1912 champion Ted Ray beats four-time champion Walter Hagen in a playoff
Perhaps it’s appropriate as an event as closely contested all week should come down to a pair of shots on a single hole. That’s what happened at the virtual British Open contested in cyberspace at Royal St. George’s.
In the end, Ted Ray, Open champion in 1912 and in 1920 a U.S. Open champion as well, emerged holding the Claret Jug. But to claim that prize, Ray had to hold off final-round charges by some of the game’s immortals, and then fight through an 18-hole playoff with one of them, American Walter Hagen.
Ray shot a final round of 69 for a four-round total of 263, tying Hagen, who began Sunday’s play two strokes behind his rival. In the playoff, the combatants reached the 17th hole, a 424-yard par 4, dead even, each at 3-under par. But Ray’s booming drive found the center of the fairway while Hagen’s rolled into the tangly seaside rough. While Hagen was forced to hack out and accept a bogey, Ray laid his iron within four feet of the flag and took a birdie that gave him the decisive two-stroke lead.
The playoff only concluded a Sunday that began with nine players shoehorned within six strokes of Ray’s lead.  In measurable respects, the champion played his most conservative golf of the week protecting that lead, sitting at 1-over for the round through 10 holes and peering over his shoulder to see whether anybody was gaining on him.
A few made runs, but most started too far back to get in serious touch. Those included Tiger Woods, who began play Sunday a dozen strokes behind Ray. Woods eagled the par 5 seventh, played the four-hole stretch between eight and 11 in 3-under par and birdied three of his final four holes. It all added up to a 64 and a total of 270, but that was only good for a tie for 11th place.
Harry Vardon, the great turn-of-the-century six-time British Open champion, made perhaps the most serious charge. Vardon played bogey-free golf and his six birdies moved him within three strokes of Ray by the 15th hole. But when neither Ray nor Hagen came back to the pack, Vardon, too, ran out of holes. He settled for a tie for fourth at 14-under.
It’s likely that nobody left Royal St. George’s more frustrated Sunday than three-time American champion Jack Nicklaus. Arguably the best player in U.S. golf history, Nicklaus began the final day five strokes behind Ray.
His card showed seven birdies. But Nicklaus somehow was never able to get out of his own way. Those seven birdies were offset by four front-nine bogeys, preventing Nicklaus from ever drawing closer than within three shots of Ray. He tied Vardon and Jim Barnes at -14.
George Duncan, a lightly regarded Scottish player and a contemporary of Ray, birdied two of the first four holes he played and forged a three-way tie with Ray and Hagen midway through the round. But a bogey at the 545 yard par 5 14th hole, the famed Suez Canal, finished Duncan’s chances.
That left Hagen as the only challenger. The flashy American, a four-time British Open champion in the 1920s, played conservatively, parring his first nine holes before picking up a stroke at the 412-yard par 4 10th. That enabled him to catch Ray, who had bogeyed the ninth hole.
Ray fought back with birdies at the 11th and 13th to re-assume a two-stroke lead. The pair came to the 17th with Hagen needing a pair of birdies to send the contest to a playoff…and that’s what he got. His 6-iron at the 456 yard par 4 18th settled 10 feet above the cup, and Hagen drained the slippery downhiller to send the contest to overtime.
But a balky driver undid Hagen in the playoff, starting with the first hole, when he missed the fairway left, found an unplayable lie and took double bogey. Ray’s lead remained two until the par 3 sixth when he three-putted from 45 feet for a bogey. At the 410-yard par 4 ninth, Hagen rolled home a 25-footer of his own for a tying birdie.
Across much of the back nine, the contest seesawed. Ray birdied the 11th, Hagen birdied the 12th and 13th to take a lead, then at the Suez Canal hole Ray birdied while Hagen found the canal and took bogey.
He re-tied the match with a birdie at the long par four 15, leaving those drives at 17 to be the decisive strokes.
Here are the full 72-hole scores.
