The 1998 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 127th Open Championship, held from 16–19 July at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. In weekend wind and rain, Mark O'Meara won his second major championship of the year and first Open Championship in a playoff over Brian Watts, the 54-hole leader. Three months earlier, O'Meara won the Masters on the final green by sinking a birdie putt. At age 41, he became the oldest player to win two majors in a year:

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...

(

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

), Ben Hogan (

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

), and Craig Wood (

1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...

) were all age forty. (Hogan won three majors and turned 41 two weeks after the third.) At the previous Open at Royal Birkdale seven years earlier in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, O'Meara was a co-leader after 54 holes, shot 69, and tied for

Course

Source:
Lengths of the course for previous Opens: *

: , par 70 *

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: , par 71 *

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

: , par 72 *

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

: , par 73 *

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

: , par 73 *

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

: *

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Source:

Missed the cut

Source:

Round summaries

First round

''Thursday, 16 July 1998'' Source:

Second round

''Friday, 17 July 1998'' Source:
Amateurs: '' Rose (-2), García (+4), De Vooght (+6)'', McCarthy (+8),

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(+10).

Third round

''Saturday, 18 July 1998'' Source:

Final round

''Sunday, 19 July 1998'' Sources:
Amateurs: Rose (+2), García (+12), De Vooght (+19).

Playoff

The four-hole aggregate playoff was played on the concluding holes (15–18).
O'Meara birdied the first, while Watts parred, and they halved the next two holes with pars.
Watts bogeyed the final hole, while O'Meara parred to win the playoff by two strokes and the Claret Jug. *''Four-hole aggregate playoff on holes 15–18''

=Scorecard

= ''Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par'' Source:

References

External links

Royal Birkdale 1998 (Official site)
{{coord, 53.622, -3.033, type:event, display=title The Open Championship Golf tournaments in England Open Championship Open Championship Open Championship