1888 Open Championship: Jack Burns wins at Old Course, St Andrews
Jack Burns won the 1888 Open Championship at Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland with 171, by 1 stroke over David Anderson Jr and Ben Sayers.
Updated October 23, 2026
See 1888 in The Open room, or every year on The Open winners list.
- Dates
- 6 October 1888
- Course
- Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland
- Edition
- 28th Open Championship
- Format
- 36 holes of stroke play
- Purse
- £20
- Trophy
- Claret Jug
- Champion
- Jack Burns · age 29 · Scotland · born St Andrews, Scotland
- Champion's title
- 1st Open title
- How he got in
- open entry (no qualifying)
- Winning score
- 86-85 = 171 · won by 1 stroke
- Runners-up
- David Anderson Jr (172), Ben Sayers (172)
- Final-day weather
- wind (strength not stated): Burns played well "on a day when the wind was blowing from the northwest"
- Low amateur
- Leslie Balfour Melville (175)
Top 10 as recorded
| Pos. | Player | R1 | R2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jack Burns | 86 | 85 | 171 |
| T2 | David Anderson Jr | 86 | 86 | 172 |
| T2 | Ben Sayers | 85 | 87 | 172 |
| 4 | Willie Campbell | 84 | 90 | 174 |
| 5 | Leslie Balfour Melville (a) | 86 | 89 | 175 |
| T6 | Andrew Kirkaldy | 87 | 89 | 176 |
| T6 | Davie Grant | 88 | 88 | 176 |
| 8 | Sandy Herd | 93 | 84 | 177 |
| 9 | David Ayton | 87 | 91 | 178 |
| 10 | John E. Laidlay (a) | 93 | 87 | 180 |
What happened at the 1888 Open Championship
An R&A member checking the cards found that Burns's morning outward half was 46, not the 47 written down, which turned an apparent tie into a one-stroke win.
David Anderson Jr was the first player to break 40 on the inward half.
The title turned on a card recount (Burns's outward half was 46, not 47), not on a hole.
How this was built
Every value is shown as recorded in GNN's The Open data. A value no source confirmed is left out; nothing is estimated. Where sources disagree, the organizer's own record is used.
Data: the-open.json (The Open room's data), with GNN's Open Championship addendum tables L (top ten by round), H (deciding hole), W (final-day weather).