2015 Open Championship

The 2015 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 144th Open Championship, held from 16 to 20 July at the Old Course at St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. It was the 29th Open Championship played at the course and Zach Johnson won in a four-hole playoff for his second major title.

2015 Open Championship
Tournament information
Dates16–20 July 2015
LocationSt Andrews, Scotland
56.343°N 2.803°W / 56.343; -2.803
Course(s)Old Course
Organized byThe R&A
Tour(s)
Statistics
Par72
Length7,297 yd (6,672 m)
Field156 players, 80 after cut
Cut144 (E)
Prize fund£6,300,000[1]
€8,717,310
$9,831,780
Winner's share£1,150,000[1]
€1,591,255
$1,794,690
Champion
United States Zach Johnson
273 (−15), playoff
Location Map
St Andrews is located in the United Kingdom
St Andrews
St Andrews
Location in the United Kingdom
St Andrews is located in Scotland
St Andrews
St Andrews
Location in Scotland
St Andrews is located in Fife
St Andrews
St Andrews
Location in Fife

World number one Rory McIlroy withdrew prior to the tournament due to an off-course ankle injury; he was the first defending champion absent from the Open in over sixty years, since Ben Hogan opted not to participate in 1954. Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth attempted to win a third consecutive major and take over the top ranking.[2][3] He finished one stroke out of the playoff, in a tie for fourth.[4]

Inclement weather – which included heavy rain and very strong winds – forced play to be suspended twice, on Friday and Saturday, with the latter having play suspended for nearly most of the day. The third round was held on Sunday and the final round (and playoff) on Monday.

This was also the last Open Championship played under the then present TV deals with the BBC and ESPN each having their swan song. NBC and Sky Sports would take over coverage the following year at Royal Troon.

This was the final Open appearance for five-time champion Tom Watson and three-time champion Nick Faldo who played in his last major championship.

Venue
Main article: Old Course at St Andrews

The 2015 event is the 29th Open Championship played at the Old Course at St Andrews. The most recent was in 2010 when Louis Oosthuizen won his only major title and became the second South African to win an Open Championship at St Andrews (Bobby Locke is the first, having won at St Andrews in 1957).

HoleNameYardsParHoleNameYardsPar
1Burn375410Bobby Jones3864
2Dyke452411High (In)1743
3Cartgate (Out)398412Heathery (In)3484
4Ginger Beer480413Hole O'Cross (In)4654
5Hole O'Cross (Out)570514Long6145
6Heathery (Out)414415Cartgate (In)4554
7High (Out)371416Corner of the Dyke4184
8Short174317Road4954
9End352418Tom Morris3564
Out3,58636In3,71136
Source:[5]Total7,29772

Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):[6]

Field

Criteria and exemptions

Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.[7][8]

1. The Open Champions aged 60 or under on 19 July 2015

2. The Open Champions for 2005–2014

3. The Open Champions finishing in the first 10 and tying for 10th place in The Open Championship 2009–2014[lower-alpha 1]

4. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2014 Open Championship

5. The first 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2015

6. First 30 in the Race to Dubai for 2014

7. The BMW PGA Championship winners for 2013–2015

8. First 5 European Tour members and any European Tour members tying for 5th place, not otherwise exempt, in the top 20 of the Race to Dubai on completion of the 2015 BMW International Open

9. The U.S. Open Champions for 2011–2015

10. The Masters Tournament Champions for 2011–2015

11. The PGA Champions for 2010–2014

12. The Players Champions for 2013–2015

13. The leading 30 qualifiers for the 2014 Tour Championship

14. First 5 PGA Tour members and any PGA Tour members tying for 5th place, not exempt in the top 20 of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup points list for 2015 on completion of the 2015 Travelers Championship

15. Playing members of the 2014 Ryder Cup teams

16. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the Asian Tour for 2014

17. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the PGA Tour of Australasia for 2014

18. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the Southern Africa PGA Sunshine Tour for 2014

19. The Japan Open Champion for 2014

20. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt, on the Official Money List of the Japan Golf Tour for 2014

21. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, in a cumulative money list taken from all official 2015 Japan Golf Tour events up to and including the 2015 Japan Golf Tour Championship

22. The Senior Open Champion for 2014

23. The Amateur Champion for 2015

24. The U.S. Amateur Champion for 2014

25. The European Amateur Champion for 2014

26. The Mark H. McCormack Medal winner for 2014

Open Qualifying Series

The Open Qualifying Series (OQS) consisted of 10 events from the six major tours. Places were available to the leading players (not otherwise exempt) who finished in the top n and ties. In the event of ties, positions went to players ranked highest according to that week's OWGR.[13]

