2024 Open Championship

The 2024 Open Championship, officially the 152nd Open Championship, was a golf tournament played from 18–21 July at Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the tenth Open Championship played at the Old Course of Troon. Xander Schauffele shot a final-round 65 to win his second major championship, two strokes ahead of Justin Rose and 54-hole leader Billy Horschel. With Schauffele's win, American golfers won all four major championships in the same calendar year for the eleventh time and the first time since 1982.

Organisation
The 2024 Open Championship is organised by the R&A, and is included in the PGA Tour, European Tour, and Japan Golf Tour calendars under the major championships category. The tournament is a 72-hole (4 rounds) stroke play competition held over four days, with 18 holes played each day. Play will be in groups of three for the first two days, and groups of two in the final two days. Groupings for the first two days are decided by the organizers, with each group having one morning and one afternoon tee time. On the final two days, players will tee off in reverse order of aggregate score, with the leaders last. After 36 holes there will be a cut, after which the top 70 and ties progress through to compete in the third and fourth rounds. In the event of a tie for the lowest score after four rounds, a four-hole aggregate playoff will be held to determine the winner; this will be followed by sudden-death extra holes if necessary until a winner emerges.

Venue
The 2024 event was the 11th Open Championship (tenth for men) played at Royal Troon. The most recent was in 2020, when The R&A only the Women's Open Championship was offered that season (both Open Championships for men were not held in 2020). Sophia Popov scored a major upset in winning her only major by two strokes then. The previous Men's Open was in 2016, where Henrik Stenson won the event by three strokes for his only major title.

Field
The Open Championship field is made up of 157 players, who gained entry through various exemption criteria and qualifying tournaments. The criteria included past Open champions, recent major winners, top ranked players in the world rankings and from the leading world tours, and winners and high finishers from various designated tournaments, including the Open Qualifying Series; the winners of designated amateur events, including The Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur, also gained exemption provided they remain an amateur. Anyone not qualifying via exemption, and had a handicap of 0.4 or lower, can gain entry through regional and final qualifying events.

Most exemption criteria remained unchanged from previous years. The previous Order of Merit exemptions for the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and Sunshine Tour were replaced by a category based on the Official World Golf Ranking's International Federation Ranking List, and a new exemption was added for the winner of the Africa Amateur Championship; it was also announced that winners of the 2024 Open and future editions will remain exempt through age 55, instead of through age 60 as with previous winners.

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 21 July 2024 (for all Champions up to 2024)


 * Stewart Cink
 * Darren Clarke
 * John Daly
 * Ernie Els
 * Todd Hamilton
 * Brian Harman (3,4,5,13)
 * Pádraig Harrington
 * Zach Johnson (3)
 * Justin Leonard
 * Shane Lowry (3,5,7)
 * Rory McIlroy (3,4,5,6,13)
 * Phil Mickelson (3,11)
 * Francesco Molinari (3)
 * Collin Morikawa (3,5,11,13)
 * Louis Oosthuizen
 * Cameron Smith (3,12)
 * Jordan Spieth (3,5,13)
 * Henrik Stenson (3)
 * Tiger Woods (10)


 * Ben Curtis, David Duval, and Paul Lawrie will not play.

2. The Open Champions aged 55 or under on 21 July 2024 (for all Champions from 2024)

3. The Open Champions for 2013–2023

4. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2023 Open Championship


 * Jason Day (5,13)
 * Tommy Fleetwood (5,6,13)
 * Emiliano Grillo (13)
 * Max Homa (5,13)
 * Matthew Jordan
 * Tom Kim (5,6,13)
 * Jon Rahm (5,6,9,10,13)
 * Shubhankar Sharma
 * Sepp Straka (5,13)
 * Cameron Young (5)

5. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2024


 * Ludvig Åberg
 * An Byeong-hun
 * Akshay Bhatia
 * Keegan Bradley (13)
 * Sam Burns (13)
 * Patrick Cantlay (13)
 * Wyndham Clark (9,13)
 * Eric Cole
 * Corey Conners (13)
 * Bryson DeChambeau (9)
 * Austin Eckroat
 * Harris English
 * Tony Finau (13)
 * Matt Fitzpatrick (6,9,13)
 * Rickie Fowler (13)
 * Lucas Glover (13)
 * Tyrrell Hatton (6,13)
 * Russell Henley (13)
 * Nicolai Højgaard (6)
 * Viktor Hovland (6,13)
 * Im Sung-jae (13)
 * Stephan Jäger
 * Kim Si-woo (13)
 * Chris Kirk
 * Kurt Kitayama
 * Brooks Koepka (11)
 * Min Woo Lee (6)
 * Hideki Matsuyama (10)
 * Denny McCarthy
 * Matthieu Pavon (6)
 * J. T. Poston
 * Xander Schauffele (11,13)
 * Scottie Scheffler (10,12,13)
 * Adam Schenk (13)
 * Nick Taylor (13)
 * Sahith Theegala
 * Justin Thomas (11)
 * Will Zalatoris

6. Top 30 in the final 2023 Race to Dubai rankings


 * Alexander Björk
 * Jorge Campillo
 * Ryan Fox (7)
 * Daniel Hillier
 * Ryo Hisatsune
 * Rasmus Højgaard
 * Romain Langasque
 * Thriston Lawrence
 * Joost Luiten
 * Robert MacIntyre
 * Adrian Meronk
 * Vincent Norrman
 * Thorbjørn Olesen
 * Yannik Paul
 * Victor Perez
 * Marcel Siem
 * Jordan Smith
 * Sami Välimäki
 * Matt Wallace


 * Sebastian Söderberg did not play.

7. Recent winners of the BMW PGA Championship (2021–2023)
 * Billy Horschel

8. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2024 Race to Dubai Rankings through the BMW International Open
 * Laurie Canter
 * Nacho Elvira
 * Ewen Ferguson
 * Matteo Manassero
 * Jesper Svensson

9. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2019–2024)
 * Gary Woodland

10. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2019–2024)
 * Dustin Johnson

11. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2018–2024)

12. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2022–2024)

13. Top 30 players from the 2023 FedEx Cup points list
 * Taylor Moore

14. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2024 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship


 * Christiaan Bezuidenhout
 * Tom Hoge

15. Winner of the 2024 Visa Open de Argentina
 * Mason Andersen

16. Top five players from the OWGR's International Federation Ranking List as of closing date


 * Kazuma Kobori
 * Keita Nakajima
 * Andy Ogletree
 * David Puig
 * Ryan van Velzen

17. Winner of the 2023 Japan Open Golf Championship
 * Aguri Iwasaki

18. Winner of the 2023 Senior Open Championship
 * Alex Čejka

19. Winner of the 2024 Amateur Championship
 * Jacob Skov Olesen (a)

20. Winner of the 2022 U.S. Amateur
 * Nick Dunlap

21. Winner of the 2024 European Amateur
 * Tommy Morrison (a)

22. Recipient of the 2023 Mark H. McCormack Medal
 * Gordon Sargent (a)

23. Winner of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship
 * Jasper Stubbs (a)

24. Winner of the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship
 * Santiago de la Fuente (a)

25. Winner of the 2024 Open Amateur Series
 * Calum Scott (a)

26. Winner of the 2024 Africa Amateur Championship
 * Altin van der Merwe (a)

27. Medical exemption
 * Michael Hendry

Open Qualifying Series
The Open Qualifying Series (OQS) for the 2024 Open Championship consists of 12 events. Places are available to the leading players (not otherwise exempt) who make the cut. In the event of ties, positions go to players ranked highest according to that week's OWGR. If a player who has qualified through OQS becomes exempt through other criteria before 1 June, the next highest non-exempt finisher from that OQS event will become exempt.

