Email Print Share

If you want to win the Open Championship you need to be accurate above all else, such is the nature of links golf. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, no golfer was more accurate than Harry Vardon. They say Vardon didn’t like to play the same course twice in a day because in the afternoon he’d be playing out of the divots from his morning round.

From 1896-1903 Vardon popularized the overhand grip that is the standard today as he won four British Opens and would likely have continued at a similar pace if he had not contracted tuberculosis in 1903. He was away from the game for nearly a year and lost his form. It was not until in 1911, at the age of 41, that he came back to win his fifth Open Championship, and then claimed his sixth three years later.

He may have even been able to win yet another, but the event was not held from 1915-1919 due to World War I and by its return in 1920, Varden was 50 and too old to keep up with the next wave of golfers.

Top 10 Most Dominant Individuals in a Single Event