The 1965 Open Championship was the 94th Open Championship, played 7–9 July at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Peter Thomson won his fifth Claret Jug, two strokes ahead of runners-up Brian Huggett and Christy O'Connor Snr. Thomson's previous Open victory was seven years earlier in 1958.

The 1965 Open was the last to conclude with two rounds on Friday. Beginning in 1966, the final round was moved from Friday afternoon to Saturday. The Open used this schedule until 1980, when the first round moved to Thursday with the final round on Sunday, the same as the other three majors.

Field The exemption categories were:

1. The first 20 and those tying for 20th place in the 1964 Open

2. The first 30 and those tying for 30th place in the P.G.A. Order of Merit for 1964

3. The last 10 Open champions (1955–64)

4. The last 5 Amateur champions (1960–64)

5. The last 10 U.S. Open champions (1955–64)

6. The last 5 U.S. Amateur champions (1960–64)

7. The first 30 money winners and those tying for 30th place in the U.S.P.G.A. official list for one year ending with the P.G.A. tournament immediately before the closing date of the U.S. Open entries

8. Members of the 1964 Great Britain and Ireland Eisenhower Cup team

9. Senior professional champions of Great Britain and the United States Charlie Ward, Sam Snead

10. The 1965 U.S. Open champion The U.S. Open took place after the final date for entries. The winner, Gary Player, was already exempt.

Source:

Qualification took place on 2–3 July at Hillside and Southport and Ainsdale. They were run as two separate events with 41 players to qualify from Hillside, 40 from Southport and Ainsdale, together with 49 exemptions to make a total field of 130. Clive Clark was later added to field after William C. Campbell failed to arrive. M.E. Hill also played after Frank Phillips withdrew.

Prize money The total prize money was increased from £8,500 to £10,000. The winner's share was increased to £1,750 with £1,250 for second, £1,000 for third, £750 for fourth, £600 for fifth, £450 for sixth, £375 for seventh.

Course

Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal Yards4934274162123204681584594103,3633934121905172025364015105133,6747,037 Par544344344354435354553873 Source: Lengths of the course for previous Opens: 1961: 1954:

Round summaries First round Wednesday, 7 July 1965 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Tony Lema68−52 Christy O'Connor Snr69−4T3 Joe Carr (a)70−3 Arnold Palmer5 Bruce Devlin71−2T6 Brian Bamford72−1 Eric Brown Christy Greene Ronnie Mandeville Jim McAlister Sebastián Miguel Lionel Platts Doug Sewell Guy Wolstenholme Source:

Second round Thursday, 8 July 1965 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Bruce Devlin71-69=140−6 Tony Lema68-72=140T3 Brian Huggett73-68=141−5 Arnold Palmer70-71=141T5 Hugh Boyle73-69=142−4 Eric Brown72-70=142 Joe Carr (a)70-72=142 Christy O'Connor Snr69-73=142 Peter Thomson74-68=14210 Roberto De Vicenzo74-69=143−3 Source: Amateurs: Carr (-4), Bonallack (+1), Burgess (+1), Clark (+4), Hadlock (+6), Shade (+6),Foster (+7), Marsh (+7), Glover (+8), Birtwell (+9), Richards (+15), Marks (+17), McCandlish (+17)

Third round Friday, 9 July 1965 - (morning) PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Peter Thomson74-68-72=214−5T2 Bruce Devlin71-69-75=215−4 Tony Lema68-72-75=215T4 Roberto De Vicenzo74-69-73=216−3 Christy O'Connor Snr69-73-74=216 Arnold Palmer70-71-75=216T7 Brian Huggett73-68-76=217−2 Sebastián Miguel72-73-72=217 Kel Nagle74-70-73=217 Lionel Platts72-72-73=217 Source:

Final round Friday, 9 July 1965 - (afternoon) PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)1 Peter Thomson 74-68-72-71=285 −71,750T2 Brian Huggett 73-68-76-70=287 −51,125 Christy O'Connor Snr 69-73-74-71=2874 Roberto De Vicenzo 74-69-73-72=288 −4750T5 Bernard Hunt 74-74-70-71=289 −3475 Tony Lema 68-72-75-74=289 Kel Nagle 74-70-73-72=289T8 Bruce Devlin 71-69-75-75=290 −2275 Sebastián Miguel 72-73-72-73=290T10 Max Faulkner 74-72-74-73=293 +1185 John Panton 74-74-75-70=293 Source: Amateurs: Burgess (+7), Bonallack (+10), Carr (+10)

References

External links Royal Birkdale 1965 (Official site)