1964 Open Championship


The 1964 Open Championship was the 93rd Open Championship, played 8–10 July at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. Tony Lema won his only major championship, five strokes ahead of runner-up Jack Nicklaus. He led by seven strokes after 54 holes and shot a final round 70. Neither had played the Old Course before and Lema had never played in Britain; he gave much of the credit for his victory to his caddy, Tip Anderson. It was Lema's fourth victory in six weeks; he won three events on the PGA Tour in June. Nicklaus equaled the course record with a 66 in the third round.
The PGA Championship was played the next week in Columbus, Ohio, one of five times in the 1960s that these two majors were played in consecutive weeks in July.
Lema played in two more Opens; two weeks after competing in 1966 at Muirfield, he and his pregnant wife were killed in a plane crash near Chicago.

Course

^ The 10th hole was posthumously named for Bobby Jones in 1972
Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship :
The exemption categories were:
1. The first 20 and those tying for 20th place in the 1963 Open

Brian Allen, Peter Alliss, Bob Charles, Neil Coles, Max Faulkner, Jean Garaïalde, Harold Henning, Brian Huggett, Bernard Hunt, Alex King, Malcolm Leeder, Hugh Lewis, Ian MacDonald, John MacDonald, Sebastian Miguel, Kel Nagle, Jack Nicklaus, Christy O'Connor Snr, Frank Phillips, Gary Player, Phil Rodgers, Sewsunker Sewgolum, Ramón Sota, Peter Thomson, Brian Wilkes
2. The first 30 and those tying for 30th place in the P.G.A. Order of Merit for 1963
3. The last 10 Open champions

Bobby Locke
4. The last 5 Amateur champions

Deane Beman , Michael Bonallack, Joe Carr
5. The last 10 U.S. Open champions
6. The last 5 U.S. Amateur champions
''Jack Nicklaus had turned professional but was exempt under other categories
7. The first 30 money winners and those tying for 30th place in the U.S.P.G.A. official list for one year ending with the P.G.A. tournament immediately before the closing date of the U.S. Open entries
Exemptions for amateur champions were only granted if the player was still an amateur.
Qualification took place on 3–4 July at the New and Eden courses. They were run as two separate events with 35 players to qualify from the New Course and 34 from the Eden course, together with 51 exemptions to make a total field of 120. The number of alternates was reduced from three to two.

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Missed the cut

Round summaries

First round

Wednesday, 8 July 1964
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Jean Garaïalde71−1
T1Christy O'Connor Snr71−1
T3Bruce Devlin72E
T3Harry Weetman72E
T5Hugh Boyle73+1
T5Max Faulkner73+1
T5Bernard Hunt73+1
T5Tony Lema73+1
T5Ángel Miguel73+1
T10Stuart Davies74+2
T10Christy Greene74+2
T10Jimmy Martin74+2
T10Phil Rodgers74+2
T10George Will74+2

Source:

Second round

Thursday, 9 July 1964
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Tony Lema73-68=141−3
2Harry Weetman72-71=143−1
T3Bruce Devlin72-72=144E
T3Christy O'Connor Snr71-73=144E
5Jean Garaïalde71-74=145+1
T6Max Faulkner73-73=146+2
T6Jimmy Martin74-72=146+2
T8Tony Coop75-72=147+3
T8Bernard Hunt73-74=147+3
T8Lu Liang-Huan76-71=147+3

Source:

Amateurs: Beman, Bonallack, Carr, Clark, Rutherford, Saddler, Shade.

Third round

Friday, 10 July 1964
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Tony Lema73-68-68=209−7
2Jack Nicklaus76-74-66=216E
T3Bruce Devlin72-72-73=217+1
T3Bernard Hunt73-74-70=217+1
T5Roberto De Vicenzo76-72-70=218+2
T5Christy O'Connor Snr71-73-74=218+2
T5Harry Weetman72-71-75=218+2
8Bob Charles79-71-69=219+3
9Ángel Miguel73-76-72=221+5
T10Alex Caygill77-74-71=222+6
T10Stuart Davies74-77-71=222+6
T10Malcolm Gregson78-70-74=222+6
T10Harold Henning78-73-71=222+6
T10Ralph Moffitt76-72-74=222+6
T10Gary Player78-71-73=222+6
T10Syd Scott75-74-73=222+6

Source:

Final round

Friday, 10 July 1964
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo parMoney
1Tony Lema73-68-68-70=279−91,500
2Jack Nicklaus76-74-66-68=284−41,000
3Roberto De Vicenzo76-72-70-67=285−3800
4Bernard Hunt73-74-70-70=287−1650
5Bruce Devlin72-72-73-73=290+2500
T6Christy O'Connor Snr71-73-74-73=291+3313
T6Harry Weetman72-71-75-73=291+3313
T8Harold Henning78-73-71-70=292+4183
T8Ángel Miguel73-76-72-71=292+4183
T8Gary Player78-71-73-70=292+4183

Source: