The Open Championship: Opta facts

Shane Lowry was hoping to become the first player to win back-to-back Opens since Padraig Harrington.

London, July 16: The 149th Open Championship was scheduled to begin on Thursday, but Royal St George's must wait another year for its moment in the spotlight.

With the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic having led to the removal of golf's oldest major from the 2020 calendar, the Claret Jug will not be contested until next July.

In the absence of any links action, we have teamed up with our friends at Opta to bring you some of the best facts behind the postponed tournament.

- Royal St George's first hosted the tournament in 1894; the first time the Open Championship took place outside Scotland.

- Only three courses have held the Open Championship on more occasions than Royal St George's (14); St Andrews (29), Prestwick (24) and Muirfield (16).

- This edition of the Open Championship was the first instance of the event being cancelled since World War Two.

- There has only been one play-off in the last 10 Open tournaments (2015); there had been four play-offs in the eight previous editions.

- Four of the last six Opens have been won by Europeans, more than any other major over the same period.

- Shane Lowry – victorious at Royal Portrush last year – was hoping to become the first player to win back-to-back Opens since Padraig Harrington in 2007 and 2008.

- Lowry won the 2019 Open Championship by a margin of six shots; he was the first golfer from the Republic of Ireland to win a major since Harrington won two of them in 2008 (The Open and US PGA Championship).

- Tiger Woods last won the Open in 2006 at Hoylake – if he were to win at Royal St George's, he would have set the longest gap between two Open victories (14 years).

- Nick Faldo is the last English player to win the Open, that victory coming 28 years ago in 1992 at Muirfield. In fact, since the turn of the century, only two Englishmen have won a major: Justin Rose (2013 US Open) and Danny Willett (2016 Masters).

- The last two editions of this competition have seen an Englishman finish as a runner-up: Tommy Fleetwood in 2019 and Rose tied for second in 2018.