1996 Open Championship Explained

The 1996 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 125th Open Championship, held from 18 to 21 July at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes, England. Tom Lehman won his only major championship by two strokes over runners-up Mark McCumber and Ernie Els.^[1] Lehman built a six-stroke lead after 54 holes and became the first American to win at Lytham since Bobby Jones seventy years earlier.^{[2] [3]}

Tiger Woods, age 20, was the only amateur to make the cut and finished tied for 22nd; he turned professional six weeks later. Jack Nicklaus, 56, was one stroke out of the lead after 36 holes, but fell back on the weekend and tied for 45th.

Course layout

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Yards	206	437	457	393	212	490	553	418	164	3,330	334	542	198	342	445	463	357	467	414	3,562	6,892
Par	3	4	4	4	3	5	5	4	3	35	4	5	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	36	71

Source:^[4]

Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):^[5]

1988: 1979: 1974: 1969:

1963: 1958: 1952:

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, 18 July 1996

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Paul Broadhurst	align=center	65	−6
T2	Mark Brooks	67	−4
	Fred Couples
	Brad Faxon
	Tom Lehman
	Mark McCumber
	Mark O'Meara
	Loren Roberts
	Hidemichi Tanaka
T10	Ernie Els	68	−3
	Klas Eriksson
	Nick Faldo
	Jim Furyk
	Pádraig Harrington
	Shigeki Maruyama
	Carl Mason
	Nick Price

Second round

Friday, 19 July 1996

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Tom Lehman	align=center	67-67=134	−8
	Paul McGinley	align=center	69-65=134
T3	Ernie Els	align=center	68-67=135	−7
	Peter Hedblom	align=center	70-65=135
	Jack Nicklaus	align=center	69-66=135
T6	Nick Faldo	align=center	68-68=136	−6
	Pádraig Harrington	align=center	68-68=136
	Mark McCumber	align=center	67-69=136
	Mark O'Meara	align=center	67-69=136
	Corey Pavin	align=center	70-66=136
	Loren Roberts	align=center	67-69=136
	Vijay Singh	align=center	69-67=136

Amateurs (a): Woods (−1), Bladon (+4), Allan (+5), García (+7).

Third round

Saturday, 20 July 1996

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Tom Lehman	align=center	67-67-64=198	−15
2	Nick Faldo	align=center	68-68-68=204	−9
T3	Mark Brooks	align=center	67-70-68=205	−8
	Vijay Singh	69-67-69=205
T5	Fred Couples	align=center	67-70-69=206	−7
	Ernie Els	align=center	68-67-71=206
T7	Darren Clarke	70-68-69=207	−6
	Mark McCumber	67-69-71=207
	Shigeki Maruyama	68-70-69=207
	Steve Stricker	align=center		71-70-66=207

Final round

Sunday, 21 July 1996

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (£)
1	Tom Lehman	67-67-64-73=271	−13	200,000
T2		68-67-71-67=273	−11	125,000
	67-69-71-66=273
4		68-68-68-70=274	−10	75,000
T5		67-70-68-71=276	−8	50,000
	69-70-72-65=276
T7		67-70-69-71=277	−7	35,000
	70-65-75-67=277
	71-68-71-67=277
	72-69-68-68=277

Amateurs: Woods (−3).

Source:^[6]

External links

• Royal Lytham & St Annes 1996 (Official site)
• 125th Open Championship - Royal Lytham & St Annes (European Tour)

53.7495°N -3.018°W

Notes and References

1. News: The big one. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Parascenzo. Marino. 22 July 1996. D1.
2. Tour de force. https://archive.today/20130119212010/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1008459/index.htm. dead. 19 January 2013. Sports Illustrated. Diaz. Jaime. 29 July 1996.
3. The anti-Shark. https://archive.today/20130119101715/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1008449/index.htm. dead. 19 January 2013. Sports Illustrated. Reilly. Rick. 29 July 1996.
4. News: British Open: course. Southeast Missourian. 18 July 1996. 3B.
5. Web site: Media guide . The Open Championship . 2011 . 34, 203 . 3 July 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120418224641/http://www.theopen.com/~/media/The%20Open/Information/Media_Guide.ashx . 18 April 2012 .
6. Web site: 1996 Open Championship results. databasegolf.com. 3 July 2012.