History · PRESTWICK · AYRSHIRE · 1871

In 1871, there was no Open.

Name: The year without an Open: how Young Tom Morris kept golf's first trophy | Fact Caddie
Description: Young Tom Morris won the Open's Challenge Belt three years running, from 1868 to 1870, and kept it. With no prize to play for, there was no Open in 1871. The new prize, a silver claret jug, was not ready in 1872, so he got a medal, but his name was the first engraved on the jug.

Young Tom Morris won the Open's Challenge Belt three years running, from 1868 to 1870, and kept it. With no prize to play for, there was no Open in 1871. The new prize, a silver claret jug, was not ready in 1872, so he got a medal, but his name was the first engraved on the jug.

The one to remember

The first name on the Claret Jug is Young Tom Morris's.

Facts and sources

The Open's first prize, from 1860, was the Challenge Belt: red Morocco leather with a silver buckle and silver emblems, bought from the Edinburgh silversmiths James & Walter Marshall for £25. A champion who won it three times in succession kept it (The Open; Prestwick Golf Club).
Tom Morris Jr, Young Tom (born 20 April 1851), won at Prestwick in 1868 aged 17, still the youngest winner of a major, then again in 1869 and 1870, and the belt became his (Prestwick Golf Club; The Open).
With no prize to present, the Championship was not held in 1871 (The Open).
In 1872 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers joined Prestwick in hosting the Open and shared the cost of a new Golf Champion Trophy, a silver claret jug made by Mackay Cunningham & Company of Edinburgh. The Open gives each club's share as £10; Prestwick gives the jug's cost as £30.
Young Tom won again in 1872. The jug was not ready, so he received a medal inscribed 'The Golf Champion Trophy' (a gold medal, says Prestwick). Tom Kidd, the 1873 champion, was the first to be handed the jug, but the first name engraved on it is Young Tom's, for 1872.

Illustration: the scenes are drawn from descriptions, not traced from photographs. Prestwick's links with the Isle of Arran across the Firth of Clyde, the crowds, the putts and drives, the Challenge Belt's buckle and emblems, the medal's design, the letter with three seals, the Edinburgh workshop and the engraving are illustrative. Young Tom Morris and everyone else appear as small figures, with no likeness intended.

Sources

History · Prestwick Golf Club checked 11 October 2026
The Open Championship · Prestwick Golf Club checked 11 October 2026
Morris' third successive win secures the Challenge Belt · The Open (The R&A), The Journey: 1870 checked 11 October 2026
The History of the Claret Jug · The Open (The R&A) checked 11 October 2026
The Claret Jug · The Open (The R&A) checked 11 October 2026
Young Tom Morris profile · The Open (The R&A) checked 11 October 2026
The first presentation of the Claret Jug · The Open (The R&A) checked 11 October 2026
History of the claret jug, golf's oldest prize · Golf Channel (NBC Sports), 28 June 2024 checked 11 October 2026
1st Open, Prestwick 1860 · The Open (The R&A) checked 11 October 2026

The narration is AI-generated. Sources last checked 11 October 2026.

Script

In 1871, there was no Open Championship. A teenager had kept the trophy. The prize was a red leather belt with a silver buckle, and anyone who won it three years in a row could keep it. Young Tom Morris won it in 1868, aged 17. He won again in 1869, and again in 1870. The belt was his, and the Open had nothing left to play for. It took until 1872 for three clubs to agree on a new prize, a silver claret jug. Young Tom won that year too. The jug wasn't ready, so he was given a medal. When it was finished, his was the first name engraved on it.