuckling display of power hitting and a matchless touch around the greens. With scores of 71-69-67-69, he won by six strokes from Australia's Kel Nagle, who had denied him his first Open title two years earlier at St Andrews. Palmer became the first man in the championship's history to shoot three rounds in the 60s, a remarkable feat given that only four other rounds in the 60s were carded all week. Behind Nagle, the rest of the field were a further seven shots adrift.

1973 - Tom Weiskopf was the latest in a line of American players described as "the next Jack Nicklaus" after a glittering college career. Until 1973, however, he had failed to realise his huge talent. That year, everything fell into place for him and he arrived at Troon having won four times in seven weeks. At first, he thought the course would prove a problem. Dry weather had left the greens lightning fast and Weiskopf was unfamiliar with the required low-hitting, pitch-and-run game. Rain on day one, however, allowed him to fly his shots high into the greens and, combined with some of the straightest hitting of his career, he romped to a two-shot victory over Johnny Miller with rounds of 68-67-71-70 (276). Weiskopf, who had an elegant swing and a fiery temper, never won another major nor enjoyed a year of matching success.

1982 - American Tom Watson won the fourth of his five British Opens at Royal Troon after clinching the U.S. Open a few weeks earlier. With three Opens already under his belt, and one more to come the following year, links specialist Watson was the hot favourite but it was the unheralded Bobby Clampett who made the early running. At halfway, he led Watson by seven shots before crashing to final rounds of 77 and 78. Fired by an eagle at the par-five 11th in the final round, Watson closed with a 70 to set the clubhouse lead on 284, but seemed destined to miss out on the title with Nick Price three ahead with six holes to play. But the Zimbabwean bogeyed 13 and ran up a double-bogey six at the 15th after hitting his second shot into a bunker he later said he had not known was there. Price also dropped a shot at the next hole and Watson was home and dry.

1989 - Mark Calcavecchia, a fast-emerging PGA Tour player ready to replace players such as Nicklaus and Watson at the top of the world game, burst through with a dramatic victory at Troon. His playoff win over Australians Wayne Grady and Greg Norman was the first in the tournament's history to be contested over four holes. The trio were tied on 13-under-par 275, Calcavecchia having followed an opening 71 with three successive 68s. Norman, the 1986 champion, looked favourite to win the shootout after storming through the field with a course-record 64 in the final round. Initially, Calcavecchia thought the playoff was sudden-death -- it was fortunate for him it was not as Norman pulled ahead with birdie at the first two holes. However, the Australian then bogeyed the third for the American to level with just Troon's 452-yard par-four 18th to follow. Norman never completed the final hole after driving into a fairway bunker and then finding sand with his second. Calcavecchia, however, hit the best five-iron of his life with his approach to just seven feet and holed out for a clinching birdie and the Claret Jug.

1997 - Justin Leonard continued the American monopoly at Troon with a closing 65 for a cumulative 272 that left Europeans Darren Clarke and third-round leader Jesper Parnevik three strokes adrift. Neither Clarke nor Parnevik did much wrong on the final day but they could do little to halt Leonard's charge, which included six birdies over the first nine holes. The Texan did not draw level with Sweden's Parnevik, though, until the 15th with a 15-foot putt. Another at the next for birdie gave him the lead. A monster putt from twice that distance at the 17th settled the issue as the American, aged 25, became the youngest British Open champion since the 22-year-old Seve Ballesteros at Royal Lytham in 1979. Leonard had the chance for a second Claret Jug in the memorable Open at Carnoustie two years later, but this time he lost out in a playoff to Britain's Paul Lawrie.

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