Ahead of the 152nd British Open, SportsHandle analyzed all of the past winners of the British Open since its inception in 1860 to determine what are the typical traits of a British Open winner – from average age, nationality, height, place of birth, and name to dress code and education.
Going into the tournament, Scottie Scheffler is currently moneyline favorite on many of the best betting apps as of writing.
AGE
The average age of the British Open winner is 31.47, the median age is 31.
Tom Morris Jr. is the youngest British Open winner - he won at the age of 17 in 1868.
Meanwhile, his father, Tom Morris Sr. is the oldest British Open winner - he won at the age of 46 in 1867.
PLACE OF BIRTH
Most of the British Open winners were born in the United Kingdom - 49 winners were born in the UK (44.94%), followed by the United States, where 28 winners were born (31.5%).
When looking at the UK-born winners, most of them were born in Scotland (23 winners), followed by England (14 winners) and Northern Ireland (3 winners). When it comes to the US-born winners, California is the state that has produced the most British Open winners - 6 - followed by Texas and Ohio - 5 of the winners were born in Texas and 4 of them were born in Ohio.
Additionally, 2 UK cities have produced 4 or more British Open winners:
- Musselburgh - 4 winners - Willie Park Jr., Mungo Park, Bob Ferguson, David Brown
- St Andrews - 11 winners - Jock Hutchison, Tom Morris Jr., Jack Burns, Sandy Herd, William Auchterlonie, Hugh Kirkaldy, Tom Morris Sr., Andrew Strath, Willie Fernie, Tom Kidd, Jamie Anderson
HEIGHT AND WEIGHT
5 feet 11 inches (= 180.722 cm) is the average height of a British Open winner.
Gene Sarazen (5 ft 51⁄2 inches = 166 cm) is the British Open winner with the shortest reported height while Jim Barnes, Ian Baker-Finch and Stewart Cink are the tallest British Open winners (6 ft 4 inches = 193 cm).
181.78 pounds (=82.44 kg) is the average weight of a British Open winner.
FIRST NAME INITIAL
The most common first name initial of a British Open winner is “J” - 15.7% of them have a name starting with “J” - 14 individual winners. Namely: Jack Nicklaus, Jim Barnes, James Braid, John Daly, Justin Leonard, Jordan Spieth, Johnny Miller, Jack Simpson, John Ball, John Henry Taylor, Jock Hutchison, Jack Burns, Jamie Anderson and Jack White.
The second and third most common winner initials are “T”- 13.5% - 12 individuals - and “B” - 10.1% - 9 individual winners.
BIRTHDAYS
April is the most common birth month of an British Open winner - 11 winners (12.4%) of the champions were born in April. October and June are tied for the second common birth month of an British Open winner - 9 of the winners were born in each of the mentioned months (10.1% in October, 10.1% in June).
Most of the British Open winners were born on Tuesday or Monday - 16 champions were born on Tuesday (18%) and 16 champions were born on Monday (18%).
Gemini is the most common star sign of British Open winners - 11.2% of them are Geminis (10 winners).
EDUCATION
31.46% of the British Open winners went to college - 28 in total.
MULTIPLE VICTORIES
30.34% of the British Open winners won the championship on multiple occasions - 8 of them won 2 times, 9 of them won 3 times, 5 of them won 4 times, 4 of them won 5 times and Harry Vardon is the only individual to win the British Open on 6 occasions: 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911 & 1914.
DRESS CODE
Due to the lack of photographs in color, unlike the rest of the analysis which goes all the way back to 1860, the dress code of the players was analyzed only for the last 60 years, starting in 1965. According to the results of the analysis:
43.1% of the British Open winners (25 champions) wore short-sleeved golf polo shirts on the day of the final tournament. Sweater was the second most popular clothing option since 31% of the winners wore it on the day of the final tournament (18 champions), followed by vests, which were worn by 6 winners (10.3%).
Blue was the most popular color worn on the day of the final (20.7% - 12 winners).
65.5% of the British Open winners (38 in total) wore plainone-color shirts / T-shirts / long-sleeves / sweaters / vests (no motives) on the day of their final British Open win. Meanwhile, 15.5% of the winners (9 in total) wore stripes.
Sponsorships and brand deals have become much more prevalent in the late 20th century, however, since 1965, Slazenger has been the most popular brand worn by the British Open winners - no less than 9 winners wore Slazenger, while 7 winners wore Nike on the day of their win.
When it comes to hats worn during the final tournament, 62.1% of the British Open winners wore hats (36 in total). 25.9% of the winners (15 in total) wore white hats, while 20.7% of the winners (12 in total) wore black hats. Type-wise, 43.1% of the winners (25 in total) wore baseball caps, while 10.3% of the winners (6) wore visor hats.
METHODOLOGY
- Winners (from 1860 to 2023) of the British Open were collected from the official British Open website and amended with missing information from their respective Wikipedia pages
- Years in which British Open did not take place were omitted from the analysis
- The dress code of the winners was analyzed only since 1965 due to the lack of photographs in color from the earlier years
- The main source of the dress code analysis were videos of the British Open tournament on YouTube as well as Google Images
- If a given metric was not available for a winner that player was omitted from the analysis in that specific category and is not part of the % results
- Winners who won British Open on multiple occasions were counted only once in each of the categories apart from the following categories: age at the time of victory & the dress code data
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