The Open Championship Challenge Belt & Claret Jug

Imagine an Open Championship without the Claret Jug. Can’t do it? Let me help you.

The Claret Jug – more properly, The Golf Championship Trophy – hasn’t always been awarded to the winner of the Open Championship. Before the little silver jug there was a red Moroccan leather belt that fastened with a rather large silver buckle and was decorated with “embellishments.”

In 1860, when the Prestwick Golf Club hosted the first Open Championship, the Earl of Eglinton suggested a special belt be commissioned for the event. The Earl was an enthusiastic sports fan and had been very influential in establishing the Open Championship. He was also keenly interested in medieval pageantry and he had previously donated a specially designed commemorative belt – a golden one – to the Irvine Archers competition.

While the cost of the Challenge Belt has been lost to history, such a belt was designed and produced and paid for by Prestwick Golf Club in time to be awarded at the inaugural Open Championship. There were, of course, Rules devised to govern the management of the Belt:

• While awarded each year to the winner of The Open, the Belt would be held in safekeeping by the treasurer of Prestwick, and
• The Belt would become the property of the first golfer to win the Open Championship three times in succession.

In 1870 Young Tom Morris won his third consecutive Open Championship and the Challenge Belt became his personal property.

Young Tom Morris and The Challenge Belt. Photo Credit: The Scottish Golf Book.

What happened next resulted in a remarkable twist that that forever changed the culture of the Open Championship. Prestwick Golf Club couldn’t afford to buy another Challenge Belt so they proposed to share the expense, and the responsibility for hosting the Open, with St Andrews and Musselburgh. Out of limited resources, the tradition of the rota was birthed!

By 1872 Prestwick, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club had agreed to a hosting rota and moved to commission a new Golf Championship Trophy, with each club in the agreed-upon rota contributing a sum “not exceeding £15” to the cost of a small silver jug.

For the record, Young Tom Morris again won the Open Championship in 1872 and received a medal on which was engraved “The Golf Champion Trophy.”

Cover Photo via Flickr