The virtual British Open: 160 years of history

Great champions of history compete for a virtual title that won’t be awarded in the Covid marred world

Among the four major golf championships, the British Open is the hardest-hit victim of Covid-19. Officials of the Royal and Ancient cancelled the event entirely several months ago, meaning that 2020 will be the first year since the conclusion of World War II that the world’s oldest golf championship will not be contested.

Not in the real world, anyway. But even viruses don’t stop major events in cyberspace, which is why we’ll be contesting the all-time Virtual Open this coming week.

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As with previous Virtual Majors in this disease-marked year, Progolfnow will simulate the Brit during the week it was originally scheduled – that’s this coming week – at Royal St. George’s, which was supposed to be the host course. Also as with the other three majors, it will do so using a field that would be impossible to assemble in the real world: past British Open champions.

Also as with the previous Virtual majors, there are two qualifications to entry. The first is that a player must have won at least one British Open since the tournament was created in 1860. The second qualification is that they must have competed in enough Opens during their careers – a minimum of seven – to furnish a sufficient data base for a performance chart.

Those criteria embrace 76 men who won a total of 134 of the 146 contested championships

Our field has a distinct Anglo-American flavor to it, with the vast majority of entrants coming from either England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or the United States. Still, the international character of the event is represented in the presence of champions from Africa, Australia, South America and four nations of continental Europe: Sweden, France, Italy and Spain.

Each champion’s performance potential will be normalized to take into consideration the changing nature of the game across time. That normalization will allow players of disparate eras to compete on the basis of their relative skill – as measured against the peers of their own era – irrespective of changes in equipment, course design, training, weather, and a host of other factors.

That normalized player potential will be reduced to a number that represents the average standard deviation of the player’s actual British Open performances during a 10-year peak period. Three rules govern the selection of each player’s “peak period.” It must include the season of at least one of the player’s victories, as previously noted it must consist of at least seven championships, and the years must be consecutive.

If a champion did not compete in at least seven championships during a 10-year period, the time frame can be extended until the minimum number of tournaments is reached. In a handful of cases where a player has not competed in the required number of tournaments to develop a credible average, that player has to be disqualified.

Regrettably, there are ten former champions who did not compete in at least seven Opens, among them three American immortals. Bobby Jones won the Brit three times, but those were his only three completed tournaments. Ben Hogan won in his only appearance in 1953, and Sam Snead triumphed in 1946, his first of just four Open starts over 30 years.

As tempting as it would be to construct a statistical profile of those players based on those superb but limited showings, it simply would not be fair to the rest of the field…so they have to be ruled ineligible.

Also ineligible for the same reason are 1964 champion Tony Lema, 1933 champion Denny Shute, 1931 champion Tommy Armour, 1921 champion Jock Hutchison, and three winners from the tournament’s formative era: Andrew Strath (1865), Tom Kidd (1873) and Jack Burns (1888).

It would be a mistake, however, to focus too much on who isn’t in this field and lose sight of who is. The Virtual British Open should develop into a contest pitting some of the greatest names of multiple generations against one another.

Who does that leave? Jack Nicklaus for one. Nicklaus won the Open in 1966, again in 1970 and a third time in 1978.

Expect Tiger Woods to contend. Woods, like Nicklaus, is a three-time champion with victories in 2000, 2005 and 2006. Other serious contenders familiar to fans of the modern game will include Phil Mickelson (winner of the virtual Masters), Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson and Rory McIlroy.

Fans of old-style British golf will have plenty of legendary favorites to root for, including all three members of the legendary “triumvirate” – Harry Vardon, Ted Ray and J.H. Taylor. Between 1894 and 1914 they combined to win 16 of the 21 contested Opens.

Reaching even farther back to the game’s formative years, the father and son team of Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris will get to test themselves against the game’s best. Between 1861 and 1872, the Morrises combined to win eight championships.

Arnold Palmer, the 1961-62 champion, is in the field, as are prominent Americans Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen.

As the performance potentials of the 76 players are presented in subsequent introductory articles this week, you will see those potentials referenced as a number. They range from -2.18 for the pre-tournament co-favorites, Jack Nicklaus and James T. Braid, up to +2.13 for the 76th ranked competitor, 2004 champion Todd Hamilton.

These numbers rank the average standard deviation of the player’s actual British Open performances. Since golf is a game where less is more – the more negative the number the better a player likes it.

To whet your appetite for the virtual British Open, here is a list of the 76 who meet the qualifying standard. The players are presented in the order of their first British Open victory.

Willie Park Sr., 1860, 1863, 1866, 1875

Tom Morris Sr., 1861, 1862, 1864, 1867

Tom Morris Jr., 1868, 1869, 1870, 1872

Mungo Park, 1874

Bob Martin, 1876, 1885

Jamie Anderson, 1877, 1878, 1879

Bob Ferguson, 1880, 1881, 1882

Willie Fernie, 1883

Jack Simpson, 1884

David Brown, 1886

Willie Park Jr., 1887, 1889

John Ball, 1890

Hugh Kirkaldy, 1891

Harold Hilton, 1892, 1897

Willie Auchterlonie, 1893

J.H. Taylor, 1894, 1895, 1900, 1909, 1913

Harry Vardon, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911, 1914

James Braid, 1901, 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910

Sandy Herd, 1902

Jack White, 1904

Arnaud Massy, 1907

Ted Ray, 1912

George Duncan, 1920

Walter Hagen, 1922, 1924, 1928, 1929

Arthur Havers, 1923

Jim Barnes, 1925

Gene Sarazen, 1932

Henry Cotton, 1934, 1937, 1948

Alf Perry, 1935

Alf Padgham, 1936

Reg Whitcombe, 1938

Dick Burton, 1939

Fred Daly, 1947

Bobby Locke, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1957

Max Faulkner, 1951

Peter Thomson, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1965

Gary Player, 1959, 1968, 1974

Kel Nagle, 1960

Arnold Palmer, 1961, 1962

Bob Charles, 1963

Jack Nicklaus, 1966, 1970, 1978

Roberto deVicenzo, 1967

Tony Jacklin, 1969

Lee Trevino, 1971, 1972

Tom Weiskopf, 1973

Tom Watson, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983

Johnny Miller, 1976

Seve Ballesteros, 1979, 1984, 1988

Bill Rogers, 1981

Sandy Lyle, 1985

Greg Norman, 1986, 1993

Nick Faldo, 1987, 1990, 1992

Mark Calcavecchia, 1989

Ian Baker-Finch, 1991

Nick Price, 1994

John Daly, 1995

Tom Lehman, 1996

Justin Leonard, 1997

Mark O’Meara, 1998

Paul Lawrie, 1999

Tiger Woods, 2000, 2005, 2005

David Duval, 2001

Ernie Els, 2002, 2012

Ben Curtis, 2003

Todd Hamilton, 2004

Padraig Harrington, 2007, 2008

Stewart Cink, 2009

Louis Oosthuizen, 2010

Darren Clarke, 2011

Phil Mickelson, 2013

Rory McIlroy, 2014

Zach Johnson, 2015

Henrik Stenson, 2016

Jordan Spieth, 2017

Francesco Molinari, 2018

Shane Lowry, 2019