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first to be engraved on it as the 1872
winner.
clubs that were to host The Open —
Prestwick, the Honourable Company of
Edinburgh Golfers and The Royal and
Ancient Golf Club. They decided that the
winner would receive a medal and that
each of the three clubs would contribute
£10 towards the cost of a new trophy,
which was to be a silver claret jug,
instead of another belt. Its proper name
was to be The Golf Champion Trophy.
These decisions were taken too late for
the trophy to be presented to the 1872
Open Champion, who was once again
Tom Morris Junior. Instead, he was
awarded with a medal inscribed ‘The
Golf Champion Trophy’.
The Golf Champion
Trophy
The Claret Jug (pictured), was made by
Mackay Cunningham & Company of
Edinburgh and was hallmarked 1873. The
first Open Champion to receive the new
trophy was the 1873 winner, Tom Kidd,
but Tom Morris Junior’s name was the
years and to present the winner with a
replica. In 1928, Walter Hagen won the
third of his four Open titles and
accepted the replica Claret Jug, having
already been presented with the original
in 1922 and 1924. During the half-
century in which the original Claret Jug
was used, twenty-eight different players
held it aloft, including Harry Vardon on
a record six occasions.
MONDAY 2 – SUNDAY 15
Wimbledon
In 1920 all responsibility for The Open
Championship was handed over to The
Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Following
the 1927 Open, which was won at St
Andrews by Bobby Jones, the club’s
Championship Committee took the
decision to retain the Claret Jug in future
36
The 2018 tournament is the 132nd
edition of The Championships, the 125th
staging of the Ladies’ Singles
Championship event, the 51st in the
Open Era and the third Grand Slam
tournament of the year. It is part of the
ATP World Tour, the WTA Tour, the
ITF Junior tour and the NEC Tour. The
tournament is organised by All England
Lawn Tennis Club and International
Tennis Federation.