The Open Championship has been contested 12 times at Royal Liverpool. Firstly, way back in 1897 and, most recently in 2014 when Rory McIlroy was the victor. As you might expect with improvements in equipment and advances in player technique and performance, the scoring has improved fairly significantly in the 126 years since the grand old championship first visited Hoylake.
In fact, there’s a full 44 strokes between the lowest and highest winning Open scores at Royal Liverpool. Of course the conditions play a major role and in any championship when the wind blows and the heavens open, the scoring tends to go up. But generally speaking, scoring has steadily improved over the decades.
What Is The Lowest Winning Score In The Open At Royal Liverpool?
Following the general pattern of improving totals at Hoylake, you would expect the most recent champion (Rory McIlroy) to have posted the lowest winning total. Yes….? No. In fact, Tiger Woods has the lowest four-round score of all the winners at Royal Liverpool. He posted 270 in 2006. That was 18-under-par and was made up of rounds of 67, 65, 71 and 67. Tiger beat Chris DiMarco by two. Tiger's score of 65 is the joint best in an Open at Hoylake.
Rory came close to bettering Tiger’s total in 2014 but ended his week a shot worse – 271. He closed with a level-par 71 to finish two clear of Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia.
There have been other impressive feats of scoring over the years. Roberto de Vicenzo was 10-under-par when he came out on top in 1967 and Alf Padgham was nine-under when he won in 1936.
There have also been some relatively high scores that have been good enough to be winning totals.
What Is The Highest Winning Score In The Open At Royal Liverpool?
That honour goes to Harold Hilton, the first champion at Hoylake and, in fact, the first editor of Golf Monthly. Harold, one of the great amateur golfers, finished on 314 after rounds of 80, 75, 84 and 75. His up and down scores were enough to end the championship one ahead of James Braid – a five-time Open winner.
Other higher winning numbers include those posted by Arnaud Massy – He finished on 312 in 1907, and Sandy Herd, who scored 307 in 1902.
J.H Taylor was the first winner to post four rounds in the 70s in 1913 and Bobby Jones was the first man to beat 300 for four rounds. He scored 291 in 1930.
What is The Lowest Ever Winning Score In The Open Championship?
Bit of a trick question this one as the event wasn’t always 72 holes. In 1870 Young Tom Morris won with 149, over three rounds of 12 holes at Prestwick.
But, since the Open became a 72 hole event - In 2016, Henrik Stenson finished on 264 at Royal Troon after an epic battle with Phil Mickelson, that was 20-under-par. Cameron Smith was also 20-under when he won in 2022 at St Andrews. His total was 268 with the par of St Andrews being 72, compared to 71 at Troon.
