The 1998 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 127th Open Championship, held from 16 to 19 July at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. In weekend wind and rain, Mark O'Meara won his second major championship of the year and first Open Championship in a playoff over Brian Watts, the 54-hole leader.
Three months earlier, O'Meara won the Masters on the final green by sinking a birdie putt. At age 41, he became the oldest player to win two majors in a year: Jack Nicklaus (1980), Ben Hogan (1953), and Craig Wood (1941) were all age forty. (Hogan won three majors and turned 41 two weeks after the third.) This was also the first major championship since the 1961 PGA Championship in which Nicklaus was not in the field.
At the previous Open at Royal Birkdale seven years earlier in 1991, O'Meara was a co-leader after 54 holes, shot 69, and tied for
Course
Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal Yards4494214072033444801774574113,3494034081834981985444165474723,6697,018 Par444344344344434354543670 Source: Lengths of the course for previous Opens:
1991: , par 70 1983: , par 71 1976: , par 72 1971: , par 73
1965: , par 73 1961: 1954:
Round summaries First round Thursday, 16 July 1998 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 John Huston65−5 Tiger WoodsT3 Fred Couples66−4 Nick Price Loren RobertsT6 Robert Allenby67−3 Brad Faxon Freddie Jacobson Davis Love III Vijay Singh Source:
Second round Friday, 17 July 1998 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Brian Watts68-69=137−3T2 Nick Price66-72=138−2 Justin Rose (a)72-66=138 Tiger Woods65-73=1385 Thomas Bjørn68-71=139−1T6 Stephen Ames68-72=140E Fred Couples66-74=140 Jim Furyk70-70=140 Davis Love III67-73=140 Mark O'Meara72-68=140 Jesper Parnevik68-72=140 Source: Amateurs: Rose (-2), García (+4), De Vooght (+6), McCarthy (+8), Kuchar (+10).
Third round Saturday, 18 July 1998 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Brian Watts68-69-73=210ET2 Jim Furyk70-70-72=212+2 Mark O'Meara72-68-72=212 Jesper Parnevik68-72-72=2125 Justin Rose (a)72-66-75=213+3T6 Thomas Bjørn68-71-76=215+5 Brad Faxon67-74-74=215 John Huston65-77-73=215 Tiger Woods65-73-77=215T10 David Duval70-71-75=216 +6 Costantino Rocca72-74-70=216 Raymond Russell68-73-75=216 Katsuyoshi Tomori75-71-70=216 Source:
Final round Sunday, 19 July 1998 PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)T1 Mark O'Meara 72-68-72-68=280 E Playoff Brian Watts 68-69-73-70=280 3 Tiger Woods 65-73-77-66=281 +1 135,000T4 Jim Furyk 70-70-72-70=282 +2 76,667 Jesper Parnevik 68-72-72-70=282 Justin Rose (a) 72-66-75-69=282 0 Raymond Russell 68-73-75-66=282 76,6678 Davis Love III 67-73-77-68=285 +5 49,500T9 Thomas Bjørn 68-71-76-71=286 +6 40,850 Costantino Rocca 72-74-70-70=286 Sources: Amateurs: Rose (+2), García (+12), De Vooght (+19).
Playoff The four-hole aggregate playoff was played on the concluding holes (15–18).O'Meara birdied the first, while Watts parred, and they halved the next two holes with pars.Watts bogeyed the final hole, while O'Meara parred to win the playoff by two strokes and the Claret Jug. PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)1 Mark O'Meara 4-4-5-4=17 −1 300,0002 Brian Watts 5-4-5-5=19 +1 188,000 Four-hole aggregate playoff on holes 15–18
Scorecard Hole 15 16 17 18 Par5454 O'Meara −1−1−1−1 Watts E E E +1 Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par EagleBirdieBogeyDouble bogey Source:
References
External links Royal Birkdale 1998 (Official site) 127th Open Championship – Royal Birkdale (European Tour)