Golf’s oldest major championship, The Open, deserves a fitting prize and, since the very first in 1860, The Open has had two in the Challenge Belt and Claret Jug.
The Challenge Belt and the original Golf Champion Trophy – better known as the Claret Jug – both reside on permanent display within The R&A clubhouse in St Andrews.
Their origins, and the stories of those who won, have become enshrined in the legends of the sport.
So let’s take a closer look at the two awards and how they came into being…
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The Challenge Belt
Even accounting for its age, it remains a handsome reward for any victorious player. In red Moroccan leather, with a centred silver buckle showing two golfers and their caddies playing golf, it was an eye-catching prize for a new tournament.
The Challenge Belt was the brainchild of the Earl of Eglington, who was a pivotal figure in the birth of what we now know as The Open.
In the first part of their history of The R&A series, Challenges and Champions 1754-1883, John Behrend and Peter Lewis write that the Earl’s “interest in medieval ritual and pageantry” drove its introduction.
Of course, having belts as prizes were not unnecessarily unusual – as fans of boxing will understand, and the cost was met by subscriptions from the Prestwick membership.
That cost was a princely £25 – more than £3,000 in today’s money – and was brought from Edinburgh silversmiths James & Walter Marshall.
With such an expensive prize in place, the members took specific precautions, laid down in the first tournament rules, to protect that investment.
“The party winning the belt shall always leave the belt with the treasurer of the club until he produces a guarantee to the satisfaction of the above committee that the belt should be safely kept and laid on the table at the next meeting to compete for it until it becomes the property of the winner by being won three years in succession.”
