1913 British Open Winner and Scores
Winner: J.H. Taylor, 304
Where it was played: Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England
Tournament dates: June 23-24, 1913
Leader after first round: Ted Ray, J.H. Taylor and Sandy Herd, 73
Leader after second round: Ted Ray, 147
Leader after third round: J.H. Taylor, 225
What Happened at the 1913 Open Championship
J.H. Taylor, one of the three golfers comprising Britain's "Great Triumvirate," won the 1913 British Open, his fifth and final victory in this championship. Taylor's previous British Open wins were in 1894, 1895, 1900 and 1909.Taylor won the tournament by eight strokes over runner-up (and defending champion) Ted Ray. The two shared the first-round lead, and Ray led by one after 36 holes. The final day of 36 holes was played in heavy winds, winds Ray didn't well handle. But Taylor did, one of very few players in the field to break 80 in both the third and fourth rounds. Taylor finished on 304, with Ray at 312; Harry Vardon tied with Michael Moran in third place.
Ray finished second in both the British and U.S. Opens this year; he lost the 1913 U.S. Open in a playoff.
This was the only Open Championship played by the brash young American star Johnny McDermott. McDermott very nearly won three straight U.S. Opens, and did win two in a row. He lost in a playoff at the 1910 U.S. Open, then won the U.S. Opens of 1911 and 1912. McDermott was known for frequent boasting, and issuing challenges to the more established British stars of golf. But his first attempt to play the Open, in 1912, resulted in disaster: He didn't make it through qualifying.
At this British Open, McDermott did get through qualifying, and finished a very respectable fifth. He tried again at the 1914 British Open, but failed to make it to the tournament site on time. (In fact, 1913 was the last year in which McDermott, only 22 years old, won any professional tournaments.)
Taylor set a couple records with his victory here. He first won this tournament at the 1894 British Open, so there was a 19-year gap — the longest in tournament history — between Taylor's first and last wins. Taylor's 8-shot margin of victory tied a record he already shared (with himself in 1900 and James Braid in 1908) for the Open's largest winning margin from 1900 to present. (Tiger Woods, at the 2000 British Open, also tied that mark.)
And with victories in the 1890s, 1900-aughts and 1910s, Taylor became the second golfer to win the Open in three different decades. The first was Harry Vardon (and Gary Player later became the third).
1913 British Open Final Scores
| J.H. Taylor | 73-75-77-79—304 |
| Ted Ray | 73-74-81-84—312 |
| Michael Moran | 76-74-89-74—313 |
| Harry Vardon | 79-75-79-80—313 |
| Johnny McDermott | 75-80-77-83—315 |
| Thomas Renouf | 75-78-84-78—315 |
| James Bradbeer | 78-79-81-79—317 |
| Arnaud Massy | 77-80-81-79—317 |
| James Sherlock | 77-86-79-75—317 |
| Tom Williamson | 77-80-80-80—317 |
| Fred Collins | 77-85-79-77—318 |
| a-John Graham Jr. | 77-79-81-81—318 |
| Sandy Herd | 73-81-84-80—318 |
| a-E.A. Lassen | 79-78-80-82—319 |
| Charles Roberts | 78-79-84-78—319 |
| Joshua Taylor | 80-75-85-79—319 |
| Philip Taylor | 78-81-83-78—320 |
| James Braid | 80-79-82-80—321 |
| Claude Gray | 80-81-79-81—321 |
| Ernest C. Jones | 75-85-81-80—321 |
| Hugh McNeill | 80-81-81-79—321 |
| Jean Gassiat | 80-78-86-78—322 |
| Cyril Hughes | 76-78-83-85—322 |
| Louis Tellier | 77-80-85-80—322 |
| Tom MacNamara | 80-78-85-80—323 |
| Wilfred Reid | 78-82-85-79—324 |
| Arthur Catlin | 77-81-81-86—325 |
| Charles Mayo | 83-82-78-82—325 |
| Tom Simpson | 79-83-85-78—325 |
| Laurie Ayton Sr. | 78-83-86-80—327 |
| Tom Ball | 82-83-86-76—327 |
| George Buckle | 81-80-87-79—327 |
| Jack B. Ross | 75-89-84-79—327 |
| a-F.B. Crowther | 80-81-86-81—328 |
| Jack Rowe | 78-82-86-82—328 |
| Reginald Wilson | 80-83-88-77—328 |
| A. James | 78-81-85-86—330 |
| A.J. Howlett | 75-84-85-87—331 |
| John D. Edgar | 81-91-80-80—332 |
| Harry Simpson | 80-83-88-81—332 |
| a-Edward Blackwell | 78-79-87-89—333 |
| Sidney Ball | 81-82-87-85—335 |
| Fred Leach | 80-84-88-83—335 |
| Tom Watt | 86-82-84-83—335 |
| Percy Hills | 79-79-90-89—337 |
| James Edmondson | 83-85-84-88—340 |
| Alfred Bonner | 87-84-90-80—341 |
| Charles Corlett | 78-89-87-87—341 |
| C. Ralph Smith | 82-82-93-84—341 |
| George Cawkwell | 81-85-92-84—342 |
| Archie Earl | 81-85-86-91—343 |
| Tom Fernie | 88-86-86-85—345 |
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1912 British Open - 1914 British Open
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf, Volume 2, 2009, McFarland and Company.
Glasgow Herald. "Golf Championship: Victory of J.H. Taylor," June 25, 1913, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FcZAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EqYMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6736%2C6875644
TheOpen.com. "1913 / Royal Liverpool," The R&A, https://www.theopen.com/previous-opens/53rd-open-royal-liverpool-1913
R&A. The Open Media Guide, 2019, The PPL Group.
