1896 Amateur Championship: Freddie Tait wins at Royal St George's Golf Club
Freddie Tait won the 1896 Amateur Championship at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent, beating Harold Hilton 8 & 7 in the final.
Updated 23 October 2026
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- Edition
- 12th
- Dates
- 19 May 1896 to 22 May 1896
- Course
- Royal St George's Golf Club, Sandwich, Kent
- Format
- match play
- Champion
- Freddie Tait · age 26 · Scotland · Black Watch
- Champion's title
- 1st Amateur Championship title
- Runner-up
- Harold Hilton · age 27 · England
- Final
- 8 & 7 (36-hole final)
- Match-play field
- 64
- Losing semifinalists
- Horace Hutchinson and John Graham Jr.
- Defending champion
- Leslie Balfour-Melville · lost in round of 32
- Entries
- 64
What happened at the 1896 Amateur Championship
Freddie Tait beat Johnny Laidlay (3 & 1), John Ball (5 & 4) and Horace Hutchinson (3 & 2) on the way to the final
Final, the first over 36 holes: Tait beat Harold Hilton 8 & 7
The draw
Every match is recorded through the quarterfinal; earlier rounds are partial (round of 16 (7 of 8 matches with full result)).
The final, 1896 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freddie Tait | def. | Harold Hilton | 8 & 7 |
Semifinals, 1896 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freddie Tait | def. | Horace Hutchinson | 3 & 2 |
| Harold Hilton | def. | John Graham Jr. | 4 & 3 |
Quarterfinals, 1896 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freddie Tait | def. | John Ball | 5 & 4 |
| Horace Hutchinson | def. | H. C. Blyth | 5 & 4 |
| John Graham Jr. | def. | J. R. Gairdner | 3 & 1 |
| Harold Hilton | def. | A. S. Johnston | 3 & 2 |
Round of 16, 1896 Amateur Championship
| Winner | Beaten | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Ball | def. | T. T. Gray | 6 & 5 |
| Freddie Tait | def. | Johnny Laidlay | 3 & 1 |
| Horace Hutchinson | def. | A. D. Blyth | unknown |
| H. C. Blyth | def. | J. O. Fairlie | 2 & 1 |
| John Graham Jr. | def. | G. L. Austin | 2 & 1 |
| J. R. Gairdner | def. | Eric Hambro | 2 & 1 |
| A. S. Johnston | def. | Capt. Nugent | 2 & 1 |
| Harold Hilton | def. | E. R. H. Blackwell | 7 & 5 |
How this was built
Every value is shown as recorded in GNN's Amateur Championship data set (research collected through 20 October 2026). "unknown" means no source confirmed it; nothing is estimated. Where sources disagree, the R&A's own record is used.
Values found only on Wikipedia, kept and flagged: champion_nationality, runner_up_nationality.
Data: the-amateur.json.