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 Course HoleNameYardsPar HoleNameYardsPar1Seal3674 10Sandhills45142Black Rock390411The Railway48243Gyaws377412The Fox43044Dunure555513Burmah47345Greenan209314Alton17836Turnberry601515Crosbie49947Tel-el-Kebir401416Well55458Postage Stamp123317Rabbit22039The Monk422418Craigend4584Out3,44536In3,74535Source: Total 7,19071
Lengths 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:
Opens from 1962 through 1989 played the 11th hole as a par-5.
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 (2) Ben Curtis John Daly David Duval Ernie Els (2) Todd Hamilton Pádraig Harrington (2) Zach Johnson (2,3,4,12,14) Paul Lawrie Justin Leonard Sandy Lyle Rory McIlroy (2,4,5,6,10,12) Phil Mickelson (2,4,14) Mark O'Meara Louis Oosthuizen (2,3,4,5,12,14)
Stewart Cink (2) and Tiger Woods (2) did not play. Eligible but did not enter: Nick Faldo, Ian Baker-Finch, Tom Lehman, Nick Price.
2. The Open Champions for 2006–2015
3. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2015 Open Championship
Jason Day (4,10,11,12,14) Sergio García (4) Marc Leishman (4,14) Jordan Niebrugge Justin Rose (4,5,8,12) Adam Scott (4,9,14) Jordan Spieth (4,8,9,12,14) Danny Willett (4,5,9)
Brooks Koepka (4,12) withdrew with an ankle injury.
4. The first 50 players on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2016
An Byeong-hun (5,6) Kiradech Aphibarnrat (5) Rafa Cabrera-Bello Paul Casey (12) Kevin Chappell Matt Fitzpatrick (5) Rickie Fowler (11,12,14) Jim Furyk (12) Branden Grace (5,14) Emiliano Grillo Bill Haas (12,14) Charley Hoffman (12) J. B. Holmes (12,14) Billy Horschel Thongchai Jaidee (5,14) Dustin Johnson (8,12,14) Kim Kyung-tae (19) Kevin Kisner (12) Søren Kjeldsen (5) Russell Knox Matt Kuchar (12,14) Danny Lee (12,14) David Lingmerth Shane Lowry (5) Hideki Matsuyama (12,14) Ryan Moore Kevin Na (12) Patrick Reed (5,12,14) Charl Schwartzel (5,14) Brandt Snedeker (12) Henrik Stenson (5,12) Andy Sullivan (5) Justin Thomas Jimmy Walker (12,14) Bubba Watson (9,12,14) Lee Westwood (OQS-Thailand) Bernd Wiesberger (5)
Daniel Berger (12) withdrew with a shoulder injury.
5. First 30 in the Race to Dubai for 2015
Kristoffer Broberg Victor Dubuisson Ross Fisher Tommy Fleetwood David Howell Miguel Ángel Jiménez Martin Kaymer (8,11) Anirban Lahiri (14,15) James Morrison Thorbjørn Olesen Thomas Pieters Marc Warren Chris Wood (6)
Jaco van Zyl withdrew to focus on the Olympics.
6. The BMW PGA Championship winners for 2014–2016
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
8. The U.S. Open Champions for 2012–2016 Webb Simpson
9. The Masters Tournament Champions for 2012–2016
10. The PGA Champions for 2011–2015
Keegan Bradley Jason Dufner
11. The Players Champions for 2014–2016
12. Top 30 players from the final 2015 FedEx Cup points list
Steven Bowditch (14) Harris English Scott Piercy Robert Streb
Bae Sang-moon (14) was unable to compete due to a military obligation in South Korea.
