2017 Open Championship


The 2017 Open Championship was a major golf championship and the 146th Open Championship, held 20–23 July at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. It was the tenth Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, which held its first in 1954.
Jordan Spieth shot four rounds in the sixties for 268, three strokes ahead of runner-up Matt Kuchar, for his third major title, and the second in which he led wire-to-wire. In the third round, Branden Grace scored 62 to set a new major championship record.
This was the first year that the prize money was paid in U.S. dollars, rather than British pounds.

Media

This was the second Open Championship televised domestically by Sky Sports. In the United States, it is the second Open Championship to be televised by NBC.

Venue

This was the tenth Open Championship at Royal Birkdale; the ninth in 2008 saw Pádraig Harrington successfully defend his 2007 title from Carnoustie.

Course layout

Lengths of the course for previous Opens:

Field

The Open Championship field was made up of 156 players, who gained entry through various exemption criteria and qualifying tournaments. The criteria included past Open champions, recent major winners, top ranked players in the world rankings and from the leading world tours, and winners and high finishers from various designated tournaments, including the Open Qualifying Series; the winners of designated amateur events, including The Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur, also gained exemption provided they remain an amateur. Anyone not qualifying via exemption, and had a handicap of 0.4 or lower, could gain entry through regional and final qualifying events.

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 23 July 2017
2. The Open Champions for 2007–2016
3. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2016 Open Championship
4. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking for Week 21, 2017
5. Top 30 on the 2016 Race to Dubai
6. Last three BMW PGA Championship winners
7. Top 5 players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2017 Race to Dubai through the BMW International Open
8. Last five U.S. Open winners
9. Last five Masters Tournament winners
10. Last five PGA Championship winners
11. Last three Players Championship winners
12. The 30 qualifiers for the 2016 [FedEx Cup Playoffs|2016] Tour Championship
13. Top 5 players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2017 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship
14. Winner of the 2016 Summer Olympics|2016 Olympic Golf Tournament]
15. Winner of the 2016 Open de Argentina
16. Winner and runner-up from the 2017 Korea Open
17. Playing members of the 2016 Ryder Cup teams
18. Winner of the 2016 Asian Tour Order of Merit
19. Winner of the 2016 [PGA Tour of Australasia|2016] PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit
20. Winner of the 2016–17 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit
21. Winner of the 2016 Japan Open
22. Top 2 on the 2016 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List
23. Top 2, not already exempt, on the 2017 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List through the Japan Golf Tour Championship
24. Winner of the 2016 Senior Open Championship
25. Winner of the 2017 Amateur Championship
26. Winner of the 2016 U.S. Amateur
  • Curtis Luck forfeited his exemption after turning professional in April 2017.
27. Winners of the 2016 and 2017 editions of the European Amateur
28. Recipient of the 2016 Mark H. McCormack Medal

Open Qualifying Series

The Open Qualifying Series consisted of 10 events from the six major tours. Places were available to the leading players 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.
LocationTournamentDateSpotsTopQualifiers
AustraliaEmirates Australian Open20 Nov310Aaron Baddeley, Ashley Hall, Cameron Smith
SingaporeSMBC Singapore Open22 Jan412Phachara Khongwatmai, Jbe' Kruger, Prayad Marksaeng, Song Young-han
South AfricaJoburg Open26 Feb310Darren Fichardt, Stuart Manley, Paul Waring
JapanMizuno Open28 May412Adam Bland, Michael Hendry, Chan Kim, Kim Kyung-tae
FranceHNA Open de France2 Jul310Alexander Björk, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Peter Uihlein
United StatesQuicken Loans National2 Jul412Charles Howell III, Kang Sung-hoon, Martin Laird, Kyle Stanley
IrelandDubai Duty Free Irish Open9 Jul310David Drysdale, Ryan Fox, Richie Ramsay
United StatesGreenbrier Classic9 Jul412Jamie Lovemark, Sebastián Muñoz, Xander Schauffele, Robert Streb
ScotlandAberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open16 Jul310Andrew Dodt, Matthieu Pavon, Callum Shinkwin
United StatesJohn Deere Classic16 Jul15Bryson DeChambeau

Final Qualifying

The Final Qualifying events were played on 4 July at five courses covering Scotland and the North-West, Central and South-coast regions of England. Three qualifying places were available at each location.
LocationQualifiers
Gailes LinksRyan McCarthy, Julian Suri, Connor Syme
HillsideAdam Hodkinson, Nick McCarthy, Haydn McCullen
Notts (Hollinwell)Laurie Canter, Joe Dean, Mark Foster
Royal [Cinque Ports Golf Club|Royal Cinque Ports]Austin Connelly, Robert Dinwiddie, Matthew Southgate
WoburnShiv Kapur, Ian Poulter, Toby Tree

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.

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, 20 July 2017
Three Americans – Brooks Koepka, Matt Kuchar, and Jordan Spieth – shared the lead after the first round on five under par, a shot clear of England's Paul Casey and Charl Schwartzel, with Ian Poulter a further shot back. Reigning champion Henrik Stenson was one under after a 69. Rory McIlroy was five over par after six holes but recovered to finish with a one-over-par 71.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
T1

Second round

Friday, 21 July 2017
In difficult conditions, Jordan Spieth followed his first round 65 with a 69 to lead by two strokes from Matt Kuchar. Only eight players scored under par for their second rounds, Zach Johnson's 66 being the best round of the day. Alfie Plant was the only amateur to make the cut. He eagled the par-five 15th on his way to a 73 and a 36-hole total of 144.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1

Third round

Saturday, 22 July 2017
Jordan Spieth shot a 65 to take a three-stroke lead over Matt Kuchar, who shot a 66. On an easier day of scoring, Branden Grace scored 62, breaking the long-standing men's major championship record of 63. There were also low rounds from Dustin Johnson, with a 64, and Henrik Stenson, with a 65, both getting into a tie for 7th place.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1

Final round

Sunday, 23 July 2017
Beginning the round with a three-shot lead, Jordan Spieth bogeyed three of his first four holes to fall into a tie with Matt Kuchar. A birdie at the 5th combined with a bogey by Kuchar at the 6th allowed Spieth to re-open a two-stroke advantage, but a bogey-birdie swing at the 9th evened the score heading to the back-nine. The score remained level until the 13th, when Spieth hit his tee shot well to the right of the fairway. Forced to take an unplayable lie and drop from the practice area, he managed to get up-and-down to save bogey while Kuchar took the lead by making par. At the par-3 14th, however, Spieth nearly holed his tee shot and converted the birdie attempt to tie Kuchar. Then at the par-5 15th, Spieth made a eagle putt to take the lead once again. With birdies on the next two holes Spieth played 14–17 in five-under to take a two-stroke lead heading to the last. When Kuchar found a greenside bunker and made bogey, Spieth was able to tap in for par and win the championship by three strokes. Li Haotong birdied his last four holes for 63 and jump into third place at 274, the best finish for an Asian player at the Open Championship since Lu Liang-Huan in 1971, also at Royal Birkdale. With the victory, Spieth joined Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to win three legs of the career Grand Slam before the age of 24.

Final leaderboard

Note: Top 10 and ties qualify for the 2018 Open Championship; top 4 and ties qualify for the 2018 Masters Tournament
PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney
1

Scorecard

Final round
Hole123456789101112131415161718
Par444344344443435454