1966 Open Championship

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Short descriptionTemplate:Template other The 1966 Open Championship was the 95th Open Championship, held 6–9 July at Muirfield Golf Links in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. Jack Nicklaus won the first of his three Claret Jugs, one stroke ahead of runners-up Doug Sanders and Dave Thomas. It was the sixth of eighteen major titles for Nicklaus and marked the completion of the first of his three career grand slams.

This was the first Open to be scheduled over four days, with one round each day, finishing on Saturday. Previous editions had played the third and fourth rounds on Friday. The U.S. Open changed to a four-day schedule the previous year in 1965, moving its final round from Saturday afternoon to Sunday. The Open Championship operated on a Wednesday through Saturday schedule through 1979.

It was the final Open for 1964 champion Tony Lema, who died in a plane crash two weeks later, hours after the PGA Championship.

Nicklaus has described Muirfield as "the best golf course in Britain." He later developed a championship golf course and community in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of his hometown of Columbus. Opened in 1974, Nicklaus named it Muirfield Village and it hosts his Memorial Tournament, a top invitational event on the PGA Tour since 1976.

Course

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Yards	429	363	385	187	516	473	187	451	495	3,486	475	363	385	154	462	407	198	528	429	3,401	6,887
Par	4	4	4	3	5	4	3	4	5	36	4	4	4	3	4	4	3	5	4	35	71

Source:
Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):

• 1959: , par 72

Round summaries

First round

Wednesday, 6 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Template:Flagicon Jimmy Hitchcock	70	−1
	Template:Flagicon Jack Nicklaus
T3	Template:Flagicon Harold Henning	71	E
	Template:Flagicon Tony Lema
	Template:Flagicon Doug Sanders
	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Shade (a)
T7	Template:Flagicon Fred Boobyer	72	+1
	Template:Flagicon John Carter
	Template:Flagicon Alex Caygill
	Template:Flagicon Christy Greene
	Template:Flagicon Kel Nagle
	Template:Flagicon Gary Player
	Template:Flagicon Dave Thomas

Second round

Thursday, 7 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Template:Flagicon Jack Nicklaus	70-67=137	−5
2	Template:Flagicon Peter Butler	73-65=138	−4
T3	Template:Flagicon Harold Henning	71-69=140	−2
	Template:Flagicon Kel Nagle	72-68=140
	Template:Flagicon Phil Rodgers	74-66=140
T6	Template:Flagicon Doug Sanders	71-70=141	−1
	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Shade (a)	71-70=141
8	Template:Flagicon Bruce Devlin	73-69=142	E
9	Template:Flagicon Alex Caygill	72-71=143	+1
10	Template:Flagicon Julius Boros	73-71=144	+2

Amateurs: Shade (-1), Cole (+4), Townsend (+6), Bonallack (+7),
Millensted (+12), Smith (+13), Falkenburg (+22)

Third round

Friday, 8 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Template:Flagicon Phil Rodgers	74-66-70=210	−3
2	Template:Flagicon Jack Nicklaus	70-67-75=212	−1
3	Template:Flagicon Doug Sanders	71-70-72=213	E
T4	Template:Flagicon Arnold Palmer	73-72-69=214	+1
	Template:Flagicon Dave Thomas	72-73-69=214
6	Template:Flagicon Harold Henning	71-69-75=215	+2
T7	Template:Flagicon Alex Caygill	72-71-73=216	+3
	Template:Flagicon Bruce Devlin	73-69-74=216
	Template:Flagicon Sebastián Miguel	74-72-70=216
	Template:Flagicon Kel Nagle	72-68-76=216
	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Shade (a)	71-70-75=216

Final round

Saturday, 9 July 1966

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (£)
1	Template:Flagicon Jack Nicklaus	70-67-75-70=282	−2	2,100
T2	Template:Flagicon Doug Sanders	71-70-72-70=283	−1	1,350
	Template:Flagicon Dave Thomas	72-73-69-69=283
T4	Template:Flagicon Bruce Devlin	73-69-74-70=286	+2	696
	Template:Flagicon Kel Nagle	72-68-76-70=286
	Template:Flagicon Gary Player	72-74-71-69=286
	Template:Flagicon Phil Rodgers	74-66-70-76=286
T8	Template:Flagicon Dave Marr	73-76-69-70=288	+4	330
	Template:Flagicon Sebastián Miguel	74-72-70-72=288
	Template:Flagicon Arnold Palmer	73-72-69-74=288
	Template:Flagicon Peter Thomson	73-75-69-71=288

Source:
Amateurs: Shade (+9), Townsend (+11), Bonallack (+13), Cole (+14)

External links

• Muirfield 1966 (Official site)