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1966 Open Championship

Field	Value
name	1966 Open Championship
dates	6–9 July 1966
location	Gullane, Scotland
course	Muirfield Golf Links
tour
par	71
yardage	6887 yd
field	130 players, 64 after cut
cut	150 (+8)
purse	£15,000
$42,000
winners_share	£2,100
$5,880
champion	USA Jack Nicklaus
score	282 (−2)
previous	[1965](1965-open-championship)
next	[1967](1967-open-championship)

$42,000 $5,880 |UK Scotland |Scotland East Lothian The 1966 Open Championship was the 95th Open Championship, held 6–9 July at Muirfield Golf Links in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. Jack Nicklaus won the first of his three Claret Jugs, one stroke ahead of runners-up Doug Sanders and Dave Thomas. It was the sixth of eighteen major titles for Nicklaus and marked the completion of the first of his three career grand slams.

This was the first Open to be scheduled over four days, with one round each day, finishing on Saturday. Previous editions had played the third and fourth rounds on Friday. The U.S. Open changed to a four-day schedule the previous year in 1965, moving its final round from Saturday afternoon to Sunday. The Open Championship operated on a Wednesday through Saturday schedule through 1979.

It was the final Open for 1964 champion Tony Lema, who died in a plane crash two weeks later, hours after the PGA Championship.

Nicklaus has described Muirfield as "the best golf course in Britain." He later developed a championship golf course and community in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of his hometown of Columbus. Opened in 1974, Nicklaus named it Muirfield Village and it hosts his Memorial Tournament, a top invitational event on the PGA Tour since 1976.

Course

Main article: Muirfield

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Yards	429	363	385	187	516	473	187	451	495	3,486	475	363	385	154	462	407	198	528	429	3,401	6,887
Par	4	4	4	3	5	4	3	4	5	36	4	4	4	3	4	4	3	5	4	35	71

Source:

Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):

1959: 6806 yd, par 72

Round summaries

First round

Wednesday, 6 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	ENG Jimmy Hitchcock	70	−1
USA Jack Nicklaus
T3	ZAF Harold Henning	71	E
USA Tony Lema
USA Doug Sanders
SCO Ronnie Shade (a)
T7	ENG Fred Boobyer	72	+1
ENG John Carter
ENG Alex Caygill
IRL Christy Greene
AUS Kel Nagle
ZAF Gary Player
WAL Dave Thomas

Second round

Thursday, 7 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	USA Jack Nicklaus	70-67=137	−5
2	ENG Peter Butler	73-65=138	−4
T3	ZAF Harold Henning	71-69=140	−2
AUS Kel Nagle	72-68=140
USA Phil Rodgers	74-66=140
T6	USA Doug Sanders	71-70=141	−1
SCO Ronnie Shade (a)	71-70=141
8	AUS Bruce Devlin	73-69=142	E
9	ENG Alex Caygill	72-71=143	+1
10	USA Julius Boros	73-71=144	+2

Amateurs: Shade (-1), Cole (+4), Townsend (+6), Bonallack (+7), Millensted (+12), Smith (+13), Falkenburg (+22)

Third round

Friday, 8 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	USA Phil Rodgers	74-66-70=210	−3
2	USA Jack Nicklaus	70-67-75=212	−1
3	USA Doug Sanders	71-70-72=213	E
T4	USA Arnold Palmer	73-72-69=214	+1
WAL Dave Thomas	72-73-69=214
6	ZAF Harold Henning	71-69-75=215	+2
T7	ENG Alex Caygill	72-71-73=216	+3
AUS Bruce Devlin	73-69-74=216
ESP Sebastián Miguel	74-72-70=216
AUS Kel Nagle	72-68-76=216
SCO Ronnie Shade (a)	71-70-75=216

Final round

Saturday, 9 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (£)
1	USA Jack Nicklaus	70-67-75-70=282	−2	2,100
T2	USA Doug Sanders	71-70-72-70=283	−1	1,350
WAL Dave Thomas	72-73-69-69=283
T4	AUS Bruce Devlin	73-69-74-70=286	+2	696
AUS Kel Nagle	72-68-76-70=286
ZAF Gary Player	72-74-71-69=286
USA Phil Rodgers	74-66-70-76=286
T8	USA Dave Marr	73-76-69-70=288	+4	330
ESP Sebastián Miguel	74-72-70-72=288
USA Arnold Palmer	73-72-69-74=288
AUS Peter Thomson	73-75-69-71=288

Source:

Amateurs: Shade (+9), Townsend (+11), Bonallack (+13), Cole (+14)

References

(2011). "Media guide". The Open Championship.
(10 July 1966). "Nicklaus wins British Open by stroke". Chicago Tribune.
Jacobs, Raymond. (11 July 1966). "Nicklaus's Open at fifth attempt". Glasgow Herald.
(10 July 1966). "Happy Nicklaus plans return trip". Eugene Register-Guard.
Wright, Alfred. (18 July 1966). "Smiling Jack wins a rough one".
(26 July 1966). "Lema plane crash probed". Milwaukee Sentinel.
(14 July 1980). "Muirfield club steeped in tradition". Star-Phoenix.
(9 July 1966). "Card of course". Glasgow Herald.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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