THE R&A’s OFFICIAL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP MAGAZINE

When a young man from Scunthorpe via Potters Bar teed it up on the first at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1969, he was just about the only player in the field who believed he, or any other British player, had a realistic chance of winning the Open.

By the late 1960s, aided by colour television and an international cast of charismatic characters, golf was becoming a global phenomenon. Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus were its stars, with Billy Caspar, Bob Charles and Peter Thompson not far behind. But stellar British performances were thin on the ground – the last home-grown winner of the Open had been Max Faulkner in 1951.

As the Open field assembled, however, 25-year-old Tony Jacklin was feeling good. He had won the 1968 Jacksonville Open in the US, and had form around the famous old Blackpool course, with victory in the 1967 Pringle tournament. “Lytham was a great track, fast, firm and very difficult. It’s a true test of links golf,” he averred.

Another player at home around the par-71 track was Bob Charles, winner of its previous Open, in 1963. The first day’s play in 1969 was on a Wednesday, and with his easy uncluttered swing, the New Zealander clocked up eight birdies on his way to an opening 66, a record score for a Lytham Open. “That’s one of the best rounds of golf I’ve ever played,” declared a confident Charles, “Lytham belongs to me.”

Nicklaus struggled to a 75, while defending champion Gary Player could only manage a 74.

After a great start with birdies at the first, fourth, fifth and sixth holes, Jacklin held his form to card an opening 68, two shots behind Charles. With the classic knees-together, crouching stance, his long putting repeatedly got the Englishman out of trouble. “It was one of the best putting weeks I’ve ever had,” he’d later say.

On his second round, Jacklin picked up a shot at the 3^rd, then nailed a 30-footer for another birdie on the6^th. But by the 18^th, he still needed to hole out from six feet for a 70, leaving him three shots behind the halfway leader Bob Charles on 135, with Irishman Christy O’Connor, who had shot a brilliant 65, on 136, and fellow Englishman Alex Caygill also on 138.

Friday’s third round saw Jacklin make more steady progress. “My mental and emotional state was almost a replica of my golf swing – steady, even, a nice smooth tempo.” After eight straight pars, another long putt on 9 edged him closer to the lead.

Dressed in green trousers and a yellow jumper over a trademark white polo neck, he cut quite a dash on colour TV, and viewers at home began to sense the preternaturally calm lad from Lincolnshire was the player to watch. Four times – at the 8^th, 15^th, 17^th and 18^th – Jacklin got up and down from green-side bunkers, and after another 70, he found himself the clubhouse leader on 208, five under par.

Meanwhile, the last two players out on the course were struggling. Unable to repeat the fireworks of his previous round, O’Connor slumped to a 74, his mood not helped by a bogie at the last. Bob Charles’s putter, his ‘magic wand’ as Jacklin described it, was also letting him down. Missed putts on 9, 14 and 15 left the Kiwi needing a four on the last for a 75. His birdie putt slid just past the hole.

The best third round score came from Argentinian Roberto de Vicenzo, the 1967 Open champion. The 46-year-old’s 66 put him on 211, a total he shared with five-time champion Peter Thompson. After a third-round 68 left him just five back, Jack Nicklaus was also moving ominously up the leaderboard, but the player to beat, with a two-shot lead over Charles and O’Connor, was the young Tony Jacklin.

Not surprisingly, Jacklin had problems sleeping, so that night his wife Viv gave him a pill. He slept through till 9.15am on what would be the biggest day of his professional career. After steak and eggs for breakfast, he then killed time around the house with his dad.

Interviewed before his round, Jacklin was composed and focused. “It’s a day when I just need to keep my head and not make any mistakes.” He added, undemonstratively, “If someone comes out and plays better, so be it. But I’ll do my best and we’ll see what happens.”

On a typically breezy Lancashire day, the leader was paired with Bob Charles, who promptly bogied the first. Displaying a touch of nerves, the New Zealander’s missed approach was followed by a woeful pitch, then a putt left well short of the hole. First blood to the Englishman.

Up ahead, both Vicenzo and O’Connor moved to 4 under after five, but after a glorious 4-iron to 16 feet, and yet another laser-guided putt, Jacklin himself birdied the 3rd to go 6 under, now four shots ahead of his playing partner. After an even longer, 40-foot birdie putt on the 4^th, the crowd began to scent a British victory.

On the monstrous 553-yard 7^th, Charles played a miraculous recovery from the rough well left of the green, to set up a four-foot birdie putt – a comeback threatened. But Jacklin calmly stroked home his own seven-foot birdie putt, and walked off with something of a swagger in his step. By the turn, he was out in 33 to his partner’s 35, the lead still four strokes. With the rest of the field falling back, the Championship had effectively become a match play event between the two men.

On the 13^th tee, Charles noticed the whipping on his driver’s handle had come loose. Displaying a certain sang-froid, and skills learnt in the Potters Bar pro shop, Jacklin fixed the problem. The younger player then proceeded to bogie the hole, reducing his lead to two.

When they arrived at the 18^th, they were still separated by just two strokes. With the honour, Charles drove into the rough. Next up, Jacklin hit one of the best drives of his life, right down the middle. “What a corker!” exclaimed veteran TV commentator Henry Longhurst, sensing history in the making. The Kiwi hit his approach 18 feet from the pin, but Jacklin calmly stroked a 7-iron well inside his opponent’s ball.

As the throng rushed excitedly forward, Jacklin lost his shoe in the melee, only emerging to re-connect with it as he strolled towards the green, by now acknowledging patriotic cheers.

Once again, Charles’s birdie putt slid a foot past the hole, leaving a tap-in for a 72. Sending the 10,000-strong crowd around the 18^th into raptures, Jacklin calmly two-putted, and in so doing became the first British winner of the Open in 18 years.

At the triumphal presentation, the victor talked about the benefits of honing his competitive edge on the America tour. A generation of British golfers would heed his advice, especially after he went on to win the US Open at Hazeltine the following year.

Jacklin entered the history books that July day in 1969 at Lytham, and nine days later, Neil Armstrong followed suit by taking man’s first steps on the moon. By then, Jacklin was also out of this world, the newest star of golf’s modern era.