R&A Archive Historic Material

The R&A Archive holds an impressive collection of professionally restored historic material. Footage dating back to 1898 has been painstakingly restored to former glories in order to preserve the history and heritage of the world's most prestigious golf tournament.

The collection of restored footage includes:

Early Footage
- Willie Park Jr. playing against Willie Fernie at Musselburgh in May 1898, thought to be the earliest footage of golf.
- Unique footage of The Great Triumvirate of golf, J. H. Taylor, James Braid and Harry Vardon playing and teaching golf around 1909.
- Vardon playing against Braid in an exhibition match in Edinburgh in 1904.
- Vardon remains the only player to ever win the Open Championship 6 times, while Braid and Taylor were both champions on 5 occasions.

Black & white Newsreel vignettes, shot by British Movietone, British Pathe and Reuters, dating from 1920 to 1972, including the historic Captain Driving In Ceremony at St Andrews and unique footage of Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Henry Cotton, Peter Thomson, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer.

Duration:
Over 5 hours of footage.

1970 Official Film, which features the best action from the year’s play, available in High Definition.

Players featured include: Jack Nicklaus, Doug Sanders, Lee Trevino and Tony Jacklin.

Duration:
52 mins.


Rights Available:
All Media rights are available world-wide and pre-approval is required on all potential deals.