2016 Open Championship
The 2016 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 145th Open Championship, played from 14–17 July at Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the ninth Open Championship played at the Old Course of Troon, and the fifth since gaining royal status.
Henrik Stenson shot a final round 63 for 264, a record 20-under par, three strokes ahead of runner-up Phil Mickelson, the 2013 champion. The leader after 54 holes, Stenson became the first Scandinavian man to win a major title. The duo's final-day battle, ending fourteen and eleven shots clear of third-place J. B. Holmes, was dubbed "High Noon at Troon" and compared in quality to the renowned "Duel in the Sun" of 1977.
Media
This was the first Open Championship under new television rights deals in the United Kingdom and United States. In the U.K., Sky Sports replaced the BBC, who held broadcast rights from 1955 to 2015, marking the first time that rights to the Open had been held by a subscription television service. To comply with anti-siphoning laws, rights to broadcast a nightly highlights programme on free-to-air television were sold to the BBC. The contract was to begin in 2017, but the BBC opted out of the 2016 edition.In the U.S., television rights shifted from ESPN to NBC and sister pay-TV network Golf Channel, marking the first time that Golf Channel had coverage of a men's major championship. It also restored a major to the network for the first time since 2014; from 1995 to 2014, NBC televised the U.S. Open and other championships of the USGA, which moved to Fox Sports in 2015. Similarly to the BBC, ESPN chose to opt out of its final year of Open rights, causing NBC's rights to begin in 2016 instead.
Venue
Old CourseLengths of the course for previous Opens:
- 2004:, par 71
- 1997:, par 71
- 1989:, par 72
- 1982:, par 72
- 1973:, par 72
- 1962:, par 72
- 1950:, par 70
- 1923:
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 17 July 2016
- Mark Calcavecchia
- Darren Clarke
- Ben Curtis
- John Daly
- David Duval
- Ernie Els
- Todd Hamilton
- Pádraig Harrington
- Zach Johnson
- Paul Lawrie
- Justin Leonard
- Sandy Lyle
- Rory McIlroy
- Phil Mickelson
- Mark O'Meara
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Stewart Cink and Tiger Woods did not play.
- Eligible but did not enter: Nick Faldo, Ian Baker-Finch, Tom Lehman, Nick Price.
3. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2015 Open Championship
- Jason Day
- Sergio García
- Marc Leishman
- Jordan Niebrugge
- Justin Rose
- Adam Scott
- Jordan Spieth
- Danny Willett
- Brooks Koepka withdrew with an ankle injury.
- An Byeong-hun
- Kiradech Aphibarnrat
- Rafa Cabrera-Bello
- Paul Casey
- Kevin Chappell
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Rickie Fowler
- Jim Furyk
- Branden Grace
- Emiliano Grillo
- Bill Haas
- Charley Hoffman
- J. B. Holmes
- Billy Horschel
- Thongchai Jaidee
- Dustin Johnson
- Kim Kyung-tae
- Kevin Kisner
- Søren Kjeldsen
- Russell Knox
- Matt Kuchar
- Danny Lee
- David Lingmerth
- Shane Lowry
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Ryan Moore
- Kevin Na
- Patrick Reed
- Charl Schwartzel
- Brandt Snedeker
- Henrik Stenson
- Andy Sullivan
- Justin Thomas
- Jimmy Walker
- Bubba Watson
- Lee Westwood
- Bernd Wiesberger
- Daniel Berger withdrew with a shoulder injury.
- Kristoffer Broberg
- Victor Dubuisson
- Ross Fisher
- Tommy Fleetwood
- David Howell
- Miguel Ángel Jiménez
- Martin Kaymer
- Anirban Lahiri
- James Morrison
- Thorbjørn Olesen
- Thomas Pieters
- Marc Warren
- Chris Wood
- Jaco van Zyl withdrew to focus on the Olympics.
7. 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 2016 BMW International Open
- Andrew Johnston
- Rikard Karlberg
- Lee Soo-min
- Joost Luiten
- Webb Simpson
10. The PGA Champions for 2011–2015
- Keegan Bradley
- Jason Dufner
12. Top 30 players from the final 2015 FedEx Cup points list
- Steven Bowditch
- Harris English
- Scott Piercy
- Robert Streb
- Bae Sang-moon was unable to compete due to a military obligation in South Korea.
- Smylie Kaufman
- William McGirt
- Chris Kirk
16. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the PGA Tour of Australasia for 2015
- Nathan Holman
- George Coetzee
- Satoshi Kodaira
- Yūsaku Miyazato
- Yuta Ikeda
- Yosuke Tsukada
- Marco Dawson
- Scott Gregory
- Bryson DeChambeau forfeited his exemption by turning professional in April 2016.
- Stefano Mazzoli
- ''Jon Rahm forfeited his exemption by turning professional in June 2016 but subsequently earned a spot through the Open Qualifying Series.''
Open Qualifying Series
| Location | Tournament | Date | Spots | Top | Qualifiers |
| Australia | Emirates Australian Open | 29 Nov | 3 | 10 | Nick Cullen, Matt Jones, Rod Pampling |
| Thailand | Thailand Golf Championship | 13 Dec | 4 | 12 | Jamie Donaldson, Phachara Khongwatmai, Clément Sordet, Lee Westwood |
| Africa | Joburg Open | 17 Jan | 3 | 10 | Zander Lombard, Haydn Porteous, Anthony Wall |
| Japan | Mizuno Open | 29 May | 4 | 12 | Kodai Ichihara, Shugo Imahira, Lee Sang-hee, Hideto Tanihara |
| Sweden | Nordea Masters | 5 Jun | 1 | 5 | Lasse Jensen |
| USA | FedEx St. Jude Classic | 12 Jun | 4 | 12 | Brian Gay, Russell Henley, Noh Seung-yul, Steve Stricker |
| USA | Quicken Loans National | 26 Jun | 4 | 12 | Jon Rahm, Vijay Singh, Harold Varner III
|
| France | Alstom Open de France | 3 Jul | 4 | 12 | Alex Norén, Callum Shinkwin, Richard Sterne, Brandon Stone |
| USA | Barracuda Championship | 3 Jul | 1 | 5 | Greg Chalmers |
| Scotland | Scottish Open | 10 Jul | 4 | 12 | Nicolas Colsaerts, Tyrrell Hatton, Matteo Manassero, Richie Ramsay |
Final Qualifying
The Final Qualifying events were played on 28 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. None of the twelve qualifiers had played in Regional Qualifying on 20 June: each was exempted by virtue of holding an Official World Golf Ranking.| Location | Qualifiers |
| Gailes Links | Oskar Arvidsson, Scott Fernández, Colin Montgomerie |
| Hillside | Dave Coupland, Paul Howard, Jack Senior |
| Royal Cinque Ports | Steven Alker, James Heath, Matthew Southgate |
| Woburn | Paul Dunne, Ryan Evans, Robert Rock |
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.From the Week 26 Official World Golf Ranking:
- James Hahn
- Gary Woodland
- Ryan Palmer
- Patton Kizzire
- Fabián Gómez
- Wang Jeung-hun
- Scott Hend
- Graeme McDowell
- Brendan Steele
- Francesco Molinari
- Tony Finau
- Jim Herman
- Marcus Fraser
- Luke Donald
- Daniel Summerhays
- Jamie Lovemark
- Colt Knost
- ''Charles Howell III and Ian Poulter did not play due to injury.''