1889 British Open Winner and Scores
Winner: Willie Park Jr., 155
Where it was played: Musselburgh Links in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland
Tournament dates: Nov. 8 and Nov. 11, 1889
Leader after first round: Andrew Kirkaldy, 77
What Happened in the 1889 Open Championship
After 18 holes (the midway point) of the 1889 British Open, Andrew Kirkaldy led Willie Park Jr. by one stroke. And Park was two behind with three holes to play, but wound up with a putt to win on the final hole. His ball stopped on the lip of the cup, however, and after the scheduled 36 holes Kirkaldy and Park were tied.So three days later, Park and Kirkaldy played a 36-hole playoff — four trips around Musselburgh's 9-hole links — to determine the winner. Park led by three after 27 holes, and wound up winning the playoff by five strokes.
The playoff scores were 82-76 for Park and 85-78 for Kirkaldy, 158 total for Park to Kirkaldy's 163.
This was the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers' year to stage the Open (in the rotation in effect at the time), and the HCEG played on the Musselburgh Links. However, in 1891 the HCEG relocated to a new course — Muirfield — and that new course replaced Musselburgh as an Open venue. So the 1889 British Open was the last one played at Musselburgh.
For Willie Park Jr., it was his second win in an Open Championship. He previously won in 1887, and his father — Willie Park Sr., natch — was a 4-time winner of the Open himself. His uncle Mungo Park also won an Open. Park Jr.'s victory here, therefore, gave the Park family a total of seven Open victories. (The Parks' great rivals, the Morris family, won eight Opens.)
Kirkaldy never won an Open, but he finished in the Top 10 in 14 out of the 22 times he played it. This was the second of three runner-up finishes by Kirkaldy.
As you'll see on the following list of scores, very few players completed the original 36 holes. That's because tournament organizers paid those not in contention to drop out of the final round — they feared being unable to complete the tournament in the single day allotted.
1889 British Open Final Scores
| Willie Park Jr. | 78-77—155 |
| Andrew Kirkaldy | 77-78—155 |
| Ben Sayers | 79-80—159 |
| David Brown | 82-80—162 |
| a-John E. Laidlay | 81-81—162 |
| Willie Fernie | 84-80—164 |
| Willie Brown | 87-78—165 |
| Willie Campbell | 84-81—165 |
| Davie Grant | 82-83—165 |
| Hugh Kirkaldy | 83-83—166 |
| William Thomson | 85-81—166 |
| Archie Simpson | 89-78—167 |
| a-A.M. Ross | 87-82—169 |
| Jack Burns | 86-84—170 |
Previous and next:
1888 British Open - 1890 British Open
Sources:
Belfast News-Letter. "The Open Championship," November 12, 1889.
TheOpen.com. "1889 / Musselburgh Links," The R&A, https://www.theopen.com/previous-opens/29th-open-musselburgh-1889.
R&A. 148th Open Championship Media Guide, All-Time Records, 2019.
