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Multiple winners

Players with more than one Open Championship victory to 2007 inclusive:

6 wins:

Harry Vardon

5 wins:

Peter Thomson, James Braid, J.H. Taylor, Tom Watson

4 wins:

Walter Hagen, Bobby Locke, Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris

3 wins:

Willie ParkSnr, Jamie Anderson, Bob Ferguson, Bobby Jones, Henry Cotton, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods

2 wins:

Harold Hilton, Willie Park Jnr, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman

Harry Vardon

Harry Vardon born May 9, 1870 in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands – died March 20, 1937 in Totteridge, Hertfordshire, England, was a champion golfer.

As a child growing up on the island of Jersey, Harry Vardon did not play much golf. Inspired by his older brother Tom, he eventually took up the game in his teens and at age 20 was so good, he turned professional. The first professional golfer to play in knickers, the "proper" Englishman dressed in an uncomfortable shirt and tie with a buttoned jacket. Nonetheless, within a few years he became golf's first superstar.

In 1896, Harry Vardon won the first of his record six Open Championships. In 1900, he became golf's first international celebrity when he toured the United States playing in more than 80 matches and capping it off with a victory in the U.S. Open. Twenty years later, at the age of 50, Vardon was the runner-up at the 1920 U.S. Open.

During his career, Harry Vardon won 62 golf tournaments. He popularized the grip that bears his name, one still used by over 90 percent of golfers. In his later years, Vardon became a golf course architect, designing several courses in Britain. Following a bout with tuberculosis, he struggled with health problems for years but turned to coaching and writing golf instruction and inspirational books. After his death in 1937, the PGA of America created the Vardon Trophy. It is awarded annually to the player on the United States tour with the year's lowest stroke average.

In 1974 Harry Vardon was chosen as one of the initial group of inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame. His most prestigious medals, including those from his six British Open Championships, are on display in a tribute to him at the Jersey Museum. In the annals of golf, Harry Vardon is considered one of the greats of the game.

Harry Vardon was a private and modest individual. A biography of Harry Vardon, published in 1991 and authored by his daughter-in-law, Audrey Howell, provides much intimate detail about the life of this champion.

5-1-Peter Thomson

Peter Thomson (born Melbourne 1929) is an Australian golfer. He is best remembered for his five wins in The Open Championship.

Thomson's Open Championship wins came in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, and 1965. He was the only man to win the tournament for three consecutive years in the 20th century.

Thomson was a prolific tournament champion around the world, winning the national championships of ten countries, including the New Zealand Open nine times. He did not play in the United States very often, and he only won one event on the PGA Tour. His best finish in one of the three majors staged in the United States was a fourth place at the 1956 U.S. Open.

Thomson enjoyed a successful senior career. In 1985 he won nine times on the Senior PGA Tour in the United States, and finished top of the money list. His last tournament victory came at the 1988 British PGA Senior Tournament. He was president of the Australian PGA from 1962 to 1994 and a victorious non-playing captain of the international team in the 1998 Presidents Cup.

5-2-James Braid

James Braid (February 6, 1870 - November 27, 1950) was a Scottish professional golfer, who was one of the "Great Triumvirate" of British golfers in the early 20th century alongside Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor.

Braid worked as a clubmaker before turnover professional in 1896. Initially his game was hinded by problems with his putting, but he overcame this after switching to an aluminium putter in 1900. He won The Open Championship in 1901, 1905, 1906, 1908 and 1910. In addition Braid won four British PGA championships in 1903, 1905, 1907 and 1911 as well as the 1910 French Open title. He was also runner-up in the British Open in 1897 and 1909.

In 1912 Braid retired from tournament golf and became a club professional at Walton Heath. He was also involved in golf course design, and is sometimes regarded as the "inventor" of the dogleg. Among his designs are the "King's Course" and the "Queen's Course" at Gleneagles.

5-3-John H. Taylor

John Henry Taylor (March 19, 1871 Devon-February 10, 1963) was an English golfer and one of the pioneers of the modern game of golf. He was a member of the fabled Great Triumvirate of the sport in his day, along with Harry Vardon and James Braid, and he won The Open Championship five times. He was employed by the Royal Mid Surrey Golf Club from 1899 until his retirement in 1946.

Taylor was a co-founder and the first chairman of the British Professional Golfers' Association. Bernard Darwin wrote that Taylor "had turned a feckless company into a self-respecting and respected body of men".

5-4-Thomas Sturges Watson

Thomas Sturges Watson (born September 4, 1949 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a golfer on the Champions Tour, who still occasionally competes in PGA TOUR events.

6-1Walter Hagen

Walter Hagen (born December 21, 1892 in Rochester, New York; died October 6, 1969) was a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of eleven professional majors has been surpassed only by Jack Nicklaus. He won the U.S. Open twice and in 1922 he became the first American to win the British Open, which he went on to win four times in total. He also won the PGA Championship five times (1921, 24-27), the Western Open five times and totalled forty PGA wins in his career and was a six time Ryder Cup captain.

Hagen was also very skilled at baseball. He cancelled a tryout for the Philadelphia Phillies in order to play in a golf tournament. Later that week, Hagen was the U.S. Open Champion, and his career was changed forever.

Hagen was a key figure in the development of professional golf. He emerged in an era when the division between amateurs and professionals was often stark, with the amateurs having the upper hand in some sports, golf among them. This was especially true in the United Kingdom, which was the leading country in competitive golf when Hagen began his career. Golf professionals were often not allowed to partake of the facilities of the clubhouse and were sometimes not allowed to enter the clubhouse by the front door. On one occasion he hired a Rolls Royce to serve as his dressing room because he was refused entrance to the clubhouse dressing room. On another occasion he refused to enter a clubhouse to claim his prize because he had earlier been denied entrance.

Walter Hagen served as the first club professional at the now legendary Oakland Hills Country Club, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Hagen was a dashing and assertive character who raised the status of professional golfers and improved their earnings as well. He may have been the first sportsman to earn a million dollars in his career. He once stated that he "never wanted to be a millionaire, just to live like one". Gene Sarazen, who was ten years Hagen's junior commented, "All the professionals ... should say a silent thanks to Walter Hagen each time they stretch a check between their fingers. It was Walter who made professional golf what it is."

Hagen passed away Oct. 6, 1969. He was 76 years old. He now rests at the Holy Spulchre Mausoleum, next to his grandson. At the time of his death, Hagen was well-respected. His pall bearers included some legendary sport figures, Arnold Palmer and George Morris.

6-2 Bobby Locke

Bobby Locke (b 20 November 1917 Germiston, South Africa, d March 9, 1987) was one of the first internationally successful South African golfers.

Locke played in his first British Open in 1936, when he was eighteen, and finished as low amateur. He turned professional two years later and was a prolific tournament winner in his native country, eventually accumulating 38 wins on the South African Tour (now the Sunshine Tour). His golf career was interrupted by service in the South African Air Force during World War II.

Locke resumed his career in America in 1946, and played a series of exhibitions against Sam Snead, one of the top American golfers of the day, winning 12 out of 14 matches. So impressed was Snead that he invited Bobby to come to the United States and give the PGA Tour a try, advice that Locke quickly followed. In two-and-a-half years on the PGA Tour, Locke played in 59 events; he won eleven, and finished in the top three in thirty -- just over half. In 1947, Locke dominated the American tour, winning six tournaments (including four in a five-week period) and finishing second to Jimmy Demaret on the money list. Even more remarkably, Locke did all this after arriving in the United States for the first time in April.

In 1948, he won the Chicago Victory National by 16 strokes, which, as of 2005, remains a PGA Tour record for margin of victory. The following year, Locke was banned from the tour because of a dispute over playing commitments. The ban was lifted in 1951, but Locke chose not to return to play in the United States. Despite (or perhaps because of) his success, many American players disliked Locke, though not for anything Locke did. They simply resented a foreign player arriving on tour and "raiding" the prize money, as the highly skilled Locke often did.

Locke built his success around his outstanding putting ability, coining the phrase "You drive for show, but putt for dough." Wearing his trademark knickers, white shoes, and stockings, Locke played the game at a slow and deliberate pace, perhaps another reason that American pros were annoyed with him. Locke placed great emphasis on accuracy in hitting fairways and greens, and employed an extreme right-to-left ball flight (one that bordered on a hook) for nearly every shot. On the greens, Locke was a bona fide genius, using a strange putting style (he would bring the putter back far to the inside, then "cut" it with a hooded approach) and a great eye for reading breaks to put on veritable putting clinics every time he played. Locke believed he could put spin on putts (similar to full-swing shots) and make them "hook" and "slice", and used his unorthodox technique to great success.

After leaving the PGA Tour, Locke continued his career in Europe and Africa, where he felt more comfortable. He won twenty-three times in Europe, most notably a quartet of successes in the British Open titles, which came in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1957. In 1959, Locke was involved in a serious car accident, and subsequently he suffered from migraines and eye problems that put an end to his competitive career.

6-3 Tom Morris

Tom Morris, Sr. otherwise known as "Old Tom Morris" was one of the pioneers of professional golf. He was born in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, the "home of golf" and location of the St Andrews Links, in 1821, and died in 1908. His son Tom Morris, Jr. or "Young Tom Morris" was also a champion golfer.

Morris was an apprentice to Allan Robertson, generally regarded as the first professional golfer. He worked as a greenskeeper, clubmaker and course designer, as well as playing tournament golf. He came second in the first Open Championship in 1860, and won the following year. He followed this up with further victories in 1862, 1864 and 1867. He still holds records as the oldest winner of The Open Championship at 46, and for the largest winning margin in the tournament, at 13 strokes in 1862. Also he was part of the only father/son couple being winner and runner-up (Young Tom squeezed out his father)!

Courses which Morris played a role in designing include Muirfield, Prestwick and Carnoustie.

There is a road in St Andrews, Fife named after him, and the 18th hole at St Andrews golf course is named after the golfer in memory of his commitment to the course, and to golf in general.

Tom Morris was also the father of modern Greens-Keeping. He introduced the concept of top-dressing greens and introduced many novel ideas on turf and course management, including actively managing hazards (in the past, bunkers and the like were largely left to their own devices, becoming truly "hazardous"). In course design he standardized the golf course length at 18 holes (St. Andrews had at one time been 23 holes), and introduced the concept of each nine holes returning to the club house. He also introduced the modern idea of placing hazards so that the golf ball could be routed around them. Before his times hazards were thought of as obstacles that either had to be carried or were there to punish a wayward ball.

6-4 Tom Morris

Tom Morris, Jr. otherwise known as "Young Tom Morris" was one of the pioneers of professional golf. He was born in "the home of golf", St Andrews, Fife, Scotland in 1851, and died on December 25, 1875 at the age of twenty four. His father Old Tom Morris was the greenkeeper of the St Andrews Links and had won four of the first eight Open Championships.

"Young Tom" won the Open Championship in 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1872. In 1869 his father finished second to him, a unique family occurrence in the Championship. Young Tom was allowed to keep the original Championship Belt after his hat-trick of victories, so the famous Claret Jug was purchased for the next tournament in 1872, and his became the first name to be engraved on it.

In a match play in September 1875 between Old and Young Tom and Willie and Mungo Park, Young Tom received a telegram that his pregnant wife, Jean Finley, suddenly got very sick . Old Tom and Young Tom hurried but when Young Tom got home his wife and new born baby were dead. Young Tom never got over this and he died the same year.

3-1 Willie Park

Willie Park, Sr. (b 1834 Musselburgh, Scotland, d 1903) was one of the pioneers of professional golf.

