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.
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. He finished one stroke out of the playoff, in a tie for fourth.
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
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).
HoleNameYardsPar HoleNameYardsPar1Burn3754 10Bobby Jones38642Dyke452411High (In)17433Cartgate (Out)398412Heathery (In)34844Ginger Beer480413Hole O'Cross (In)46545Hole O'Cross (Out)570514Long61456Heathery (Out)414415Cartgate (In)45547High (Out)371416Corner of the Dyke41848Short174317Road49549End352418Tom Morris3564Out3,58636In3,71136Source: Total7,29772
Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):
2010: 2005: 2000: 1995: 1990: 1984:
1978: 1970: 1964: 1960: 1955:
Field Criteria and exemptions Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
1. The Open Champions aged 60 or under on 19 July 2015
Mark Calcavecchia (3) Stewart Cink (2,3) Darren Clarke (2,3) Ben Curtis John Daly David Duval Ernie Els (2,3) Nick Faldo Todd Hamilton Pádraig Harrington (2) Paul Lawrie Tom Lehman Justin Leonard (3) Sandy Lyle Phil Mickelson (2,3,5,15) Mark O'Meara Louis Oosthuizen (2,3,5,6) Tiger Woods (2,3,12)
Eligible but did not enter: Ian Baker-Finch, Greg Norman, Nick Price Rory McIlroy (2,3,4,5,6,7,9,11,13,15) withdrew with an ankle injury.
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 Tom Watson
4. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2014 Open Championship
Victor Dubuisson (5,6,15) Rickie Fowler (5,12,13,15) Jim Furyk (5,13,15) Sergio García (5,6,13,15) Marc Leishman Shane Lowry (5,6) Graeme McDowell (5,6,15) Edoardo Molinari Charl Schwartzel (5,6,10) Adam Scott (5,10,13)
5. The first 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2015
Keegan Bradley (11,15) Paul Casey Jason Day (13) Jamie Donaldson (6,15) Matt Every Branden Grace Bill Haas (13) J. B. Holmes Billy Horschel (13) Thongchai Jaidee (6) Miguel Ángel Jiménez (6) Dustin Johnson (13) Zach Johnson (13,15) Martin Kaymer (6,9,11,12,13,15) Brooks Koepka (6) Matt Kuchar (13,15) Anirban Lahiri (OQS) Joost Luiten (6) Hunter Mahan (13,15) Ben Martin Hideki Matsuyama (13) Ryan Moore Kevin Na (13) Ryan Palmer (13) Ian Poulter (6,15) Patrick Reed (13,15) Justin Rose (6,9,13,15) Webb Simpson (9,13,15) Brandt Snedeker Jordan Spieth (9,10,13,15) Henrik Stenson (6,15) Brendon Todd (13) Jimmy Walker (13,15) Bubba Watson (10,13,15) Lee Westwood (6,15) Bernd Wiesberger Danny Willett (6) Gary Woodland (13)
Chris Kirk (13) withdrew with a hand injury.
6. First 30 in the Race to Dubai for 2014
Thomas Bjørn (15) Jonas Blixt George Coetzee Ross Fisher Tommy Fleetwood Stephen Gallacher (15) Mikko Ilonen Pablo Larrazábal Alexander Lévy Marcel Siem Marc Warren Romain Wattel
7. The BMW PGA Championship winners for 2013–2015
An Byeong-hun Matteo Manassero
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 Kiradech Aphibarnrat Alex Norén withdrew with an injury.
9. The U.S. Open Champions for 2011–2015
10. The Masters Tournament Champions for 2011–2015
11. The PGA Champions for 2010–2014 Jason Dufner
12. The Players Champions for 2013–2015
13. The leading 30 qualifiers for the 2014 Tour Championship
Russell Henley Morgan Hoffmann Geoff Ogilvy John Senden Cameron Tringale
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
Steven Bowditch Charley Hoffman Kevin Kisner Robert Streb
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 David Lipsky
17. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the PGA Tour of Australasia for 2014 Greg Chalmers (OQS)
18. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the Southern Africa PGA Sunshine Tour for 2014 Thomas Aiken
19. The Japan Open Champion for 2014 Yuta Ikeda
20. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt, on the Official Money List of the Japan Golf Tour for 2014
Hiroyuki Fujita Koumei Oda
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
Adam Bland Liang Wenchong
22. The Senior Open Champion for 2014 Bernhard Langer
23. The Amateur Champion for 2015 Romain Langasque (a)
24. The U.S. Amateur Champion for 2014 Gunn Yang (a)
25. The European Amateur Champion for 2014 Ashley Chesters (a)
26. The Mark H. McCormack Medal winner for 2014 Ollie Schniederjans (a)
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.
