"Wethered was due to play for his local cricket team the following day and it took a great deal of persuasion to make him stay on for the 36-hole play-off. In an anti-climactic finale to a dramatic championship he was beaten by nine shots by the seasoned professional."

Hutchison was a native of St. Andrews, but by 1921 had become a naturalized American citizen. His victory here is credited as the first British Open win for an American (a year later, Walter Hagen became the first native-born American to win the Open Championship). His win this year was Hutchison's second (and last) major championship victory; he also won the 1920 PGA Championship. And Hutchison later won the inaugural Senior PGA Championship, in 1937.

Runner-up Wethered was the brother of Joyce Wethered, who some golf historians argue is the greatest female golfer of all-time.

Bobby Jones played the Old Course at St. Andrews for the first time at the 1921 British Open, and it was not a good experience. Jones simply walked off the course during the third round. He took four swings at his ball in a deep bunker on the 11th hole, failed to get the ball out, then picked it up and walked off. Jones was raked in the media for his actions, but later on St. Andrews and Jones would embrace one another.