The Open’s Greatest

Fans of The Open have chosen Jack Nicklaus as the Championship’s greatest player, with the Golden Bear pipping Seve Ballesteros to the honour.

The Open’s Greatest, our biggest-ever fan vote, was held across the Championship’s social media channels over the past four weeks, with matches involving the finest stars from every generation being decided over Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

The contests between players old and new attracted almost 50,000 votes in total and more than 10 per cent of those decided the final match between Nicklaus and Ballesteros.

Nicklaus, who won The Open in 1966, 1970 and 1978 as well as finishing second on an extraordinary seven occasions, edged out fellow three-time Champion Golfer Tiger Woods with 57% of the vote to make the final.

The other last-four match-up was even closer, with Ballesteros, who lifted the Claret Jug in 1979, 1984 and 1988, claiming 51% of the vote against five-time Champion Tom Watson.

Fittingly, the final then went down to the wire as over 5,500 votes were cast across all platforms.

Ballesteros took 55% of the votes on Twitter and also received more approval on Instagram. However, Nicklaus received more votes on Instagram Stories, Facebook and YouTube, ensuring he won by the slender overall margin of 112 votes.

The Open’s Greatest provided the latest celebration of the Championship’s incredible journey ahead of The 150th Open at St Andrews.

Nicklaus was also the winner of The Open For The Ages in 2020, an exclusive edition of The Open that used real archive footage to create a unique Championship featuring the greatest players of the last 50 years.

Members of The One Club can watch Nicklaus’ Chronicles of a Champion Golfer film here, in which the 18-time Major winner discusses his path to Open glory.