Location Tournament Date Spots Top Qualifiers Australia Emirates Australian Open 30 Nov 3 10 Greg Chalmers (17), Rod Pampling, Brett Rumford Thailand Thailand Golf Championship 14 Dec 4 12 Marcus Fraser, Scott Hend, Anirban Lahiri (5), Jonathan Moore Africa Joburg Open 1 Mar 3 10 David Howell, Andy Sullivan, Anthony Wall Japan Mizuno Open 31 May 4 12 Scott Strange, Tadahiro Takayama, Taichi Teshima, Shinji Tomimura Ireland The Irish Open 31 May 3 10 Tyrrell Hatton, Søren Kjeldsen, Eddie Pepperell USA Travelers Championship 28 Jun 4 12 Graham DeLaet, Luke Donald, Brian Harman, Carl Pettersson France Alstom Open de France 5 Jul 3 10 Rafa Cabrera-Bello, James Morrison, Jaco van Zyl USA Greenbrier Classic 5 Jul 4 12 James Hahn, David Hearn, Danny Lee, Greg Owen Scotland Scottish Open 12 Jul 3 10 Daniel Brooks, Raphaël Jacquelin, Rikard Karlberg USA John Deere Classic 12 Jul 1 5 Tom 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.
Location Qualifiers Gailes Links Ryan Fox, Paul Kinnear (a, R), Mark Young (R) Hillside Scott Arnold, Pelle Edberg, Jordan Niebrugge (a) Royal Cinque Ports Alister Balcombe (a, R), Gary Boyd, Ben Taylor (a, R) Woburn Robert 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.
From the Week 26 (week ending 29 June) Official World Golf Ranking:
Francesco Molinari (ranked 43) Matt Jones (67) David Lingmerth (72) Harris English (74) Daniel Berger (75)
Tim Clark (71) withdrew.
From the Week 27 (week ending 5 July) Official World Golf Ranking:
Russell Knox (ranked 77) Kevin Streelman (80) Hiroshi Iwata (81) Richie Ramsay (82)
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. Jordan Spieth was two shots off the lead after carding a 67.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Dustin Johnson 65 −7T2 Jason Day 66 −6 Retief Goosen Zach Johnson Paul Lawrie Robert Streb Danny WillettT8 Kevin Na 67 −5 Jordan Niebrugge (a) Louis Oosthuizen Charl Schwartzel 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
Dustin Johnson was the overnight leader on 10-under-par after 13 holes, a stroke ahead of Danny Willett. The day marked the final Open appearance of five-time champion Tom Watson at age 65.
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 par1 Dustin Johnson 65-69=134 −102 Danny Willett 66-69=135 −93 Paul Lawrie 66-70=136 −8T4 Jason Day 66-71=137 −7 Zach Johnson 66-71=137 Louis Oosthuizen 67-70=137 Adam Scott 70-67=137 Robert Streb 66-71=137 Marc Warren 68-69=137T10 Luke Donald 68-70=138 −6 Paul Dunne (a) 69-69=138 Retief Goosen 66-72=138 Hideki Matsuyama 72-66=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. No amateur had led the Open after three rounds since 1927. PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Jason Day 66-71-67=204 −12 Paul Dunne (a) 69-69-66=204 Louis Oosthuizen 67-70-67=2044 Jordan Spieth 67-72-66=205 −115 Pádraig Harrington 72-69-65=206 −10T6 Sergio García 70-69-68=207 −9 Retief Goosen 66-72-69=207 Zach Johnson 66-71-70=207 Marc Leishman 70-73-64=207 Jordan Niebrugge (a) 67-73-67=207 Justin Rose 71-68-68=207 Adam Scott 70-67-70=207 Robert Streb 66-71-70=207 Danny Willett 66-69-72=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