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:

2008:, par 70
1998:, par 70
1991:, par 70
1983:, par 71
1976:, par 72
1971:, par 73
1965:, par 73
1961:, par 72
1954:, par 73
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

Stewart Cink
Darren Clarke
John Daly
David Duval
Ernie Els
Todd Hamilton
Pádraig Harrington
Zach Johnson
Paul Lawrie
Tom Lehman
Sandy Lyle
Rory McIlroy
Phil Mickelson
Mark O'Meara
Louis Oosthuizen
Henrik Stenson
Eligible but did not enter: Ian Baker-Finch, Mark Calcavecchia, Nick Faldo, Justin Leonard, Nick Price, Tiger Woods.
Ben Curtis withdrew before the tournament.

2. The Open Champions for 2007–2016
3. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2016 Open Championship

Sergio García
Bill Haas
Tyrrell Hatton
J. B. Holmes
Dustin Johnson
Andrew Johnston
Søren Kjeldsen
Steve Stricker

4. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking for Week 21, 2017

Daniel Berger
Wesley Bryan
Rafa Cabrera-Bello
Paul Casey
Kevin Chappell
Jason Day
Ross Fisher
Matt Fitzpatrick
Tommy Fleetwood
Rickie Fowler
Branden Grace
Emiliano Grillo
Adam Hadwin
Billy Horschel
Kim Si-woo
Kevin Kisner
Russell Knox
Brooks Koepka
Matt Kuchar
Marc Leishman
Hideki Matsuyama
William McGirt
Francesco Molinari
Ryan Moore
Alex Norén
Pat Perez
Thomas Pieters
Jon Rahm
Patrick Reed
Justin Rose
Charl Schwartzel
Adam Scott
Jordan Spieth
Hideto Tanihara
Justin Thomas
Jimmy Walker
Bubba Watson
Bernd Wiesberger
Danny Willett
Gary Woodland
Brandt Snedeker did not play.

5. Top 30 on the 2016 Race to Dubai

Richard Bland
Scott Hend
David Horsey
Thongchai Jaidee
Martin Kaymer
Li Haotong
Shane Lowry
Joost Luiten
Thorbjørn Olesen
Andy Sullivan
Wang Jeung-hun
Lee Westwood
Chris Wood

6. Last three BMW PGA Championship winners

An Byeong-hun

7. Top 5 players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2017 Race to Dubai through the BMW International Open

Dylan Frittelli
Pablo Larrazábal
Alexander Lévy
David Lipsky
Fabrizio Zanotti

8. Last five U.S. Open winners
9. Last five Masters Tournament winners
10. Last five PGA Championship winners

Jason Dufner

11. Last three Players Championship winners
12. The 30 qualifiers for the 2016 Tour Championship

Roberto Castro
Kevin Na
Sean O'Hair
Jhonattan Vegas

13. Top 5 players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2017 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship

Brian Harman
Russell Henley
Charley Hoffman
Brendan Steele

14. Winner of the 2016 Olympic Golf Tournament
15. Winner of the 2016 Open de Argentina

Kent Bulle

16. Winner and runner-up from the 2017 Korea Open

Chang Yi-keun
Kim Gi-whan

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 Order of Merit

Matthew Griffin

20. Winner of the 2016–17 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit

Brandon Stone

21. Winner of the 2016 Japan Open
22. Top 2 on the 2016 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List

Yuta Ikeda

23. Top 2, not already exempt, on the 2017 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List through the Japan Golf Tour Championship

Yūsaku Miyazato
Shaun Norris

24. Winner of the 2016 Senior Open Championship

Paul Broadhurst

25. Winner of the 2017 Amateur Championship

Harry Ellis

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

Luca Cianchetti
Alfie Plant

28. Recipient of the 2016 Mark H. McCormack Medal

Maverick McNealy
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.

Location	Tournament	Date	Spots	Top	Qualifiers
Australia	Emirates Australian Open	20 Nov	3	10	Aaron Baddeley, Ashley Hall, Cameron Smith
Singapore	SMBC Singapore Open	22 Jan	4	12	Phachara Khongwatmai, Jbe' Kruger, Prayad Marksaeng, Song Young-han
South Africa	Joburg Open	26 Feb	3	10	Darren Fichardt, Stuart Manley, Paul Waring
Japan	Mizuno Open	28 May	4	12	Adam Bland, Michael Hendry, Chan Kim, Kim Kyung-tae
France	HNA Open de France	2 Jul	3	10	Alexander Björk, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Peter Uihlein
United States	Quicken Loans National	2 Jul	4	12	Charles Howell III, Kang Sung-hoon, Martin Laird, Kyle Stanley
Ireland	Dubai Duty Free Irish Open	9 Jul	3	10	David Drysdale, Ryan Fox, Richie Ramsay
United States	Greenbrier Classic	9 Jul	4	12	Jamie Lovemark, Sebastián Muñoz, Xander Schauffele, Robert Streb
Scotland	Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open	16 Jul	3	10	Andrew Dodt, Matthieu Pavon, Callum Shinkwin
United States	John Deere Classic	16 Jul	1	5	Bryson 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.

Location	Qualifiers
Gailes Links	Ryan McCarthy, Julian Suri, Connor Syme
Hillside	Adam Hodkinson, Nick McCarthy, Haydn McCullen
Notts	Laurie Canter, Joe Dean, Mark Foster
Royal Cinque Ports	Austin Connelly, Robert Dinwiddie, Matthew Southgate
Woburn	Shiv 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.

Webb Simpson
Anirban Lahiri
Tony Finau
James Hahn
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.

Place

Player

Score

To par

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.