Like some of the other early professional golfers, Park started out at a caddie. He later ran a golf equipment manufacturing business. On the course, he made his money from "Challenge matches" against rivals such as Old Tom Morris, Willie Dunn and Allan Robertson, which were the most popular form of spectator golf in his era. However, Park is mainly remembered as the winner of four Open Championships, including the inaugural event in 1860, when the field was just eight strong. His other victories came in 1863, 1866 and 1875. Park was the co-holder of the record for most wins in the tournament until James Braid picked up his fifth win in 1910.

Park's brother Mungo Park and his son Willie Park, Jr. both won The Open Championship.

3-2 Jammie Anderson

Jamie Anderson (b 1842, Scotland d 1905) was a nineteenth century professional golfer who won The Open Championship three times.

Anderson's Open Championships were at Musselburgh in 1877; Prestwick Golf Club in 1878; and St Andrews in 1879. As of 2005, he is one of only four golfers who have won three consecutive Opens, alongside Young Tom Morris (1868-1870), Bob Ferguson (1880-82) and Peter Thomson (1954-56).

3-3 Bob Ferguson

Bob Ferguson (1848-1915), was a Scottish golfer who won a hat-trick of titles at The Open Championship in 1880, 1881 and 1882. He was especially noted for his putting. He is one of only four men who have won The Open three years in a row. The prize for his first win was £7.

Ferguson was a native of Musselburgh, East Lothian, which was then one of the three venues in the Open Championship rotation. He started caddying at the age of eight and played his first competition at Leith when he was eighteen. His playing career was cut short by a bout of typhoid and he became the Custodian of Links at Musselburgh.

3-4 Robert Tyre

Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. (born March 17, 1902, in Atlanta, Georgia; died December 18, 1971) was arguably the greatest golfer who ever competed on a national and international level. Between 1923 and 1930 he won 13 Major Championships (as they were counted at that time), ranking him only behind Jack Nicklaus and his 20 wins. At age 14, he was the youngest player to ever play in a U.S. Amateur Championship Golf tournament. Jones was the first player to win The Double, both the US Open and the British Open in the same year. He is still the only player ever to have won the Grand Slam, or all four major championships in the same year. Even more remarkably, he did all this as an amateur, something that is unlikely to ever occur again in modern times.

Jones was successful outside of golf as well. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Harvard University. He later earned his law degree at Emory University and passed the bar exam. When he retired from golf at the age of 28, he concentrated on his law practice.

Jones is considered one of the five giants of 1920s sports scene, along with baseball's Babe Ruth, boxing's Jack Dempsey, American football's Red Grange, and tennis player Bill Tilden. He was the first recipient of the Amateur Athletic Union's James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

Jones was not only a consummately skilled golfer, but he also exemplified the principles of sportsmanship and fair play. In the beginning of his amateur career, he was in the final playoff of the American Open. During the match, his ball ended up in the rough just off the fairway, and as he was setting up to play his shot his iron caused a slight move of the ball. He immediately got angry with himself, turned to the marshals, and called a foul on himself. The marshals discussed among themselves and questioned some of the gallery if anyone had seen the foul. Their decision was that neither they nor anyone else had witnessed any foul, so the decision was left to Jones. Bobby Jones called the foul on himself. The marshal announced that Bobby Jones commanded an extremely high level of integrity, and that he was to be highly commended for this. Jones replied, "Do you commend a bank robber for not robbing a bank? No you don't. This is how the game of golf should be played at all times." Jones would lose the match by one stroke.

After his retirement from golf, Jones made twelve instructional films, worked with A.G. Spalding & Co. to develop the first set of matched clubs, designed the Augusta National course and founded The Masters Tournament.

Jones died in 1971 and is buried in Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery.

3-5 Henry Thomas

Henry Thomas Cotton (January 26, 1907 - December 22, 1987) was a prominent British golfer of the 1930s. Born in Cheshire, he started his career as a professional at the age of 17. He achieved fame during the Great Depression years with three victories in the British Open (1934, 1937, and 1948). He also succeeded in winning many titles on the European circuit during the 1930s. Cotton served as captain of the Ryder Cup team in 1947 and 1953. Following his retirement from competitive golf in the early 1950s he became a writer on golf, and a successful architect of golf courses.

