1888 Open Championship

The 1888 Open Championship was the 28th Open Championship, held 6 October at the Old Course at St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Jack Burns won the Championship by a stroke from David Anderson Jr. and Ben Sayers.

1888 Open Championship

Tournament information
Dates	6, 8 October 1888
Location	St Andrews, Scotland
Course(s)	Old Course at St Andrews
Statistics
Field	52 players[1]
Prize fund	£20
Winner's share	£8
Champion
Jack Burns
171
← 1887 1889 →

St Andrews

Location in Scotland

Willie Campbell led after 18 holes for the third successive year and was the leader on 84 with Sayers on 85 and a group of four players on 86.

In the afternoon Sayers, in the first group, scored 87 and took an early lead on 172. Campbell made a number of mistakes and scored 90 for a total of 174. Sayers was then joined on 172 by David Anderson. Playing a few groups behind, Burns scored an 85 and took the lead on 171, a score none of the later players could match.

Burns's score for his first round had originally been added up to 87 but a Royal and Ancient Golf Club member noticed that it was added up incorrectly and the total was adjusted to 86, making Burns the champion.^[2]

Final leaderboard

Source:^[3]

Saturday, 6 October 1888

Place	Player	Score	Money
1	Jack Burns	86-85=171	£8
T2	David Anderson Jr.	86-86=172	Playoff
	Ben Sayers	85-87=172
4	Willie Campbell	84-90=174	£2
5	Leslie Balfour (a)	86-89=175	−
T6	Davie Grant	88-88=176	10s
	Andrew Kirkaldy	87-89=176
8	Sandy Herd	93-84=177	−
9	David Ayton Sr.	87-91=178	−
10	Johnny Laidlay (a)	93-87=180	−

Playoff

Monday, 8 October 1888

Anderson and Sayers played an 18-hole play-off two days later. Sayers won and took the second prize of £6, Anderson taking the third prize of £3.^[3][4]