Golf-British Opens at Muirfield

Golf-British Opens at Muirfield

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July 17, 2013 10:00 PM



GULLANE, Scotland, July 18 (Reuters) - Muirfield will stage the 142nd British Open from Thursday to Sunday.

Here is a factbox about Opens at the famous Scottish links course.

* Muirfield is staging the British Open this year for the 16th time. The last six champions were Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo (twice) and Ernie Els. * Those six players have won 51 major titles and 18 British Opens between them. * The course is now 7,192 yards long and is a par-71. There are four par-3's and three par-5's. * South African Player won in 1959, the first of his eight major titles. * Nicklaus claimed the first of his three British Opens at Muirfield in 1966. * Nicklaus arrived at the 1972 Open having won the U.S. Masters and the U.S. Open but he finished second behind fellow American Trevino who fired rounds of 71, 70, 66 and 71. * Watson won his thirdBritish Open at Muirfield in 1980, finishing four shots ahead of runner-up Trevino. * Watson and Ben Crenshaw, who came third, went out on to the course in the evening after the final round and played a few holes with hickory-shafted clubs before being chased off by club secretary Paddy Hanmer. * Faldo made 18 consecutive pars in the last round to win the 1987 Open by one shot from American Paul Azinger and Australian Rodger Davis. * England's Faldo won again in 1992, overhauling American John Cook who missed a short birdie putt at the 17th before bogeying the final hole. * Tiger Woods won the U.S. Masters and U.S. Open in 2002 but his challenge at Muirfield ended with a third-round 81 in appalling weather conditions. * South African Els won a four-way playoff against Australians Steve Elkington and Stuart Appleby and Frenchman Thomas Levet to win the 2002 Open. He beat Levet at the fifth extra hole.

(Compiled by Ed Osmond; edited by Tony Jimenez)