1997 British Open Winner and Scores
The 1997 British Open was the 126th time the tournament was played. The winner was five stroke off the lead when he started the final round, but won by three.
Winner: Justin Leonard, 272
Where it was played: Royal Troon Golf Club, Troon, Scotland
Tournament dates: July 17-20, 1997
Leader after first round: Darren Clarke and Jim Furyk, 67
Leader after second round: Darren Clarke, 133
Leader after third round: Jesper Parnevik, 202
What Happened at the 1997 Open Championship
Justin Leonard was the "champion golfer of the year" here, but in some ways this tournament will always be remembered as the nadir in the collapse of Ian Baker-Finch's golf game.Baker-Finch was a telegenic, friendly, popular and very good golfer in the late 1980s and early 1990s whose career seemed ready to take off after he won the 1991 Open Championship. But soon thereafter a combination of swing changes and confidence problems knocked his game backwards. He never recovered, spiralling downward.
Then he reached the 1997 Open and carded a first-round 92. Baker-Finch withdrew and, according to some reports, fell to the floor in the clubhouse in tears. He essentially disappeared from PGA Tour golf after that.
That was the bad news in the 1997 British Open. The good news was the stellar play of Leonard, who began the final round five strokes off the lead, but ended it with a three-stroke margin of victory over Jesper Parnevik and Darren Clarke.
Leonard did that with clutch putting and a final-round score of 65. He birdied six of the nine holes on the front nine, then added two late birdies on the 16th and 17th holes.
It was the third of Leonard's 12 career wins on the PGA Tour, but proved his only victory in a major. He lost in playoffs at two other majors, the 1999 Open Championship and the 2004 PGA Championship.
Tiger Woods played the Open Championship as a professional for the first time here and tied for 24th place. He went on to win it three times. Jack Nicklaus made his third-to-last appearance in The Open and tied for 60th place, but it was the last time he made the cut in this major.
1997 British Open Final Scores
| Justin Leonard | 69-66-72-65-272 |
| Darren Clarke | 67-66-71-71-275 |
| Jesper Parnevik | 70-66-66-73-275 |
| Jim Furyk | 67-72-70-70-279 |
| Stephen Ames | 74-69-66-71-280 |
| Padraig Harrington | 75-69-69-67-280 |
| Peter O'Malley | 73-70-70-68-281 |
| Eduardo Romero | 74-68-67-72-281 |
| Fred Couples | 69-68-70-74-281 |
| Robert Allenby | 76-68-66-72-282 |
| Lee Westwood | 73-70-67-72-282 |
| Retief Goosen | 75-69-70-68-282 |
| Tom Kite | 72-67-74-69-282 |
| Frank Nobilo | 74-72-68-68-282 |
| Mark Calcavecchia | 74-67-72-69-282 |
| Shigeki Maruyama | 74-69-70-69-282 |
| Davis Love III | 70-71-74-67-282 |
| Ernie Els | 75-69-69-69-282 |
| Tom Watson | 71-70-70-71-282 |
| Stuart Appleby | 72-72-68-71-283 |
| Brad Faxon | 77-67-72-67-283 |
| Mark James | 76-67-70-70-283 |
| Jose Maria Olazabal | 75-68-73-67-283 |
| Tom Lehman | 74-72-72-66-284 |
| Jay Haas | 71-70-73-70-284 |
| Colin Montgomerie | 76-69-69-70-284 |
| Phil Mickelson | 76-68-69-71-284 |
| Ian Woosnam | 71-73-69-71-284 |
| David A. Russell | 75-72-68-69-284 |
| Peter Lonard | 72-70-69-73-284 |
| Tiger Woods | 72-74/64-74-284 |
| Mark McNulty | 78-67-72-68-285 |
| Rodger Davis | 73-73-70-70-286 |
| David Duval | 73-69-73-71-286 |
| Jonathan Lomas | 72-71-69-74-286 |
| Andrew Magee | 70-75-72-70-287 |
| Greg Norman | 69-73-70-75-287 |
| Raymond Russell | 72-72-74-70-288 |
| Michael Bradley | 72-73-73-70-288 |
| Mark O'Meara | 73-73-74-68-288 |
| John Kernohan | 76-70-74-68-288 |
| Vijay Singh | 77-69-70-72-288 |
| Bernhard Langer | 72-74-69-73-288 |
| Jerry Kelly | 76-68-72-73-289 |
| David Tapping | 71-66-78-74-289 |
| Jose Coceres | 76-70-71-72-289 |
| Curtis Strange | 71-71-70-77-289 |
| Jim Payne | 74-71-74-71-290 |
| Steve Jones | 76-71-68-75-290 |
| Richard Boxall | 75-71-72-72-290 |
| Jeff Maggert | 76-69-71-75-291 |
| Nick Faldo | 71-73-75-72-291 |
| Peter Senior | 76-70-73-72-291 |
| Greg Turner | 76-71-72-72-291 |
| Angel Cabrera | 70-70-76-75-291 |
| Corey Pavin | 78-69-76-68-291 |
| Peter Mitchell | 75-69-76-71-291 |
| Wayne Riley | 74-71-75-71-291 |
| Payne Stewart | 73-74-71-74-292 |
| Jack Nicklaus | 73-74-71-75-293 |
| a-D. Barclay Howard | 70-74-76-73-293 |
| Tom Purtzer | 72-71-73-78-294 |
| Steve Stricker | 72-73-74-75-294 |
| Peter Teravainen | 74-72-73-75-294 |
| Jamie Spence | 78-69-72-75-294 |
| Gary Clark | 74-72-72-77-295 |
| Paul McGinley | 76-71-77-71-295 |
| Per-Ulrik Johansson | 72-75-73-75-295 |
| Tommy Tolles | 77-68-75-76-296 |
| Billy Andrade | 72-72-78-76-298 |
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1996 British Open - 1998 British Open