Lee Trevino won The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 1971.
The 1971 event was the 100th Open Championship and was played from 7 to 10 July at the Southport course. Trevino finished at 278, fourteen under par, and won by one stroke over Taiwan’s Lu Liang-Huan. Tony Jacklin finished third, two strokes behind the champion.
The victory was the third major championship of Trevino’s remarkable 1971 season. He had already won the U.S. Open and then captured the Canadian Open immediately before The Open. By winning at Royal Birkdale, he became only the fourth player to win both the U.S. Open and The Open in the same year, following Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan.
Trevino’s Birkdale victory is sometimes confused with his second Open title. He successfully defended the championship in 1972 at Muirfield in Scotland, defeating Jack Nicklaus by one stroke. Thus, 1971 is the Royal Birkdale win, while 1972 is the later title in Scotland.