The story of how Doug Sanders was prevented from becoming a major champion after heartbreak at the 1970 Open

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The Open Championship is the one tournament that all professional golfers want to win.

Most of the game’s greatest players have all been successful at The Open Championship, including the likes of Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods and many more.

The Open is held at historic venues every year, giving the world’s best players the chance to play the game in its rawest form.

The first Open Championship was held way back in 1860 at Prestwick in Scotland, and this year the 153rd edition will be hosted by Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.

There have been some truly memorable moments witnessed throughout the years in professional golf’s oldest tournament.

However, perhaps one of the most heartbreaking scenes was when Doug Sanders missed out on winning the 1970 Open at St Andrews.

How Doug Sanders was prevented from winning the 1970 Open

After 71 holes of The Open at St Andrews 55 years ago, it looked like Sanders had the title wrapped up.

However, it wasn’t to be for him.

Faced with a three-foot putt for par on the 18th hole of the final round, Sanders addressed his ball, before stepping away and going through his pre-shot routine all over again.

It was no surprise when Sanders shoved his putt out to the right and missed by some margin. The way he was set up to the ball looked all wrong from the start.

He looked nervous and completely out of his comfort zone.

The missed putt meant that he faced an 18-hole play-off with Jack Nicklaus the following day – one that he lost by just one stroke.

It was obviously a heartbreaking way for him to lose The Open, but he took the defeat like a real gentleman, and Nicklaus always gave him great credit for that.

There wouldn’t have been a day that went by without Sanders thinking to himself what might have been.

Sanders sadly passed away in April 2020 at the age of 86, and he will always be remembered for the impeccable manner in which he carried himself both on and off the golf course.

What Jack Nicklaus said about Doug Sanders

Nicklaus obviously benefitted from Sanders’ missed putt on the 72nd hole of The Open at St Andrews in 1970.

The Golden Bear has since been hugely complimentary of Sanders since that championship 55 years ago.

“Doug was a really good player, he just was never quite able to push it over the edge at majors. He was a great and tough competitor. He had a terrific short game and was a wonderful putter.“

Sanders never won a major unfortunately, but he came very close to doing so.

In spite of his failure to win a major, Sanders enjoyed a very successful career nonetheless, with 20 PGA Tour titles to his name.

It’s just such a shame that he never managed to get over the line in one of golf’s four biggest tournaments.