Lee Trevino won the first of his consecutive Open Championships, one stroke ahead of Lu Liang-Huan.

[2][3] It was the third of his six major titles and his second consecutive; he won the U.S. Open less than a month earlier in a playoff over Jack Nicklaus.

[4][5] Trevino became the fourth player to win both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship in the same year, joining Bobby Jones (1926, 1930), Gene Sarazen (1932), and Ben Hogan (1953).

Subsequent winners of both were Tom Watson (1982) and Tiger Woods (2000); all six are Americans.

Trevino's win, therefore, assured that Americans won all four major championships in 1971 (Charles Coody won the Masters Tournament and Nicklaus captured the PGA).