1965 Open Championship Explained

The 1965 Open Championship was the 94th Open Championship, played 7–9 July at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Peter Thomson won his fifth Claret Jug, two strokes ahead of runners-up Brian Huggett and Christy O'Connor Snr.^{[2] [3]} Thomson's previous Open victory was seven years earlier in 1958.^{[2] [4] [5]}

The 1965 Open was the last to conclude with two rounds on Friday. Beginning in 1966, the final round was moved from Friday afternoon to Saturday. The Open used this schedule until 1980, when the first round moved to Thursday with the final round on Sunday, the same as the other three majors.

Field

The exemption categories were:

1. The first 20 and those tying for 20th place in the 1964 Open

2. The first 30 and those tying for 30th place in the P.G.A. Order of Merit for 1964

3. The last 10 Open champions (1955–64)

4. The last 5 Amateur champions (1960–64)

5. The last 10 U.S. Open champions (1955–64)

6. The last 5 U.S. Amateur champions (1960–64)

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

8. Members of the 1964 Great Britain and Ireland Eisenhower Cup team

9. Senior professional champions of Great Britain and the United States
Charlie Ward, Sam Snead

10. The 1965 U.S. Open champion
The U.S. Open took place after the final date for entries. The winner, Gary Player, was already exempt.

Source:^[6]

Qualification took place on 2–3 July at Hillside and Southport and Ainsdale. They were run as two separate events with 41 players to qualify from Hillside, 40 from Southport and Ainsdale, together with 49 exemptions to make a total field of 130.^[7] Clive Clark was later added to field after William C. Campbell failed to arrive. M.E. Hill also played after Frank Phillips withdrew.^[8]

Prize money

The total prize money was increased from £8,500 to £10,000. The winner's share was increased to £1,750 with £1,250 for second, £1,000 for third, £750 for fourth, £600 for fifth, £450 for sixth, £375 for seventh.^[6]

Course

See main article: Royal Birkdale Golf Club.

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Yards	493	427	416	212	320	468	158	459	410	3,363	393	412	190	517	202	536	401	510	513	3,674	7,037
Par	5	4	4	3	4	4	3	4	4	35	4	4	3	5	3	5	4	5	5	38	73

Source:^{[9] [10]}
Lengths of the course for previous Opens:^[1]

• 1961:
• 1954:

Round summaries

First round

Wednesday, 7 July 1965

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Tony Lema	68	−5
2	Christy O'Connor Snr	69	−4
T3	Joe Carr (a)	70	−3
	Arnold Palmer
5	Bruce Devlin	71	−2
T6	Brian Bamford	72	−1
	Eric Brown
	Christy Greene
	Ronnie Mandeville
	Jim McAlister
	Sebastián Miguel
	Lionel Platts
	Doug Sewell
	Guy Wolstenholme

Source:^[11]

Second round

Thursday, 8 July 1965

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Bruce Devlin	align=center	71-69=140	−6
	Tony Lema	align=center	68-72=140
T3	Brian Huggett	align=center	73-68=141	−5
	Arnold Palmer	align=center	70-71=141
T5	Hugh Boyle	align=center	73-69=142	−4
	Eric Brown	align=center	72-70=142
	Joe Carr (a)	align=center	70-72=142
	Christy O'Connor Snr	align=center	69-73=142
	Peter Thomson	align=center	74-68=142
10	Roberto De Vicenzo	align=center	74-69=143	−3

Source:^{[10] [12]}
Amateurs: Carr (-4), Bonallack (+1), Burgess (+1), Clark (+4), Hadlock (+6), Shade (+6),
Foster (+7), Marsh (+7), Glover (+8), Birtwell (+9), Richards (+15), Marks (+17), McCandlish (+17)

Third round

Friday, 9 July 1965 - (morning)

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Peter Thomson	align=center	74-68-72=214	−5
T2	Bruce Devlin	align=center	71-69-75=215	−4
	Tony Lema	align=center	68-72-75=215
T4	Roberto De Vicenzo	align=center	74-69-73=216	−3
	Christy O'Connor Snr	align=center	69-73-74=216
	Arnold Palmer	align=center	70-71-75=216
T7	Brian Huggett	align=center	73-68-76=217	−2
	Sebastián Miguel	72-73-72=217
	Kel Nagle	74-70-73=217
	Lionel Platts	72-72-73=217

Source:^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Final round

Friday, 9 July 1965 - (afternoon)

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (£)
1	Peter Thomson	74-68-72-71=285	−7	1,750
T2			73-68-76-70=287	−5	1,125
	69-73-74-71=287
4		74-69-73-72=288	−4	750
T5		74-74-70-71=289	−3	475
	68-72-75-74=289
	74-70-73-72=289
T8		71-69-75-75=290	−2	275
	72-73-72-73=290
T10		74-72-74-73=293	+1	185
	74-74-75-70=293

Source:^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}
Amateurs: Burgess (+7), Bonallack (+10), Carr (+10)

External links

• Royal Birkdale 1965 (Official site)

53.622°N -3.033°W

Notes and References

1. Web site: Media guide . The Open Championship . 2011 . 71, 203 . 13 May 2017 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120418224641/http://www.theopen.com/~/media/The%20Open/Information/Media_Guide.ashx . 18 April 2012 .
2. News: Sixth title goal of British champ . Spokane Daily Chronicle . (Washington). Associated Press . 10 July 1965 . 8.
3. News: Open golf title for Thomson . Glasgow Herald . Jacobs . Raymond . 10 July 1965 . 1.
4. News: Thomson wins 5th British title . Chicago Tribune . Associated Press . 10 July 1965 . 1, sec. 2.
5. A man from Down Under laughs it up . https://archive.today/20130119213325/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1077438/index.htm . dead . 19 January 2013 . Sports Illustrated . Lovesey . John . 19 July 1965 . 16.
6. News: Open Championship more valuable - Prize-money up to £10,000. Glasgow Herald . Jacobs . Raymond . 17 December 1964 . 6 .
7. News: Palmer returns to Birkdale – Practice on altered course. Glasgow Herald . Jacobs . Raymond . 3 July 1965 . 5 .
8. News: C.A. Clark plays at Birkdale. Glasgow Herald . 7 July 1965 . 6 .
9. News: Royal Birkdale card . Glasgow Herald . 8 July 1965 . 6.
10. News: Devlin shares with Lema . Glasgow Herald . Jacobs . Raymond . 9 July 1965 . 6 .
11. News: Lema leads in Open with 68 . Glasgow Herald . Jacobs . Raymond . 8 July 1965 . 6 .
12. News: Devlin, Lema tied in British Open. Chicago Tribune . Associated Press . 9 July 1965 . 1, sec. 3.