Royal Birkdale Open Champions, 1954 – 2017
“It was totally miserable, to be honest, and I still loved it.” – Mark O’Meara
Mark O’Meara was 41 years old when he hoisted the Claret Jug in 1998 at Royal Birkdale. On the whole, 1998 was a very good year for O’Meara, who had been playing pro golf for almost two decades. He came to the first tee at Royal Birkdale as the newly minted Masters champion and he went on to win the Cisco World Match Play Championship and rise to number 2 in the OWGR!
O’Meara was uniquely familiar with the Birkdale links. He held the 54-hole lead in 1991, but was edged out for the win by Ian Baker-Finch. He returned to Royal Birkdale determined to better his disappointing T3 finish, and he did just that.
It was a year when Seve, Tom Watson, John Daly, Tom Lehman and Gary Player all missed the cut. Tiger and John Huston set the pace with a a pair of first round 65s. O’Meara’s 1-over 72 didn’t impress. He came back with a second round 68 but was three shots off the lead Tiger had relinquished to Brian Watts.
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And then there was that 17-year old English amateur, Justin Rose, who carded a second round 66, which put him even with Tiger going into the third round.
Watts, who was remarkably inexperienced at competition on the game’s biggest stage, held on while O’Meara and Furyk closed in on him. Rose was lurking three shots back going into the final round and Tiger, who trailed by 5, had a huge gap to close.
Then the drama of the fourth round unfolded. O’Meara, Furyk, Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik, Rose and, inevitably, Tiger all threatened. O’Meara pulled even with Watts. The others fell back. Tiger’s heroic 3 birdies on the last 4 holes just weren’t enough. He got within one shot of the leaders, just short of the 4-hole playoff that gave O’Meara the victory.
That playoff tested O’Meara’s mettle. Watts missed a four-footer on the first playoff hole, Birkdale’s 15th hole, putting O’Meara 1-up. Both parred the second and third holes. O’Meara faced the fourth playoff hole with the advantage. Watts found the greenside bunker on his approach, sent his ball flying past the hole on his third shot, and finished it off with two putts. That left O’Meara on the fringe at the back of the green with three putts to win. He rolled his ball past the cup and holed out on the comeback.
O’Meara will lead off the 2017 Open Championship field on Thursday.