1997 Open Championship Explained

1997 Open Championship
Dates:	17–20 July 1997
Course:	Royal Troon Golf Club
Tour:	European Tour PGA Tour
Par:	71
Yardage:	^[1] ^[2]
Field:	156 players, 70 after cut
Cut:	147 (+5)
Purse:	£1,600,000 €2,220,820 $2,680,000
Winners Share:	£250,000 €350,000 $418,875
Champion:	Justin Leonard
Score:	272 (−12)
Previous:	1996
Next:	1998

The 1997 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 126th Open Championship, held from 17 to 20 July at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland. Justin Leonard won his only major championship and was the fifth consecutive American to win at Royal Troon.

Five strokes back after a 72 in the third round, Leonard had six birdies on the front nine in the final round; he added two more at 16 and 17 for 65 (−6) to win by three strokes over runners-up Darren Clarke and Jesper Parnevik, the 54-hole leader.^{[3] [4] [5]}

Course

See main article: Royal Troon Golf Club. Old Course

Hole	Name	Yards	Par		Hole	Name	Yards	Par
1	Seal	364	4		10	Sandhills	438	4
2	Black Rock	391	4		11	The Railway	463	4
3	Gyaws	379	4		12	The Fox	431	4
4	Dunure	557	5		13	Burmah	465	4
5	Greenan	210	3		14	Alton	179	3
6	Turnberry	577	5		15	Crosbie	457	4
7	Tel-el-Kebir	402	4		16	Well	542	5
8	Postage Stamp	126	3		17	Rabbit	223	3
9	The Monk	423	4		18	Craigend	452	4
Out	3,429	36	In		3,650	35
Source:^[6]					Total	7,079	71

Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):^[1]

1989:, par 72 1982:, par 72 1973:, par 72 1962:, par 72 1950:, par 70

Opens from 1962 through 1989 played the 11th hole as a par-5.

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, 17 July 1997

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Darren Clarke	67	−4
	Jim Furyk
T3	Fred Couples	69	−2
	Justin Leonard
	Greg Norman
T6	Ángel Cabrera	70	−1
	Barclay Howard (a)
	Davis Love III
	Andrew Magee
	Jesper Parnevik

Source:

Second round

Friday, 18 July 1997

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Darren Clarke	align=center	67-66=133	−9
2	Justin Leonard	align=center	69-66=135	−7
3	Jesper Parnevik	70-66=136	−6
T4	Fred Couples	69-68=137	−5
	David Tapping	align=center		71-66=137
T6	Jim Furyk	align=center	67-72=139	−3
	Tom Kite	align=center	72-67=139
8	Ángel Cabrera	align=center	70-70=140	−2
T9	Mark Calcavecchia	74-67=141	−1
	Jay Haas	align=center		71-70=141
	Davis Love III	align=center		70-71=141
	Tom Watson	align=center		71-70=141

Source:^[7]
Amateurs: Howard (+2), Watson (+7), Bladon (+10), Olsson (+11), Webster (+11), Taylor (+15), Young (+17), Miller (+22).

Third round

Saturday, 19 July 1997

Place	Player	Score	To par
1		Jesper Parnevik	align=center	70-66-66=202	−11
2	Darren Clarke	67-66-71=204	−9
T3	Fred Couples	align=center	69-68-70=207	−6
	Justin Leonard	align=center	69-66-72=207
T5	Stephen Ames	align=center	74-69-66=209	−4
	Jim Furyk	align=center	67-72-70=209
	Eduardo Romero	align=center	74-68-67=209
T8	Robert Allenby	76-68-66=210	−3
	Lee Westwood	73-70-67=210
	Tiger Woods	72-74-64=210

Source:^[8]

Final round

Sunday, 20 July 1997

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (£)
1	Justin Leonard	69-66-72-65=272	−12	250,000
T2		67-66-71-71=275	−9	150,000
	70-66-66-73=275
4		67-72-70-70=279	−5	90,000
T5		75-69-69-67=280	−4	62,500
	74-69-66-71=280
T7		73-70-70-68=281	−3	40,667
	74-68-67-72=281
	69-68-70-74=281
T10		70-71-74-67=282	−2	24,300
	75-69-70-68=282
	74-72-68-68=282
	72-67-74-69=282
	74-67-72-69=282
	74-69-70-69=282
	75-69-69-69=282
	71-70-70-71=282
	76-68-66-72=282
	73-70-67-72=282

Source:^{[1] [4] [9]}
Amateurs: Howard (+9)

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	4	4	5	3	5	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	3	4	5	3	4
Leonard	−6	−7	−8	−9	−8	−9	−10	−10	−11	−10	−10	−10	−10	−10	−10	−11	−12	−12
Clarke	−10	−8	−8	−8	−8	−9	−9	−9	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−8	−7	−8	−8	−9
Parnevik	−11	−11	−12	−12	−12	−11	−12	−12	−12	−11	−12	−12	−11	−11	−11	−11	−10	−9

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Double Eagle -->

Eagle

Birdie

Bogey

Double bogey

Triple bogey+ -->

Source:^[5]

External links

• Royal Troon 1997 (Official site)
• 126th Open Championship – Royal Troon (European Tour)

55.532°N -4.65°W

Notes and References

1. Web site: Media guide . The Open Championship . 2011 . 33, 203 . 16 May 2017 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120418224641/http://www.theopen.com/~/media/The%20Open/Information/Media_Guide.ashx . 18 April 2012 .
2. News: Royal Troon, hole-by-hole . Toledo Blade . (Ohio, U.S.) . 17 July 1997 . 42 .
3. Justin time. Sports Illustrated. Reilly. Rick. Rick Reilly. 28 July 1997.
4. News: Leonard's surge foils Parnevik's redemption . Eugene Register-Guard . (Oregon, U.S.) . Associated Press . Sirak . Ron . 21 July 1997 . 1B.
5. News: Leonard outduels Parnevik . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Parascenzo . Marino . 21 July 1997 . B1.
6. News: Open Championship: course. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 17 July 1997. 10C.
7. News: Birdie barrage hits Troon . Eugene Register-Guard . (Oregon, U.S.) . Associated Press . Sirak . Ron . 19 July 1997 . 1D.
8. News: Parnevik picks up the pace at Troon . Eugene Register-Guard . (Oregon, U.S.) . Associated Press . Sirak . Ron . 20 July 1997 . 1G.
9. Web site: 1997 Open Championship results. databasegolf.com. 2 July 2012.