1934 Open Championship: Henry Cotton wins at Royal St George's Golf Club
Henry Cotton won the 1934 Open Championship at Royal St George's Golf Club, Sandwich, England with 283, by 5 strokes over Sid Brews.
Updated October 23, 2026
See 1934 in The Open room, or every year on The Open winners list.
- Dates
- 27 June 1934 to 29 June 1934
- Course
- Royal St George's Golf Club, Sandwich, England
- Edition
- 69th Open Championship
- Format
- 72 holes of stroke play
- Field
- 101
- Made the cut
- 66 (cut at 153)
- Purse
- £500 · winner's share £100
- Trophy
- Claret Jug (replica to winner)
- Champion
- Henry Cotton · age 27 · England · born Holmes Chapel, England
- Champion's title
- 1st Open title
- Winning score
- 67-65-72-79 = 283 · won by 5 strokes
- Runner-up
- Sid Brews (288)
- 54-hole leader
- Henry Cotton (204)
- Deciding hole
- No. 13, round 4
- Final-day weather
- windy and wet: "The final day's play was rainy and windy"; Cotton shot 72 "on a rainy final morning"
- Low amateur
- Jack McLean (300)
Top 10 as recorded
| Pos. | Player | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Henry Cotton | 67 | 65 | 72 | 79 | 283 |
| 2 | Sid Brews | 76 | 71 | 70 | 71 | 288 |
| 3 | Alf Padgham | 71 | 70 | 75 | 74 | 290 |
| T4 | Joe Kirkwood | 74 | 69 | 71 | 78 | 292 |
| T4 | Macdonald Smith | 77 | 71 | 72 | 72 | 292 |
| T4 | Marcel Dallemagne | 71 | 73 | 71 | 77 | 292 |
| T7 | Charles Whitcombe | 71 | 72 | 74 | 78 | 295 |
| T7 | Bert Hodson | 71 | 74 | 74 | 76 | 295 |
| T9 | Percy Alliss | 73 | 75 | 71 | 77 | 296 |
| T9 | Ernest Whitcombe | 72 | 77 | 73 | 74 | 296 |
What happened at the 1934 Open Championship
Cotton's second-round 65 set a new Open record, and Dunlop named its "65" ball after it.
That night Cotton put the Claret Jug in Harry Vardon's hands at his Sandwich hotel, and both men shed a tear.
Collapsing with stomach cramps, Cotton plugged in a bunker at the 13th in what SI calls "the make-or-break point", got up and down with a chip and putt (R&A: "to settle his nerves") and won by five.
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).