13. First 5 PGA Tour members and any PGA Tour members tying for 5th place, not exempt in the top 20 of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup points list for 2016 on completion of the 2016 Quicken Loans National
Smylie Kaufman William McGirt
14. Playing members of the 2015 Presidents Cup teams Chris Kirk
15. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the Asian Tour for 2015
16. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the PGA Tour of Australasia for 2015 Nathan Holman
17. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the Southern Africa PGA Sunshine Tour for 2015 George Coetzee
18. The Japan Open Champion for 2015 Satoshi Kodaira
19. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt, on the Official Money List of the Japan Golf Tour for 2015 Yūsaku Miyazato
20. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, in a cumulative money list taken from all official 2016 Japan Golf Tour events up to and including the 2016 Japan Golf Tour Championship
Yuta Ikeda Yosuke Tsukada
21. The Senior Open Champion for 2015 Marco Dawson
22. The Amateur Champion for 2016 Scott Gregory (a)
23. The U.S. Amateur Champion for 2015 Bryson DeChambeau forfeited his exemption by turning professional in April 2016.
24. The European Amateur Champion for 2015 Stefano Mazzoli (a)
25. The Mark H. McCormack Medal winner for 2015 Jon Rahm forfeited his exemption by turning professional in June 2016 but subsequently earned a spot through the Open Qualifying Series.
Open Qualifying Series 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 finish 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 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 (4) 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 Billy Hurley III did not play so he could attend his sister's wedding. 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 The Greenbrier Classic was cancelled due to the damage sustained by the course in the 2016 West Virginia flood. The Open Qualifying Series event originally slated for the Greenbrier was shifted to the Barracuda Championship.
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 (ranked 58) Gary Woodland (65) Ryan Palmer (68) Patton Kizzire (70) Fabián Gómez (71) Wang Jeung-hun (74) Scott Hend (75) Graeme McDowell (76) Brendan Steele (77) Francesco Molinari (78) Tony Finau (79) Jim Herman (80) Marcus Fraser (81)
From the Week 27 Official World Golf Ranking:
Luke Donald (ranked 83) Daniel Summerhays (86) Jamie Lovemark (88) Colt Knost (92)
Charles Howell III (87) and Ian Poulter (90) did not play due to injury.
Round summaries
First round Thursday, 14 July 2016
Phil Mickelson shot an 8-under-par 63 to take a three-shot lead over Martin Kaymer and Patrick Reed. His 63 tied him with 27 others for the lowest round in a major championship. Mickelson had a 16-foot putt at the 18th to become the first player to score 62 at a major championship, but the putt lipped out of the hole.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Phil Mickelson 63 −8T2 Martin Kaymer 66 −5 Patrick ReedT4 Keegan Bradley 67 −4 Tony Finau Billy Horschel Zach Johnson Søren Kjeldsen Steve Stricker Andy Sullivan Justin Thomas
Second round Friday, 15 July 2016
Phil Mickelson maintained his lead at the halfway point at 132 (−10), a stroke ahead of Henrik Stenson, whose 65 moved him into solo second place. The cut was at 146 (+4), allowing previous major champions Jordan Spieth, Danny Willett, and Bubba Watson to continue onto the third day. Billy Horschel started in joint fourth place, but had a dismal 85 to miss the cut by six strokes.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Phil Mickelson 63-69=132 −102 Henrik Stenson 68-65=133 −9T3 Keegan Bradley 67-68=135 −7 Søren Kjeldsen 67-68=1355 Zach Johnson 67-70=137 −5T6 Tony Finau 67-71=138 −4 Sergio García 68-70=138 Bill Haas 68-70=138 Andrew Johnston 69-69=138 Charl Schwartzel 72-66=138
Amateurs: Gregory (+9), Mazzoli (+12)
Third round Saturday, 16 July 2016
Henrik Stenson (68) overtook Phil Mickelson (70) in the third round, taking a single-shot lead into the final round, with Mickelson five shots clear of the field.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Henrik Stenson 68-65-68=201 −122 Phil Mickelson 63-69-70=202 −113 Bill Haas 68-70-69=207 −64 Andrew Johnston 69-69-70=208 −55 J. B. Holmes 70-70-69=209 −4T6 Tony Finau 67-71-72=210 −3 Søren Kjeldsen 67-68-75=210 Steve Stricker 67-75-68=210T9 Keegan Bradley 67-68-76=211 −2 Sergio García 68-70-73=211 Patrick Reed 66-74-71=211 Charl Schwartzel 72-66-73=211
Final round Sunday, 17 July 2016