LocationTournamentDateSpotsTopQualifiers
AustraliaEmirates Australian Open30 Nov310Greg Chalmers (17), Rod Pampling, Brett Rumford
ThailandThailand Golf Championship14 Dec412Marcus Fraser, Scott Hend, Anirban Lahiri (5), Jonathan Moore
AfricaJoburg Open1 Mar310David Howell, Andy Sullivan, Anthony Wall
JapanMizuno Open31 May412Scott Strange, Tadahiro Takayama, Taichi Teshima, Shinji Tomimura
IrelandThe Irish Open31 May310Tyrrell Hatton, Søren Kjeldsen, Eddie Pepperell
USATravelers Championship28 Jun412Graham DeLaet, Luke Donald, Brian Harman, Carl Pettersson
FranceAlstom Open de France5 Jul310Rafa Cabrera-Bello, James Morrison, Jaco van Zyl
USAGreenbrier Classic5 Jul412James Hahn, David Hearn, Danny Lee, Greg Owen
ScotlandScottish Open12 Jul310Daniel Brooks, Raphaël Jacquelin, Rikard Karlberg
USAJohn Deere Classic12 Jul15Tom Gillis

Final Qualifying

The Final Qualifying events were played on 30 June at four courses covering Scotland and the North-West, Central and South-coast regions of England. Three qualifying places were available at each location.[14]

LocationQualifiers[lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 4]
Gailes LinksRyan Fox, Paul Kinnear (a, R), Mark Young (R)
HillsideScott Arnold, Pelle Edberg, Jordan Niebrugge (a)
Royal Cinque PortsAlister Balcombe (a, R), Gary Boyd, Ben Taylor (a, R)
WoburnRobert Dinwiddie, Paul Dunne (a), Retief Goosen

Alternates

To make up the full field of 156, additional places were allocated in ranking order from the Official World Golf Ranking at the time that these places were made available by the Championship Committee. Any places made available after the 5 July 2015 used the week 27 rankings.[7]

From the Week 26 (week ending 29 June) Official World Golf Ranking:[15]

From the Week 27 (week ending 5 July) Official World Golf Ranking:

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Dustin Johnson posted a seven-under-par 65 on day one to lead by one shot from a group of six golfers.[17][18] Jordan Spieth was two shots off the lead after carding a 67.[19][20]

PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1United States Dustin Johnson65−7
T2Australia Jason Day66−6
South Africa Retief Goosen
United States Zach Johnson
Scotland Paul Lawrie
United States Robert Streb
England Danny Willett
T8United States Kevin Na67−5
United States Jordan Niebrugge (a)
South Africa Louis Oosthuizen
South Africa Charl Schwartzel
United States Jordan Spieth

*The last group completed play at approximately 9:36 pm. BST (UTC+1)

Second round

Friday and Saturday, 17–18 July 2015

The first group teed-off at 6:32 am BST on Friday, but heavy rain caused localised flooding and play was suspended at 6:46 am. Restarted at 10 am; later tee times were delayed over three hours . The tee time for the 52nd and last group was delayed from the original 4:13 pm to 7:27 pm. The second round was not completed on Friday and 42 players returned early Saturday to finish their rounds.[21][22][23]

Dustin Johnson was the overnight leader on 10-under-par after 13 holes, a stroke ahead of Danny Willett.[24] The day marked the final Open appearance of five-time champion Tom Watson at age 65.[25]

Play resumed on Saturday at 7 am, with the third round due to start at 11 am. However, play was soon suspended at 7:32 am because a strong wind was moving stationary balls on some of the greens. Because it was a non-dangerous situation, players were allowed to complete the hole they were playing. Dustin Johnson had bogeyed the 14th to move back to 9-under-par, tied for the lead with Willett.

After a delay of several hours, it was decided that only the remainder of the second round would be competed on Saturday, with the third round scheduled for Sunday and the fourth round for Monday. Play finally resumed at 6 pm, a 10½ hour delay, and was completed after 9 pm. The 36-hole cut was at even par 144 and eighty players advanced to the third round.

PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1United States Dustin Johnson65-69=134−10
2England Danny Willett66-69=135−9
3Scotland Paul Lawrie66-70=136−8
T4Australia Jason Day66-71=137−7
United States Zach Johnson66-71=137
South Africa Louis Oosthuizen67-70=137
Australia Adam Scott70-67=137
United States Robert Streb66-71=137
Scotland Marc Warren68-69=137
T10England Luke Donald68-70=138−6
Republic of Ireland Paul Dunne (a)69-69=138
South Africa Retief Goosen66-72=138
Japan Hideki Matsuyama72-66=138

*The last group completed play Saturday at approximately 9:19 pm.