Player                                   1 – 2 – 3 – 4- Tot.
Ted Ray                64-65-65-71-263#
Walter Hagen                   64-66-66-67-263#
George Duncan         66-67-65-67-265
Jack Nicklaus                     66-65-68-67-266
Harry Vardon                    68-67-67-64-266
Jim Barnes                         71-61-67-67-266
Jamie Anderson         62-67-69-69-267
Sandy Herd                        67-72-66-62-267
Peter Thomson                67-66-66-69-268
John H. Taylor                   67-67-67-68-269
Tiger Woods           70-71-65-64-270
Tom Watson                     68-71-69-62-270
Henry Cotton                    67-67-71-65-270
Bob Ferguson                   67-66-64-76-271
Willie Park Sr.          71-69-65-66-271
David Brown                     68-69-69-65-271
Roberto deVicenzo     67-64-71-69-271
Henrik Stenson        66-64-68-74-272
Reg Whitcombe        67-68-66-71-272
Hugh Kirkaldy          68-65-68-72-273
Willie Fernie                      69-72-66-66-273
Alf Padgham                     70-72-68-63-273
Seve Ballesteros              63-69-68-74-274
Willie Auchterlonie      72-69-65-68-274
Louis Oosthuizen       68-71-68-67-274
Arthur Havers                   71-69-68-66-274
Fred Daly                            78-60-70-66-274
Zach Johnson                    66-70-65-73-274
Gary Player                        70-72-65-68-275
Nick Faldo                          66-69-72-68-275
Gene Sarazen                   69-71-70-65-275
Young Tom Morris      68-70-66-71-275
Jack Simpson                    63-67-74-71-275
Harold Hilton*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 65-75-67-69-276
Arnold Palmer                  71-67-70-69-277
Ernie Els               66-69-69-73-277
Greg Norman                   68-67-74-68-277
Mark O’Meara                 69-72-64-72-277
James Braid            67-71-71-69-278
Old Tom Morris        70-68-72-69-279
Sandy Lyle             72-68-66-73-279
Tom Weiskopf                  66-73-74-67-280
Willie Park Jr.                    68-74-71-68-281
Shane Lowry           66-72-70-74-282
Bob Martin            71-72-66-73-282
Kel Nagle              71-68-71-72-282
Arnaud Massy         68-67-75-72-282
Darren Clarke                   69-68-74-71-282
Phil Mickelson         69-72-70-71-282
Alf Perry              70-73-71-68-282
Bobby Locke           75-66-73-69-283
Mungo Park           69-68-75-72-284
Jack White             67-75-71-71-284
Bob Charles           74-66-73-72-285
Jordan Spieth          70-71-72-72-285
Justin Leonard         71-72-69-73-285
Francesco Molinari     68-72-71-75-286
Johnny Miller          70-72-74-70-286
Lee Trevino            70-75-74-68-287
Mark Calcavecchia     74-78-68-67-287
Max Faulkner          71-79-65-72-287
Stewart Cink          77-71-67-73-288
Nick Price             75-72-71-70-288
Tony Jacklin           74-77-68-69-288
David Duval           71-73-76-69-289
John Ball*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 72-71-72-74-289
Rory McIlroy           72-72-72-74-290
Ian Baker-Finch        70-77-71-72-290
Padraig Harrington     70-77-74-73-294
Dick Burton            73-68-80-74-295
Paul Lawrie            71-77-75-75-298
Bill Rogers             73-76-74-76-299
Ben Curtis             74-81-73-73-301
John Daly              71-78-74-79-302
Tom Lehman           74-74-75-79-302
Todd Hamilton                 83-67-75-77-302
*denotes amateur
# Playoff line
Hole           123  456  789 101112 131415 161718 Â
Par            443  443  544   4 3  4  4  5 4  3 4  4 — 70
Walter Hagen  633  443  543  4 3  3   3  6 3  2 5  4 — 68
Ted Ray        443  434  544  4 2  4   4  4 4  2 3  4 — 66