An official (and unofficial) record of every hole-in-one in Open Championship history

How many Open Championship holes-in-one have there been? The answer is trickier than you think. Allow us, with the help of the R&A’s resident historian, to explain…

Have you ever found yourself punching “Open Championship holes-in-one” into Google and getting very little in return? Don’t worry, us too.

So we reached out to The R&A’s resident historian, Gilles Wilson, to try and get to the bottom of it. And it turns out there’s a good reason.

The problem is, we still don’t really know the answer.

That’s because records only began in 1981, when the governing body hired tech giants Unisys to keep track of these things.

So, officially, there are 30. Unofficially, there are 50. With Wilson’s help, let’s dive a bit deeper…

Open Championship holes-in-one (1860-1980)

Holes-in-one were not officially recorded for the first 120 years of the competition, with Wilson able to pull together a record of 20 from various newspaper clippings and other reports.

The honor of having the earliest hole-in-one recorded at The Open falls to Young Tom Morris for his ace on the 8th at Prestwick en route to winning the second of four straight titles. (Morris Jr remains the only person to have won four Opens in a row.)

Wilson also notes that, in 1921, Jock Hutchison nearly aced the very next hole, too. His 300-yard drive on the Old Course’s 9th hit the lip and stopped just inches from the hole.

Elsewhere, Charlie Ward was the first player to have two recorded Open holes-in-one. He was later joined in this club by Paul McGinley.

In 1973, 19-year-old David J Russell and 71-year-old Gene Sarazen both aced Troon’s famous Postage Stamp within an hour of each other. (Sarazen played in 81 majors, winning seven including the Grand Slam before Russell was born.) Sarazen remains the oldest player to have a hole-in-one at The Open. When asked if he had seen it go in, he replied: “No, I can’t see that far any more.”

Incidentally, I reached out to Peter Dawson, with whom I have played golf several times over the years, and he replied: “Ah, yes, a 5-iron at 9am with one man and his dog watching. It was also the last time I hit a green.”

Open Championship holes-in-one (1981-present)

In 1981, The R&A hired tech specialists Unisys to keep an official record of all aces made at The Open, of which there have been 30 to date…

Open Championship hole-in-one records

Three players have had a hole-in-one en route to victory: Young Tom Morris, Jamie Anderson and, most recently, Jock Hutchison.

There have also been three aces from players who were amateurs at the time: David J Russell, Roger Chapman and Daniel Olsson.

From the official list, the 16th at Royal St George’s has been, by far, the scene of most Open aces with five. Turnberry’s 4th, Muirfield’s 7th, Troon’s 8th and 14th, Lytham’s 9th, St Andrews’ 11th, and Birkdale’s 12th are all tied-second with two each.

There have been seven years where there have been more than one hole-in-one in a single championship, but the record is three, and it’s happened on two occasions: 1981 and 1997 – the latter of which was especially peculiar as all three were by Swedish players.

And the longest Open hole-in-one on record was the 50th and most recent by Si Woo Kim at Royal Troon’s 17th in 2024, which measured 238 yards, with the official number coming in at 242 yards.