Amateurs: Dunne (−6), Niebrugge (−4), Langasque (−3), Schniederjans (−2), Chesters (−1), Kinnear (+2), Yang (+6), Balcombe (+6), Taylor (+11)

Third round

Sunday, 19 July 2015

Amateur Paul Dunne was in a share of the lead after the third round along with Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day.[26] No amateur had led the Open after three rounds since 1927.[27]

PlacePlayerScoreTo par
T1Australia Jason Day66-71-67=204−12
Republic of Ireland Paul Dunne (a)69-69-66=204
South Africa Louis Oosthuizen67-70-67=204
4United States Jordan Spieth67-72-66=205−11
5Republic of Ireland Pádraig Harrington72-69-65=206−10
T6Spain Sergio García70-69-68=207−9
South Africa Retief Goosen66-72-69=207
United States Zach Johnson66-71-70=207
Australia Marc Leishman70-73-64=207
United States Jordan Niebrugge (a)67-73-67=207
England Justin Rose71-68-68=207
Australia Adam Scott70-67-70=207
United States Robert Streb66-71-70=207
England Danny Willett66-69-72=207

*The last group completed play Sunday at approximately 7:04 pm.

Amateurs: Dunne (−12), Niebrugge (−9), Chesters (−6), Schniederjans (−4), Langasque (−4)

Final round

Monday, 20 July 2015

Marc Leishman carded a 66 in the final round to have the lead in the clubhouse at −15 while the final pairings were beginning their back nine. Zach Johnson then birdied the 18th to also card a 66 and tie the clubhouse lead with Leishman. The second to last group of the round were Jason Day and Jordan Spieth. Day and Spieth both headed to the par-4 16th at −14, one shot back of Leishman and Johnson. Spieth hit a difficult putt to birdie to get to -15, while Day parred. On the famous par-4 17th "Road Hole," an errant approach shot by Spieth resulted in a bogey and he was back at −14. Day was unable to convert a difficult birdie putt and remained at −14 as well. At the 18th, Spieth's approach shot was short, in the "Valley of Sin" below the green; he almost holed the chip for birdie, but settled for par and 274 (−14). Day was left with a 15-foot (4.5 m) birdie putt to join the playoff, but could not convert and also ended a stroke back at 274.

The final pairing was Louis Oosthuizen and amateur Paul Dunne, who was at even par 36 out, but was four-over on the next four holes, fell out of contention, and tied for thirtieth place.[28] Oosthuizen played a solid round and needed a birdie at 18 to get into the playoff with Leishman and Johnson. His approach shot left him with a 10-foot (3 m) birdie putt, which he sunk. The Open Championship's rules dictated there would be a four-hole aggregate score playoff between Johnson, Leishman, and Oosthuizen. Johnson took the early lead on the first and never looked back, winning by a stroke over Oosthuizen.[29][30] The win was Johnson's second major championship victory; he won the Masters eight years earlier in 2007.[31]

Final leaderboard
Champion
Silver Medal winner (low amateur)
(a) = amateur
(c) = past champion
PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)
T1United States Zach Johnson66-71-70-66=273−15Playoff
Australia Marc Leishman70-73-64-66=273
South Africa Louis Oosthuizen (c)67-70-67-69=273
T4Australia Jason Day66-71-67-70=274−14295,000
United States Jordan Spieth67-72-66-69=274
T6Spain Sergio García70-69-68-70=277−11196,000
United States Jordan Niebrugge (a)67-73-67-70=2770
England Justin Rose71-68-68-70=277196,000
England Danny Willett66-69-72-70=277
T10United States Brooks Koepka71-70-69-68=278−10138,500
Australia Adam Scott70-67-70-71=278

Source:[28]

Scorecard
Hole123456789101112131415161718
Par444454434434454444
United States Johnson−9−10−10−11−12−12−13−13−14−15−15−16−15−15−15−15−14−15
Australia Leishman−10−10−11−12−13−13−13−13−14−15−15−16−16−16−16−15−15−15
South Africa Oosthuizen−13−13−13−13−13−14−14−13−14−14−14−15−14−14−14−14−14−15
Australia Day−12−12−12−12−13−14−14−14−14−14−14−14−14−14−14−14−14−14
United States Spieth−12−12−12−12−13−14−14−12−13−14−14−14−14−14−14−15−14−14
Spain García−10−10−11−11−12−12−13−13−13−14−14−13−12−12−12−12−11−11
United States Niebrugge−9−9−9−10−11−12−12−12−12−12−12−12−12−13−12−12−11−11
England Rose−9−9−9−9−10−10−10−10−10−10−10−11−10−10−10−10−10−11
England Willett−10−10−10−9−9−9−9−8−8−8−9−10−11−12−12−12−11−11
Republic of Ireland Harrington−11−12−12−12−13−11−11−10−10−10−11−11−11−10−9−10−8−7
Republic of Ireland Dunne−11−10−11−11−12−12−12−12−12−11−11−10−8−8−8−8−7−6

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Birdie Bogey Double bogey

Source:[28]

Playoff

This was the ninth four-hole playoff at the Open Championship, first used in 1989. The last playoff at St Andrews was twenty years earlier in 1995.

