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. 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 first South African to win an Open Championship at St Andrews. Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950): Field. Each  player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses. 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) Tom Watson 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) 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 Thailand), 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) 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 An Byeong-hun, Matteo Manassero Kiradech Aphibarnrat Jason Dufner Russell Henley, Morgan Hoffmann, Geoff Ogilvy, John Senden, Cameron Tringale Steven Bowditch, Charley Hoffman, Kevin Kisner, Robert Streb David Lipsky Greg Chalmers (OQS Australia) Thomas Aiken Yuta Ikeda Hiroyuki Fujita, Koumei Oda Adam Bland, Liang Wenchong Bernhard Langer Romain Langasque (a) Gunn Yang (a) Ashley Chesters (a) Ollie Schniederjans (a) 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. 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. (RQ) indicates a player who had played in Regional Qualifying on 22 June: players with an Official World Golf Ranking were exempt from Regional Qualifying, as was Paul Dunne because  he had played at Royal Liverpool in 2014. 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 week 27 rankings issued on 5 July 2015 use these week 27 rankings. Six places were made available on 29 June based on the week 26 rankings. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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 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. The win was Johnson's second major championship victory; he won the Masters eight years earlier in 2007. Scorecard. "Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par" 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. Scorecard. "Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par"