Royal St George’s has a long and storied connection with The Open, but few Championships at Sandwich have had the same long-term impact as The 34th Open in 1894.
Only seven years after the course had been founded, Royal St George's welcomed the finest professional and amateur players in the British Isles as it made history by staging the first Open Championship to be held outside of Scotland.
John Ball and Harold Hilton, the pair of English amateurs who won The Open in 1890 and 1892, respectively, were the first Champion Golfers not to hail from Scotland. But it was J.H. Taylor’s triumph in 1894 that began to take The Open to a new level of repute, and ushered in a new age for golf’s original major.
Despite concerns over entry numbers due to the distance between Scottish clubs and Sandwich, a record 94 competitors entered and began the Championship, including Old Tom Morris at the age of 73, who had only intended to spectate.
At the close of play on the first day, Taylor had established a narrow one-stroke advantage over Andrew Kirkaldy and Douglas Rolland, following rounds of 84 and 80 in treacherous wind. On the second and final day, the 23-year-old Taylor shot two consecutive scores of 81 to claim victory with an aggregate of 326.
Taylor’s total remains to this day the highest winning score in The Open's history, but it was enough for the Englishman to claim the Championship by five strokes ahead of Rolland, ensuring he became the first non-Scottish professional to lift the famous Claret Jug.
It signalled the dawn of a new era dominated by a trio who quickly became known as The Great Triumvirate - Taylor, Harry Vardon and James Braid. In 1894 at Sandwich, all three men were at the start of their careers, with both Taylor and Vardon playing just their second Championship, and Braid making his debut.
To read more about the first Open at Royal St George’s and the Great Triumvirate, visit https://www.theopen.com/latest/2021/02/1894-open-dawn-of-a-new-age.
The R&A
