1933 Open Championship

The 1933 Open Championship was the 68th Open Championship, held 5–8 July at the Old Course at St Andrews in St Andrews, Scotland. Denny Shute defeated fellow American Craig Wood by five strokes in a 36-hole Saturday playoff to win his only Open title, the first of his three major championships.

Contents

• Final leaderboard
• Playoff
• Scorecards
• References

Qualifying took place on 3–4 July. Entries played 18 holes on the Old Course and 18 holes on the New Course. The top 100 and ties qualified. The qualifying score was 158 and 117 players qualified. Willie Nolan led the qualifiers on 138. The leading 60 players and ties after 36 holes made the cut to play on the final day. Walter Hagen led after the first two rounds on 140 and all those scoring 152 or better made the cut.

A group of four players shared the 54-hole lead at 216 (–3): Henry Cotton, Abe Mitchell, Syd Easterbrook, and Leo Diegel. Wood began the final round a stroke behind, while Shute was three back at even par. The final round was a disaster for the leaders as Easterbrook shot 77 (+4), while Cotton and Mitchell both carded 79 (+6). Shute and Wood tied for the clubhouse lead with rounds of 73 and 75, respectively. Diegel found the 18th green in two and needed only a two-putt to join the playoff. He left his first putt short, then completely missed the ball on his second attempt. The untimely mistake caused him to miss out on the playoff by a single stroke, as did American Gene Sarazen. In the final round Wood managed to hit a 440-yard (400 m) drive at the 5th, but he found a bunker and lost a stroke on the hole.

During the playoff, Wood opened with a pair of sixes and was four strokes down after two holes. Shute prevailed over Wood in the 36-hole playoff by five shots. Wood lost playoffs at all four major championships before finally winning one, this loss was the first.

This was the first playoff at the Open in a dozen years, since 1921, also won by an American at St Andrews; Jock Hutchison (1884–1977) was born in Scotland but became a U.S. citizen the previous year.

The Old Course was par 73 in 1933; the #17 Road Hole was a par-5 through the 1946 Open.