Johnson and Oosthuizen birdied the first while Leishman bogeyed; Johnson birdied the second and then the routing switched over to the Road Hole (#17), which all three bogeyed. All three made par at 18 and Johnson won the Claret Jug by a stroke.

PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)
1United States Zach Johnson3-3-5-4=15−11,150,000
T2South Africa Louis Oosthuizen3-4-5-4=16E536,500
Australia Marc Leishman5-4-5-4=18+2
  • Four-hole aggregate playoff on holes 1, 2, 17, and 18

Scorecard
Hole  1    2   17  18 
Par4444
United States Johnson−1−2−1−1
South Africa Oosthuizen−1−1EE
Australia Leishman+1+1+2+2

Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par
Source:[28]

Notes
  1. Category 3 was extended from 2010 back to 2009 to enable Watson to make a final Open appearance at St Andrews[10]
  2. Lahiri and Chalmers had already qualified through the Open Qualifying Series prior to meeting exemption criteria.
  3. (a) – indicates the player was an amateur.
  4. (R) – indicates a golfer who came through Regional Qualifying.
  5. Knox replaced Rory McIlroy.[9]
  6. Streelman replaced Chris Kirk.[11]
  7. Iwata replaced Alex Norén.[12]
  8. Ramsay replaced Tim Clark.[16]

References
  1. "The Champion Golfer of the Year will win more than £1 million at The Open". The Open. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  2. "Rory McIlroy pulls out of Open title defence at St Andrews through injury". The Guardian. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  3. "Jordan Spieth warns Open 2015 rivals: 'My putting is awesome right now'". The Guardian. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  4. Dawkes, Phil (20 July 2015). "Open 2015: Zach Johnson triumphs in play-off at St Andrews". BBC Sport. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  5. "St Andrews – The Old Course". Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  6. "Media guide". The Open Championship. 2011. pp. 19, 203. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  7. "The Open Championship – Entry Form" (PDF). The Open. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  8. "Exemptions". Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  9. "Rory McIlroy pulls out of British Open". Yahoo News. Associated Press. 8 July 2015.
  10. "The Open: Tom Watson delighted at 'very special' 2015 exemption". BBC Sport. 2 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  11. Ross, Helen (11 July 2015). "Kirk withdraws from Open Championship". PGA Tour.
  12. @TheOpen (12 July 2015). "Field update: Alex Noren of Sweden has withdrawn from #TheOpen due to injury and is replaced by Japan's Hiroshi Iwata" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. "The road to The Open begins in Australia". The Open. 23 November 2014. Archived from the original on 29 December 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  14. "Players". The Open. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  15. "Donald secures return to The Open". The Open. 29 June 2015. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  16. @TheOpen (12 July 2015). "Field update: Tim Clark (South Africa) has withdrawn from #TheOpen and is replaced by Richie Ramsay (Scotland)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  17. Dirs, Ben (16 July 2015). "Open 2015: Dustin Johnson leads at St Andrews after day one". BBC Sport. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  18. Bull, JJ; Lucas, Dan (16 July 2015). "The Open 2015, day one - as it happened". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  19. Murray, Scott; Smith, Alan (16 July 2015). "The Open 2015: day one – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  20. Murray, Ewan (16 July 2015). "Dustin Johnson leads Open after superb 65 as he chases major redemption". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  21. "Dustin Johnson retains lead with five holes left in second round". ESPN. 17 July 2015.
  22. Murray, Ewan (18 July 2015). "The Open suffers storm of criticism as wind wreaks havoc at St Andrews". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  23. Murray, Scott; Smith, Alan (20 July 2015). "The Open 2015: day two – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  24. Dirs, Ben (17 July 2015). "Open 2015: Dustin Johnson leads after day two at St Andrews". BBC Sport. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  25. Murray, Scott (18 July 2015). "The Open 2015: day three – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  26. Murray, Ewan (20 July 2015). "The Open 2015: I don't see why I can't win Claret Jug, says Paul Dunne". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  27. Murray, Scott (20 July 2015). "The Open 2015: round three – as it happened". Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  28. "The Open". ESPN. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  29. Murray, Scott (20 July 2015). "The Open 2015: fourth round - as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  30. "Open 2015: Zach Johnson 'humbled' by St Andrews victory". BBC Sport. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  31. Corrigan, James (20 July 2015). "The Open 2015: Zach Johnson holds nerve against Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen to win first Claret Jug". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
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