Cotton was knighted in the New Year's Day Honours of 1988. This was reported in some media as a "posthumous knighthood" because he was dead by the time it was publicly announced. However, he had accepted the knighthood before dying, and it was made effective from the date of his death.

3-6 Gary Player

Gary Player (born November 1, 1935 in Johannesburg) is a South African professional golfer generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the game's history.

3-7 Jack Nicklaus

Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940 in Columbus, Ohio), also known as "The Golden Bear", was a major force in professional golf from the 1960s to the late 1990s, and is widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time.

Together with Arnold Palmer, he is credited with turning golf into the major spectator sport it has become. While Palmer brought golf into the TV era, it was the developing Nicklaus-Palmer rivalry that drove subsequent interest.

3-8 Nicholas Alexander Faldo

Nicholas Alexander "Nick" Faldo (born July 18, 1957, in Welwyn Garden City) is an English golfer on the PGA European Tour, and one of Europe's most successful players ever. Over his career, he has won three British Open titles and three US Masters titles.

3-9 Severiano Bellesteros

Severiano "Seve" Ballesteros (born 9 April 1957 in Pedreña, Cantabria) is a Spanish golfer who was one of the sport's leading figures in the 1980s and 1990s.

3-10 Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont (Tiger) Woods (born December 30, 1975, in Cypress, California) is an American golfer, widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. In 2005, at the age of 29, he won his 10th major golf championship, placing him third on the all-time list behind Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen. He has won more times on the PGA Tour than any other active golfer. Woods, who is of mixed race, is credited with prompting a major surge of interest in the game of golf among minorities and young people in the United States.

2-1 Harold Hilton

Harold Hilton was an English golfer. In 1892, he won The Open Championship at Muirfield, becoming the second amateur to do so. He won again in 1897 at his home club, Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake. The only other amateurs who have won the Open Championship are John Ball Jnr. and Bobby Jones.

Hilton also won British Amateur Championship on four occasions, including 1911, when he became the only British player to win the British and U.S. Amateur Championships in the same year.

2-2 Willie Park Jr.

Willie Park, Jr. (b. Musselburgh, Scotland 1864, d 1925) was one of the leading professional golfers of his era.

Park's home town was one of the main centres of golf at the time, and was on rota for The Open Championship for much of his early life. His father Willie Park, Sr. and his uncle Mungo Park both won the Open while he was young. Park himself won it in 1887 and 1889. In the latter year he was taken to a playoff by Andrew Kirkaldy. He was notable for his excellent short game, which compensated for an unreliable long game.

At the time, it was not possible for a golfer to make a living from prize money alone. Park took over the family ball and club making business and adapted to the introduction of the guttie golf ball, which replaced the traditional featherie ball, establishing an export business just when golf was beginning to spread internationally. He patented several golf club designs. His The Game of Golf (1886) was the first book about golf written by a professional. He also worked as a golf course designer with 170 designs to his credit in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, including the well known Sunningdale course near London.

2-3 Arnold Palmer

Arnold Daniel Palmer (born September 10, 1929) is an American golfer who has won numerous events on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. He was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Palmer is not generally regarded as the greatest player in history (most would give that accolade to Jack Nicklaus, some to Bobby Jones or Ben Hogan, and Tiger Woods has challenged them in recent years), but he is arguably the most important in that he was the first golf star when television started to air golf tournaments in the 1950s.

2-4 Lee Trevino

Lee Buck Trevino (born December 1, 1939) is a professional American golfer. He is an icon for Mexican Americans.

2-5 Greg Norman

Greg Norman (born February 10, 1955 in Queensland, Australia), is an Australian professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as the world's number one ranked golfer in the 1980s and 1990s. He is nicknamed "The Shark".

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