Carnoustie the Championship course, on which several international tournaments are held, the Burnside course and the Buddon course. Carnoustie Golf Links is one of the venues in The Open Championship's rotation. The course first played host to The Open in 1931, when it was won by Tommy Armour of the USA. Subsequent winners have included Henry Cotton of England in 1937, Ben Hogan of the USA in 1953, Gary Player of South Africa in 1968, Tom Watson of the USA in 1975, Paul Lawrie of Scotland in 1999, Pádraig Harrington of Ireland in 2007, and Francesco Molinari of Italy in 2018.
The Open Championship early postwar years The Open was dominated by golfers from the Commonwealth, with South African Bobby Locke and Australian Peter Thomson winning the Claret Jug in eight of the 11 championships from 1948 and 1958 between them. During this period, The Open often had a schedule conflict with the match-play PGA Championship, which meant that Ben Hogan, the best American golfer at this time, competed in The Open just once, in 1953 at Carnoustie, a tournament he won. Another South African, Gary Player was Champion in 1959. This was at the beginning of the "Big Three" era in professional golf,