Ahead of next week's 153rd Open Championship, we have delved through the archives to pick out the 10 best editions of this Major.
The Open Championship is the oldest of all golf’s Majors with all the game’s greatest players having got their hands on the Claret Jug.
The cream can rise to the top, but there is also plenty of scope for drama and some of the tournaments are among the most memorable events in any sport.
Here is our list of the greatest Open Championships since it was first played way back in 1860
10. Tony Jacklin restores English pride (Royal Lytham & St Annes, 1969)
As the 1970s beckoned, British golf was in the doldrums as despite having the game’s most famous tournament – the Masters had yet to really scale the heights – home-grown players were struggling to be competitive.
Enter Tony Jacklin, who to the joy of the Lancashire galleries at Lytham, come out on top by a two-shot margin over New Zealand lefty Bob Charles in what would prove to be a landmark moment in European golf, especially as the Claret Jug winner went on to prove it was no fluke by winning the US Open at Hazeltine the following year.
9. Ben Curtis shocks the world (Royal St Georges, 2003)
It is not always the world’s best players who claim the Claret Jug as American Ben Curtis proved when he won at Royal St Georges in 2003.
He had been 500/1 at the start of the tournament, but became the first debutant for 28 years to come out on top, after Thomas Bjorn folded when he held a two-shot lead with just three holes to play at the Kent course.
That opened the door for the man who was ranked 396th in the world and the only one that week to card an under-par 72-hole score.
8. Cameron Smith breaks McIlroy’s heart (St Andrews, 2022)
Cameron Smith’s final round at St Andrews in 2022 will go down as an Open classic as the Australian was right up against it as he started the final day at the home of golf, sitting four shots back.
However, he carded eight birdies in a round of 64, which included five in the final nine holes.
Rory McIlroy and American Cameron Young had gone into the final round with a four-shot cushion and the Northern Irishman was expected to deliver the goods, but Smith had other ideas and his supreme Sunday performance helped him to a one-shot success.
7. Nick Faldo displays his class (St Andrews, 1990)
Winning a Claret Jug takes a steely determination that can separate good players from the great, but dominating a Major almost from the word go provokes great adulation.
Nick Faldo was the best player in the world in 1990 and he proved it at the game’s most famous course coming from a shot back at the end of the first day to dominate the Open for the rest of the tournament.
Mark McNulty finished five shots behind as Faldo’s supreme course management came to the fore in a hugely impressive performance.
6. Tiger seals the slam in style (St Andrews, 2000)
It had been just over three years since Tiger Woods won his first Major at the Masters when he secured the final piece of the jigsaw to join the elite club of winners of all four majors.
His success was hardly ever in doubt as he cantered to an eight-shot victory at the home of golf, a lead the scale of which he had enjoyed since the start of the fourth round.
He did not play one shot from a bunker all week and, at 24, the arguments started as to whether we had ever seen a talent as great in the game.
5. Trevino’s chip sinks Jack’s hopes (Muirfield, 1972)
While Lee Trevino never made much of an impression at the Masters, he did win the Open in consecutive years at the start of the 70s, with his 1972 win at Muirfield being the most dramatic.
SuperMex was defending his title and was nip and tuck with Jacklin, but Jack Nicklaus was looming fast having started the final round six shots back.
Nicklaus was aiming to be the first player to hold all four Major titles simultaneously and looked to be closing fast, but Trevino chipped in on the penultimate hole and kept the Golden Bear at bay by a solitary shot.
4. Stenson and Mickelson duke it out (Royal Troon, 2016)
There was another great battle for glory 44 years later at Troon when Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and America’s Phil Mickelson separated themselves from the rest of the field.
No quarter was given as the pair scrapped it out for the Claret Jug and the quality of golf was immense.
Eventually, a closing 65 was not enough for Mickelson to get his hands on the famous trophy as Stenson rose to the occasion with a 63, at the time a tie for the lowest round ever shot in a major and he posted a record 20-under-par 72-hole total too.
Both competitors played their part in one of the greatest Sundays the tournament has ever seen.
3. Watson comes so close at 59 (Turnberry, 2009)
It looked like there would hardly be a dry eye in the house at Turnberry in 2009 when it looked as if the unthinkable might happen and 59-year-old Tom Watson would win the Claret Jug for the sixth time.
Watson had led going into the final round and a birdie on the 17th gave him a one-shot lead playing the final hole.
A memorable victory beckoned but he missed an eight-foot putt, which meant fellow American Stewart Cink was able to force a four-hole playoff, spoiling the party as Watson’s race won run, coming out on top by six shots to the disappointment of golf romantics everywhere.
2. The Duel in the Sun (Turnberry, 1977)
Watson had much better memories at Turnberry some 32 years earlier at the first Open to be held at the Scottish course.
He and Nicklaus went into the final round three shots ahead of the field and their battle for glory became known as the Duel in the Sun.
Nicklaus went into a three-shot lead but Watson clawed it back under glorious Ayrshire skies, firing a 65 to claim his second Claret Jug three months after winning the Masters at Augusta.
The sight of the pair walking with their arms around their shoulders in the closing stages is one of the game’s most iconic images.
1. Van de Velde’s collapse (Carnoustie, 1999)
The most memorable of all 152 Open Championships has to be the 1999 renewal, which had seemed likely to end in routine fashion.
Jean van de Velde looked set to become the first French winner for 91 years as he stood on the 18th tee at Carnoustie with a three-shot lead.
A double-bogey six would have been enough to win the Claret Jug, but spectators witnessed the most famous meltdown in the game’s history.
Van de Velde hit a grandstand before chipping the ball into a burn and then rolling up his trouser legs to see if he could hit the ball out of the water.
He decided against it but the episode ended with him carding a triple-bogey seven, to hand Paul Lawrie and Justin Leonard a playoff chance, which Scotsman Lawrie won following a perfect approach shot on the very hole the Frenchman made an absolute mess of.
