Real Winners and Losers from the 2024 Open Championship

The major season has wrapped up for another year after the Open Championship concluded on Sunday at the stunning Royal Troon.

Xander Schauffele won his second major of the season (and his career) in convincing fashion to mean he arguably has had a better season than OWGR number one, Scottie Scheffler. We take a look at the real winners and losers from The Open.

2024 Open Championship Winners

Billy Horschel

Before this season Billy Ho had competed in 25 majors with only one top-10, which coincidentally came in his first major appearance as a professional (US Open 2013, T4). This year, Billy finished T8 at the PGA Championship and secured a career-best finish of T2 at The Open over the weekend at Royal Troon.

Granted, for some players finishing second would grant them a place in the Losers section of this column, but the context for Billy is different. The 2024 Open Championship was the first major in which Billy truly competed which indicates a great trajectory for his major career going forward.

Likewise, Billy shot a 3-under 68 on the final day which he can be proud of. If Billy had been over par the perception may be interpreted as weakness under pressure, but Billy did the opposite and still managed to make up ground in the highest of all pressure environments, but just not enough to match Xander.

It was only last June (2023) at the Memorial when Billy gave an emotional post-round interview after shooting an opening 84 when he said "my confidence is the lowest it's been in my entire career". Since then, Billy's game has been extremely competitive and included a win at the Corales Puntacana Championship earlier this year. T2 at The Open is a great achievement for Billy to build on.

Justin Rose

Alongside Billy Horschel, Justin Rose was the other T2 at The Open this year. Rose battled the bad weather on Saturday to remain in contention on Sunday before carding a bold 4-under 67 on Sunday.

This is a win for Justin Rose as he was not even meant to be at The Open this year, let alone nearly win it. Since falling out of the top-50 in the OWGR Rose had no exemptions booking him a place at this year's Open.

Rose proceeded to finish joint first place with amateur Dominic Clemons in the final qualifying event at Burnham and Berrow on 2 July 2024, just a few weeks before the event started to earn his place.

Storylines like Rose show why the game of golf needs majors like the US Open and The Open to ensure all the best talent can play themselves in and contend on Sunday if they're good enough. A closed-field event like the Masters has its own magic, but the tradition of anyone being able to play themselves in is particularly special.

Sungjae Im

Sungjae finished on the weekend with a strong 66-69 to get to 1-under and finish T7 alongside Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, so he was in good company.

Despite a few great finishes at the Masters (T2 in 2020 and T8 in 2022), Sungjae has a frankly poor record in major championships. In 21 major appearances since his debut at the PGA Championship in 2018, Sungjae has missed the cut in 11 of them, including 6 MCs in the last three years. Similarly, Sungjae hasn't reached the weekend at the US Open since 2021.

This week, Sungjae managed only his third top-10 in his major career which is a significant outlier in his record. Whilst this top-10 was not a particularly competitive one, he was one of only seven players to finish under par which is a good indicator of how well he played.

2024 Open Championship Losers

Sam Burns

Burns had one of the most bizarre major championship performances seen for some time. Burns started the tournament on Thursday by going +7 on the first 11 holes. On Friday he shot 69 to get inside the cut mark. On Saturday he shot a 6-under 65 to get himself in possible contention for a good finish.

Sunday? Burns shot a +9 to card 80 for the day and fall back down to +6 for the tournament and somehow still get a T31. Erratic and unpredictable, Burns' weekend of 65-80 shows just how relatable and fickle this game is.

Brooks Koepka

At the PGA Championship in 2023, Koepka completed the inevitable storyline to become the first LIV player to win a major championship. Koepka has demonstrated himself to be able to peak for the biggest tournaments that matter and seemingly pay little attention to the average events.

The four majors are therefore how Koepka will rate himself, and this year was poor (by his own high standards). Koepka's major performance was poor in 2022 which is understandable due to his season being besieged by injuries.

Apart from 2022, Koepka had finished T7 or better in one major each year since 2014, including 5 wins. This season, a fully fit Koepka failed to finish in the top-25 in any of them, and this weekend was no different with a T43 at +8.

Tommy Fleetwood

Fleetwood has a great record at The Open Championship and finished in the top-10 in 3 of the last 4 coming into this year. Fleetwood has the benefit of the home crowd and European setup which seems to suit him more than the other side of the Atlantic.

Fleetwood would have been hoping to continue that good record this weekend with his current good form but instead shot 76-75 to miss the cut and go home early for only the second time this year.

Notable Players to Miss the Cut at The Open Championship in 2024:

Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Keegan Bradley, Will Zalatoris, Min Woo Lee, Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Tom Kim and Sahith Theegala.