Final qualifying
Regional qualifying events were held on 24 June at 15 locations. Final qualifying events were played on 2 July at four locations, with a minimum of 16 total places available.

First round
Thursday, 18 July 2024

Dan Brown, making his major championship debut after earning a place in the field through final qualifying, claimed the first-round lead following a bogey-free 65. Ranked 272nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, Brown had made only one cut in his last eight tournaments prior to the Open.

Shane Lowry, winner of the 2019 Open Championship, was in second place, and two-time major champion Justin Thomas was in third.

The scoring average was 74.43, more than three strokes over par, and only 17 players broke par on the round as wind and rain created difficult playing conditions.

Second round
Friday, 19 July 2024

Shane Lowry shot a 2-under 69 to take the lead headed into the weekend. Overnight leader Dan Brown carded a 72 to slide into a tie for second alongside former world number one Justin Rose, who shot 68, the joint-lowest round of the day. Rose was the only player in the early-late tee time groupings to be under par through two rounds, as his side of the draw faced more difficult scoring conditions.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, seeking his seventh win of the season, moved into a share of fourth alongside Dean Burmester and Billy Horschel following a second consecutive 1-under round of 70.

Joaquín Niemann made a quintuple-bogey 8 at the par-3 8th hole, but bounced back with a 31 on the back nine to post 71 and remain at even par for the championship, seven strokes off the lead.

The cut came at 148 (six-over-par). Five of the top ten players in the Official World Golf Ranking failed to make the weekend: Rory McIlroy (no. 2), Ludvig Åberg (no. 4), Wyndham Clark (no. 5), Viktor Hovland (no. 7), and Bryson DeChambeau (no. 9). Among those who also missed the cut were Henrik Stenson, winner of the Open when it was lasted hosted at Royal Troon in 2016, and three-time Open champion Tiger Woods.

The scoring average was again more than three strokes over par, at 74.36, as wind gusts reached 30 mph during the round.

Third round
Saturday, 20 July 2024

Billy Horschel established a 54-hole lead in a major championship for the first time in his career with a 2-under 69. Horschel and Xander Schauffele, winner of the 2024 PGA Championship, were the only players from the final 12 groupings to shoot under par in the third round, as weather conditions worsened throughout the day. The scoring average for the final 12 groupings was 73.92, compared to 71.46 for the prior 12 groupings.

Teeing off earlier in the day when the weather was sunny and calm, Thriston Lawrence and Sam Burns shot rounds of 65 to vault into contention. Russell Henley also moved into a six-way tie for second following a 66.

36-hole leader Shane Lowry carded a 6-over 77 to fall into ninth place, while Dan Brown double bogeyed his final hole to post 73. Scottie Scheffler shot even-par 71 to remain in contention. In an interview after his round, Scheffler described the back nine, with its cold, rainy, and windy conditions, as "probably the hardest nine holes that I'll ever play."

As one of the early players on the course, Si Woo Kim made a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th hole. This was the first ace made in championship history at that hole, and at 238 yards it became the longest hole-in-one in the recorded history of the Open championship.

Final round
Sunday, 21 July 2024

Summary
Xander Schauffele shot the lowest round of the day, a bogey-free 65, to post a winning score of 9-under 275 and win the Claret Jug. This was his second major championship of the year, making him the first since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to win two majors in a calendar year.

Playing alongside Schauffele, Justin Rose shot 67 to finish as runner-up at 7-under. 54-hole leader Billy Horschel birdied his final three holes to tie Rose in second place. Thriston Lawrence made four birdies and no bogeys on the front nine to hold the solo lead at 7-under, before faltering with a 1-over 36 on the back nine to finish fourth. World number one and pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler was at 4-under for the tournament through 8 holes, but four-putted for double bogey on the 9th hole and fell out of contention.

Four amateurs made the cut out of 12 who competed in the tournament. Calum Scott, from Nairn in the Highlands of Scotland, won the Silver Medal as low amateur with a score of 8-over 292.

Scorecard
Final round

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par


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