The 1978 Open Championship was the 107th Open Championship, held 12–15 July over the Old Course at St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Jack Nicklaus won his third and final Open championship, two strokes ahead of runners-up Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd, Tom Kite, and Simon Owen. It was the fifteenth of his eighteen major championships and marked the completion of his third career grand slam.

Defending champion Tom Watson was a co-leader after 54 holes, but four consecutive bogeys on the front nine led to a 76 (+4). Watson finished six strokes back in a tie for fourteenth place.

Course

HoleNameYardsPar HoleNameYardsPar1Burn3704 10Bobby Jones34242Dyke411411High (In)17233Cartgate (Out)371412Heathery (In)31644Ginger Beer463413Hole O'Cross (In)42545Hole O'Cross (Out)564514Long56756Heathery (Out)416415Cartgate (In)41347High (Out)372416Corner of the Dyke38248Short178317Road46149End356418Tom Morris3544Out3,50136In3,43236Source:Total6,93372 Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950): - 1970: - 1964 - 1960, 1955

Round summaries First round Wednesday, 12 July 1978 PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Isao Aoki68−4T2 Seve Ballesteros69−3 Raymond Floyd Jack Newton Tom WeiskopfT6 Howard Clark70−2 Ben Crenshaw Mark Hayes Carl Mason Mike Miller (a) Tsuneyuki Nakajima Simon Owen Source:

Second round Thursday, 13 July 1978 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Isao Aoki68-71=139−5 Seve Ballesteros69-70=139 Ben Crenshaw70-69=139T4 Gary Cullen73-67=140−4 Bob Shearer71-69=139T6 Bob Byman72-69=141−3 Tom Kite72-69=141 Tsuneyuki Nakajima70-71=141 Masashi Ozaki72-69=141 Tom Watson73-68=141 Tom Weiskopf69-72=141 Source:

Third round Friday, 14 July 1978 PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Peter Oosterhuis72-70-69=211−5 Tom Watson73-68-70=211T3 Simon Owen70-75-67=212−4 Jack Nicklaus71-72-69=212 Ben Crenshaw70-69-73=212 Isao Aoki68-71-73=212T7 Nick Faldo71-72-70=213 −3 John Schroeder74-69-70=213 Tom Kite72-69-72=213 Tom Weiskopf69-72-72=213 Source:

Amateurs: Miller (+2), Brodie (+4), McEvoy (+5), Godwin (+6).

Final round Saturday, 15 July 1978 Champion Silver Medal winner (low amateur)(a) = amateur(c) = past champion PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)1 Jack Nicklaus (c) 71-72-69-69=281 −7 17,500T2 Ben Crenshaw 70-69-73-71=283 −5 10,237 Raymond Floyd 69-75-71-68=283 Tom Kite 72-69-72-70=283 Simon Owen 70-75-67-71=2836 Peter Oosterhuis 72-70-69-73=284 −4 7,000T7 Isao Aoki 68-71-73-73=285 −3 5,512 Nick Faldo 71-72-70-72=285 John Schroeder 74-69-70-72=285 Bob Shearer 71-69-74-71=285 Leaderboard below the top 10PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)T11 Michael Cahill 71-72-75-68=286 −2 3,905 Dale Hayes 74-70-71-71=286 Orville Moody 73-69-74-70=286T14 Mark Hayes 70-75-75-67=287 −1 3,360 Jumbo Ozaki 72-69-75-71=287 Tom Watson (c) 73-68-70-76=287T17 Seve Ballesteros 69-70-76-73=288 E 2,240 Bob Byman 72-69-74-73=288 Guy Hunt 71-73-71-73=288 Tommy Nakajima 70-71-76-71=288 Tom Weiskopf (c) 69-72-72-75=288T22 Bernard Gallacher 72-71-76-70=289 +1 1,330 Nick Job 73-75-68-73=289T24 Antonio Garrido 73-71-76-70=290 +2 959 Hale Irwin 75-71-76-68=290 Carl Mason 70-74-72-74=290 Jack Newton 69-76-71-74=290 Peter Thomson (c) 72-70-72-76=290 Amateurs: McEvoy (+5), Miller (+6), Brodie (+7), Godwin (+10). Source: The exchange rate at the time was approximately 1.88 dollars (US) per pound sterling.

References

External links St Andrews 1978 (Official site) 107th Open Championship - St Andrews (European Tour)