1955 Open Championship: Peter Thomson wins at Old Course, St Andrews
Peter Thomson won the 1955 Open Championship at Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland with 281, by 2 strokes over John Fallon.
Updated October 23, 2026
See 1955 in The Open room, or every year on The Open winners list.
- Dates
- 6 July 1955 to 8 July 1955
- Course
- Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland
- Edition
- 84th Open Championship
- Format
- 72 holes of stroke play
- Field
- 94
- Made the cut
- 49
- Purse
- £3,750 · winner's share £1,000
- Trophy
- Claret Jug (replica to winner)
- Champion
- Peter Thomson · age 25 · Australia · born Brunswick (Melbourne), Australia
- Champion's title
- 2nd Open title
- Winning score
- 71-68-70-72 = 281 · won by 2 strokes
- Runner-up
- John Fallon (283)
- 54-hole leader
- Peter Thomson (209)
- Low amateur
- Joe Conrad (293)
Top 11 as recorded
| Pos. | Player | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Thomson | 71 | 68 | 70 | 72 | 281 |
| 2 | John Fallon | 73 | 67 | 73 | 70 | 283 |
| 3 | Frank Jowle | 70 | 71 | 69 | 74 | 284 |
| 4 | Bobby Locke | 74 | 69 | 70 | 72 | 285 |
| T5 | Bernard Hunt | 70 | 71 | 74 | 71 | 286 |
| T5 | Flory Van Donck | 71 | 72 | 71 | 72 | 286 |
| T5 | Ken Bousfield | 71 | 75 | 70 | 70 | 286 |
| T5 | Antonio Cerda | 73 | 71 | 71 | 71 | 286 |
| T5 | Harry Weetman | 71 | 71 | 70 | 74 | 286 |
| T10 | Christy O'Connor Snr | 71 | 75 | 70 | 71 | 287 |
| T10 | Romualdo Barbieri | 71 | 71 | 73 | 72 | 287 |
What happened at the 1955 Open Championship
Thomson found the Beardies bunkers at the 14th and took a double-bogey 7, then birdied the next hole and went on to win.
Thomson's £1,000 was the first four-figure cheque paid to an Open champion, and the BBC televised parts of the final round for the first time.
No source names a deciding hole; Thomson took a double-bogey 7 in the Beardies at the 14th, birdied the next hole and won by two.
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).