1978 Open Championship
Golf tournament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[3] It was the fifteenth of his eighteen major championships and marked the completion of his third career grand slam.[4][5]
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 12–15 July 1978 |
| Location | St Andrews, Scotland |
| Course | Old Course at St Andrews |
| Organized by | The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews |
| Tour(s) | European Tour PGA Tour |
| Statistics | |
| Par | 72[1] |
| Length | 6,933 yards (6,340 m)[1][2] |
| Field | 155 players 80 after 1st cut 64 after 2nd cut[1] |
| Cut | 148 (+4) (1st cut) 222 (+6) (2nd cut)[1] |
| Prize fund | £125,000 $237,500 |
| Winner's share | £12,500 $23,750 |
| Champion | |
 Jack Nicklaus | |
| 281 (−7) | |
Defending champion Tom Watson was a co-leader after 54 holes,[6][7] but four consecutive bogeys on the front nine led to a 76 (+4). Watson finished six strokes back in a tie for fourteenth place.[4][5][8]
Course
| Hole | Name | Yards | Par | Hole | Name | Yards | Par | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Burn | 370 | 4 | 10 | Bobby Jones | 342 | 4 | |
| 2 | Dyke | 411 | 4 | 11 | High (In) | 172 | 3 | |
| 3 | Cartgate (Out) | 371 | 4 | 12 | Heathery (In) | 316 | 4 | |
| 4 | Ginger Beer | 463 | 4 | 13 | Hole O'Cross (In) | 425 | 4 | |
| 5 | Hole O'Cross (Out) | 564 | 5 | 14 | Long | 567 | 5 | |
| 6 | Heathery (Out) | 416 | 4 | 15 | Cartgate (In) | 413 | 4 | |
| 7 | High (Out) | 372 | 4 | 16 | Corner of the Dyke | 382 | 4 | |
| 8 | Short | 178 | 3 | 17 | Road | 461 | 4 | |
| 9 | End | 356 | 4 | 18 | Tom Morris | 354 | 4 | |
| Out | 3,501 | 36 | In | 3,432 | 36 | |||
| Source:[2] | Total | 6,933 | 72 | |||||
Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):[1]
Round summaries
First round
Wednesday, 12 July 1978
| Place | Player | Score | To par |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Isao Aoki | 68 | −4 |
| T2 |  Seve Ballesteros | 69 | −3 |
| Raymond Floyd | |||
 Jack Newton | |||
| Tom Weiskopf | |||
| T6 |  Howard Clark | 70 | −2 |
| Ben Crenshaw | |||
| Mark Hayes | |||
| Carl Mason | |||
 Mike Miller (a) | |||
| Tsuneyuki Nakajima | |||
 Simon Owen |
Source:[1]
Second round
Thursday, 13 July 1978
| Place | Player | Score | To par |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Isao Aoki | 68-71=139 | −5 |
| Seve Ballesteros | 69-70=139 | ||
| Ben Crenshaw | 70-69=139 | ||
| T4 | Gary Cullen | 73-67=140 | −4 |
| Bob Shearer | 71-69=139 | ||
| T6 | Bob Byman | 72-69=141 | −3 |
| Tom Kite | 72-69=141 | ||
| Tsuneyuki Nakajima | 70-71=141 | ||
| Masashi Ozaki | 72-69=141 | ||
| Tom Watson | 73-68=141 | ||
| Tom Weiskopf | 69-72=141 |
Third round
Friday, 14 July 1978
| Place | Player | Score | To par |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Peter Oosterhuis | 72-70-69=211 | −5 |
| Tom Watson | 73-68-70=211 | ||
| T3 | Simon Owen | 70-75-67=212 | −4 |
| Jack Nicklaus | 71-72-69=212 | ||
| Ben Crenshaw | 70-69-73=212 | ||
| Isao Aoki | 68-71-73=212 | ||
| T7 | Nick Faldo | 71-72-70=213 | −3 |
| John Schroeder | 74-69-70=213 | ||
| Tom Kite | 72-69-72=213 | ||
| Tom Weiskopf | 69-72-72=213 |
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 |
| Place | Player | Score | To par | Money (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jack Nicklaus (c) | 71-72-69-69=281 | −7 | 17,500 |
| T2 | 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=283 | |||
| 6 | Peter Oosterhuis | 72-70-69-73=284 | −4 | 7,000 |
| T7 | 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 10 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Player | Score | To par | Money (£) | |
| T11 | Michael Cahill | 71-72-75-68=286 | −2 | 3,905 | |
 Dale Hayes | 74-70-71-71=286 | ||||
| Orville Moody | 73-69-74-70=286 | ||||
| T14 | Mark Hayes | 70-75-75-67=287 | −1 | 3,360 | |
| Jumbo Ozaki | 72-69-75-71=287 | ||||
| Tom Watson (c) | 73-68-70-76=287 | ||||
| T17 |  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=288 | ||||
| T22 | Bernard Gallacher | 72-71-76-70=289 | +1 | 1,330 | |
| Nick Job | 73-75-68-73=289 | ||||
| T24 | 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:[1][5][11]
- The exchange rate at the time was approximately 1.88 dollars (US) per pound sterling.[12]