1979 Open Championship

The 1979 Open Championship was the 108th Open Championship, held 18–21 July at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England. Seve Ballesteros, 22, won the first of his five major titles, three strokes ahead of runners-up Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw. It was the first of his three Open Championship victories; he raised the Claret Jug again in 1984 and 1988.

This was the last Open scheduled to end on Saturday; in 1980 it moved to a Sunday final round, similar to the other three majors.

Course

Hole	Yards	Par		Hole	Yards	Par
1	206	3		10	334	4
2	436	4	11	542	5
3	458	4	12	201	3
4	393	4	13	339	4
5	212	3	14	445	4
6	486	5	15	468	4
7	551	5	16	356	4
8	394	4	17	453	4
9	162	3	18	386	4
Out	3,298	35	In	3,524	36
Source:	Total	6,822	71

Hole #6 was a par 4 in 2012.

Lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):

1974: 6,822 yards (6,238 m), par 71
1969: 6,848 yards (6,262 m), par 71
1963: 6,836 yards (6,251 m), par 70
1958: 6,635 yards (6,067 m), par 71
1952: 6,657 yards (6,087 m)

Wednesday, 18 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Scotland Bill Longmuir	65	−6
2	United States Hale Irwin	68	−3
3	United States Jerry Pate	69	−2
4	Japan Isao Aoki	70	−1
T5	Australia Terry Gale	71	E
England Peter McEvoy (a)
United States Orville Moody
United States Lee Trevino
T9	South Africa Hugh Baiocchi	72	+1
Scotland Ken Brown
New Zealand Dennis Clark
United States Ben Crenshaw
England Gary Cullen
United States Jack Nicklaus
United States Tom Watson

Source:

Thursday, 19 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	United States Hale Irwin	68-68=136	−6
2	Spain Seve Ballesteros	73-65=138	−4
3	Scotland Bill Longmuir	65-74=139	−3
4	United States Tom Watson	72-68=140	−2
T5	New Zealand Dennis Clark	72-69=141	−1
United States Jack Nicklaus	72-69=141
7	Australia Graham Marsh	74-68=142	E
T8	Scotland Ken Brown	72-71=143	+1
United States Bob Byman	73-70=143
United States Ben Crenshaw	72-71=143
United States Jerry Pate	69-74=143

Source:

Amateurs: McEvoy (+3), Player (+8), Hallberg (+14), Hoad (+15), Bennett (+17), Myers (+18), Guy (+20), Whelan (+23).

Friday, 20 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	United States Hale Irwin	68-68-75=211	−2
2	Spain Seve Ballesteros	73-65-75=213	E
T3	England Mark James	76-69-69=214	+1
United States Jack Nicklaus	72-69-73=214
T5	Australia Rodger Davis	75-70-70=215	+2
United States Bob Byman	73-70-72=215
United States Ben Crenshaw	72-71-72=215
T8	Japan Isao Aoki	70-74-72=216	+3
Australia Greg Norman	73-71-72=216
United States Tom Watson	72-68-76=216
Scotland Bill Longmuir	65-74-77=216

Amateurs: McEvoy (+4), Player (+19).

Saturday, 21 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (£)
1	Spain Seve Ballesteros	73-65-75-70=283	−1	15,000
T2	United States Ben Crenshaw	72-71-72-71=286	+2	11,250
United States Jack Nicklaus	72-69-73-72=286
4	England Mark James	76-69-69-73=287	+3	7,500
5	Australia Rodger Davis	75-70-70-73=288	+4	6,500
6	United States Hale Irwin	68-68-75-78=289	+5	6,000
T7	Australia Graham Marsh	74-68-75-74=291	+7	5,000
Japan Isao Aoki	70-74-72-75=291
United States Bob Byman	73-70-72-76=291
T10	New Zealand Bob Charles	78-72-70-72=292	+8	4,000
Japan Masashi Ozaki	75-69-75-73=292
Australia Greg Norman	73-71-72-76=292

Source:

Amateurs: McEvoy (+10)
The exchange rate at the time was approximately 2.30 dollars (US) per pound sterling.

53°44′58″N 3°01′05″W/53.7495°N 3.018°W/ 53.7495; -3.018