1962 British Open Winner and Scores

The 1962 British Open was the 91st time the tournament was played, and the second year in a row it was won by Arnie.

Winner: Arnold Palmer, 276

Where it was played: Troon Golf Club in South Ayrshire, Scotland

Tournament dates: July 11-13, 1962

Leader after first round: Keith MacDonald, 69

Leader after second round: Arnold Palmer, 140

Leader after third round: Arnold Palmer, 207

What Happened in the 1962 Open Championship

When Arnold Palmer made his Open Championship debut in 1960, Kel Nagle spoiled it for him, beating Arnie by a stroke for the title. At the 1962 British Open, it was Palmer who finished first and Nagle who finished second — but it wasn't close. Palmer led Nagle by five entering the final round, and finished with a 6-stroke victory. Nagle was another seven strokes ahead of the third-place golfers, Brian Huggett and Phil Rodgers. So Palmer was 13 strokes better than the third-place finishers.

How dominant was Palmer? There were only five rounds in the 60s the entire tournament, and Palmer had three of them: He finished 69-67-69. (One of the others was by Huggett, and the fifth by Peter Alliss, who tied for eighth.)

It was Palmer's second consecutive win in the British Open, and Palmer was so popular that the R&A had to institute much more stringent crowd control measures in every Open after this one. Roping-and-staking of fairways, and fencing of course boundaries, began at the 1963 Open because Palmer had drawn so many fans to this one.

Palmer never finished higher than seventh in a British Open after this, and he won just one more major (the 1964 Masters). His victory here was Palmer's sixth of seven career majors.

Palmer was just the second golfer (after Ben Hogan in 1954) to win The Masters and the British Open in the same year. And his 276 total lowered the tournament scoring record by two shots and stood until 1977.

Sam Snead played the British Open only five times. Two of those resulted in missed cuts when Snead was well past his prime. He finished 11th in 1937 and won in 1946. And here, in 1962, at age 50, Snead tied for sixth place.

And there was a significant — very significant — debut at the 1962 British Open. Jack Nicklaus made his Open Championship debut here. He finished tied for 32nd despite the fact that he opened with an 80 and closed with a 79, and even scored a 10 on one hole. Nicklaus went on to win this tournament three times, with seven more second-place finishes.

A note about the British Open format: All players had to play two rounds of qualifying to get in. In other words, there were no exemptions into the field (and never had been in Open history). But this was the last Open where that was case. Exemptions were introduced the following year.

1962 British Open Final Scores

Arnold Palmer	71-69-67-69—276
Kel Nagle	71-71-70-70—282
Brian Huggett	75-71-74-69—289
Phil Rodgers	75-70-72-72—289
Bob Charles	75-70-70-75—290
Sam Snead	76-73-72-71—292
Peter Thomson	70-77-75-70—292
Peter Alliss	77-69-74-73—293
Dave Thomas	77-70-71-75—293
Syd Scott	77-74-75-68—294
Ralph Moffitt	75-70-74-76—295
Jean Garaialde	76-73-76-71—296
Sebastian Miguel	72-79-73-72—296
Harry Weetman	75-73-73-75—296
Ross Whitehead	74-75-72-75—296
Roger Foreman	77-73-72-75—297
Bernard Hunt	74-75-75-73—297
Denis Hutchinson	78-73-76-70—297
Jimmy Martin	73-72-76-76—297
Christy O'Connor Sr.	74-78-73-72—297
John Panton	74-73-79-71—297
Tony Coop	76-75-75-72—298
Donald Swaelens	72-79-74-74—299
Brian Bamford	77-73-74-76—300
Lionel Platts	76-75-78-71—300
Guy Wolstenholme	78-74-76-72—300
Hugh Boyle	73-78-74-76—301
Keith MacDonald	69-77-76-79—301
George Low	77-75-77-73—302
Harry Bradshaw	72-75-81-75—303
Harold Henning	74-73-79-77—303
Jimmy Hitchcock	78-74-72-79—303
Doug Beattie	72-75-79-78—304
Eric Brown	74-78-79-74—305
Jack Nicklaus	80-72-74-79—305
John Johnson	76-74-81-76—307
Don Essig	76-72-79-81—308
a-Charlie Green	76-75-81-76—308
David Miller	76-74-81-78—309

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