The Open Championship playoff format: What are the rules?
The Open Championship playoff format: Find out what the format for a playoff is if the major championship at Royal Troon heads for extra holes.
The Open Championship is wide open with 18 holes left at Royal Troon.
Billy Horschel holds a slender lead but a cluster of players are in with a shout to lift the claret jug on Sunday at the final men's major of the year.
That only means one thing: the chances of a playoff have risen significantly.
But what is the playoff format?
Let us explain.
The Open Championship is unlike a standard PGA Tour event and the playoff isn't a sudden-death contest.
Instead, the R&A, who runs the major, employs a four-hole aggregate score playoff to determine the winner.
At Royal Troon, players tied after four rounds will play holes 1, 2 and then the 17th and 18th.
The low score among the players determines the winner.
But what happens if the scores are tied once again?
Well, in that scenario the R&A goes to a hole-by-hole sudden death, playing the same holes again.
The last time The Open winner was determined by a playoff was in 2015.
American Zach Johnson prevailed over Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Players who have won The Open Championship in a playoff:
2010-Present:
- 2015: Zach Johnson defeated Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen
- 2009: Stewart Cink defeated Tom Watson
- 2002: Ernie Els defeated Thomas Levet, Stuart Appleby, and Steve Elkington
- 1999: Paul Lawrie defeated Justin Leonard and Jean van de Velde
- 1995: John Daly defeated Costantino Rocca
1980-1989:
- 1989: Mark Calcavecchia defeated Greg Norman and Wayne Grady
- 1988: Seve Ballesteros defeated Nick Price
- 1984: Seve Ballesteros defeated Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson
1970-1979:
- 1975: Tom Watson defeated Jack Newton
- 1970: Jack Nicklaus defeated Doug Sanders
1950-1969:
- 1963: Bob Charles defeated Phil Rodgers
- 1958: Peter Thomson defeated Dave Thomas
- 1954: Peter Thomson defeated Bobby Locke
1940-1949:
- 1949: Bobby Locke defeated Harry Bradshaw
- 1933: Denny Shute defeated Craig Wood
1920-1929:
- 1927: Bobby Jones defeated Al Watrous
- 1925: Jim Barnes defeated Ted Ray and Archie Compston
1910-1919:
- 1911: Harry Vardon defeated Arnaud Massy
- 1910: James Braid defeated Sandy Herd
1900-1909:
- 1908: James Braid defeated Tom Ball
1880-1899:
- 1889: Willie Park Jr. defeated Andrew Kirkaldy
- 1876: Bob Martin defeated Davie Strath (in a controversial decision as Strath refused to participate in the playoff)
