The 1963 Open Championship was the 92nd Open Championship, held from 10–13 July at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes, England.
Bob Charles won his only major championship in a 36-hole playoff on Saturday, eight strokes ahead of runner-up Phil Rodgers, and became the first left-hander to win a major title. Masters winner Jack Nicklaus bogeyed the last two holes and came in third, one stroke out of the playoff. A heavy favourite among the local bettors, two-time defending champion Arnold Palmer tied for 26th. U.S. Open champion Julius Boros did not play.
This was the last 36-hole playoff at The Open, the format was changed to 18 holes the following year, used in 1970 and 1975. The four-hole aggregate format was introduced in 1986 and first used in 1989.
The PGA Championship was played the next week in Texas at Dallas, one of five times in the 1960s that these two majors were played in consecutive weeks in July. In epic heat, 23-year-old Nicklaus regrouped and won by two strokes for his third major title.
Course layout
Source: Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):
1958: 1952:
Field
For the first time, leading players were exempt from qualifying. 44 players who entered were exempted:
Peter Alliss, Brian Bamford, Michael Bonallack (a), Fred Boobyer, Ken Bousfield, Eric Brown, Peter Butler, Joe Carr (a), Billy Casper, Bob Charles, Neil Coles, Roger Foreman, Jean Garaïalde, Christy Greene, Tom Haliburton, Jimmy Hitchcock, Brian Huggett, Bernard Hunt, Denis Hutchinson, John Jacobs, Bobby Locke, Jimmy Martin, Cary Middlecoff, Sebastián Miguel, Ralph Moffitt, Kel Nagle, Jack Nicklaus, Christy O'Connor Snr, Arnold Palmer, John Panton, Lionel Platts, Gary Player, Dai Rees, Phil Rodgers, Sandy Saddler (a), Doug Sanders, Syd Scott, Doug Sewell, Dave Thomas, Peter Thomson, Harry Weetman, Ross Whitehead, Brian Wilkes, Guy Wolstenholme
Casper and Middlecoff subsequently withdrew leaving 42 pre-qualified players.
The exemption categories were:
1. The first 20 and those tying for 20th place in the 1962 Open
Peter Alliss, Bob Charles, Roger Foreman, Jean Garaïalde, Brian Huggett, Bernard Hunt, Denis Hutchinson, Jimmy Martin, Sebastian Miguel, Ralph Moffitt, Kel Nagle (3), Christy O'Connor Snr, Arnold Palmer (3,6), John Panton, Phil Rodgers, Syd Scott, Dave Thomas, Peter Thomson (3), Harry Weetman, Ross Whitehead Eligible but did not enter: Sam Snead
2. The first 30 and those tying for 30th place in the P.G.A. Order of Merit for 1962
3. The last 10 Open champions (1953–62) Bobby Locke, Gary Player Eligible but did not enter: Ben Hogan
4. The last 5 Amateur champions (1958–62) Michael Bonallack (5) (a), Joe Carr (a) Eligible but did not enter: Deane Beman (7), Richard Davies
5. Members of the 1962 British Eisenhower Cup team
Sandy Saddler (a) Eligible but did not enter: Martin Christmas, Ronnie Shade
6. The last 10 U.S. Open champions (1953–62) Jack Nicklaus Eligible but did not enter: Tommy Bolt, Jack Fleck, Ed Furgol, Ben Hogan, Gene Littler, Dick Mayer Entered but later withdrew: Billy Casper, Cary Middlecoff
7. The last 5 U.S. Amateur champions (1958–62) Eligible but did not enter: Charles Coe, Labron Harris Jr. Jack Nicklaus had turned professional but was exempt under other categories
8. The first 30 money winners and those tying for 30th place in the U.S.P.G.A. official list for one year ending with the P.G.A. tournament immediately before the closing date of the U.S. Open entries
Exemptions for amateur champions were only granted if the player was still an amateur.
Qualifying
Qualification took place on 4–5 July (Thursday and Friday) at Fairhaven and St Annes Old Links. They were run as two separate events with 39 players to qualify from each venue to make a total field of 120. At each venue 34 players qualified on 147 and 6 players had a sudden-death playoff for the remaining five places. Max Faulkner, the 1951 Champion, was one of those who qualified in the playoff at Fairhaven. Bruce Devlin and Bill Large led the qualifying events. Three alternates were decided from each qualifying event.