Although the 150th anniversary of the Open was celebrated this year on the venerable Old Course at St Andrews, it was Prestwick Golf Club,  located 120 miles to the west where the Open Championship was first held in 1860 (and for the first twelve Championships until 1872).  Prestwick eventually hosted 24 Opens with the last one taking place in 1925.

In the following article, first published on our website in 1997, SIS Historian Peter Shaerf  tells the interesting story of the last round of that 1925 Championship... and the effect that the constraints of space and the logistics of crowd control had on eliminating Prestwick from the Open rota, as well as the devastating consequences for runner-up Macdonald Smith —  a golfer upon whom Peter has dubbed the title of the “Greatest Player Never to Win a Major.”

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