2011 British Open Winner and Scores
The 2011 British Open was the tournament's 140th edition. At age 42, Darren Clarke won in his first Top 10 finish at a British Open since 2001.
Winner: Darren Clarke, 275
Where it was played: Royal St. George's Golf Club, Sandwich, England
Tournament dates: July 14-17, 2011
Leader after first round: Thomas Bjorn and a-Tom Lewis, 65
Leader after second round: Darren Clarke, 136
Leader after third round: Darren Clarke, 205
What Happened in the 2011 Open Championship
At age 42, Darren Clarke finally broke through at the 2011 British Open to win his first major championship title. Clarke's victory continued a great run of success for Northern Ireland golfers in majors around this time. Graeme McDowell started it by winning the 2010 U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy added the 2011 U.S. Open, and Clarke chipped in a victory here.The win came 10 years after Clarke's last Top 10 finish in a major, which occurred at the 2001 British Open. In the intervening years, Clarke, once annually among the game's top-ranked players, had fallen far. His game deteriorated as he dealt with personal tragedy: the long illness and ultimate death of his wife due to breast cancer.
After that tragedy, Clarke began putting his life — and his golf game — back together. He started contending again and moved back up the rankings, although he was still outside the Top 100 at the time of the 2011 Open.
Clarke opened with a pair of 68s and added a 69 in the third round. As the final round began, Clarke led by one over Dustin Johnson.
It was Phil Mickelson, who began the day trailing by five, who blistered the front nine in terrible weather conditions with a 30. At one point, he tied Clarke atop the leaderboard.
Johnson made his own run at Clarke. After falling behind early, Johnson got back to within two after 13 holes of the final round. But on the par-5 14th — a par-5 Johnson and likely Johnson alone could have reached in two with the hole playing into the wind — Johnson hit his approach out of bounds and double-bogeyed.
By that point, Mickelson had let some shots slip, too, and Clarke was in the clear for the Claret Jug if he could play the final four holes without any major miscues. And Clarke did that, finishing with a par of 70 to record a 5-under score of 280.
Clarke was the oldest British Open winner since Roberto De Vicenzo won the 1967 British Open at age 44.
2011 British Open Final Scores
| Darren Clarke | 68-68-69-70—275 |
| Dustin Johnson | 70-68-68-72—278 |
| Phil Mickelson | 70-69-71-68—278 |
| Thomas Bjorn | 65-72-71-71—279 |
| Chad Campbell | 69-68-74-69—280 |
| Anthony Kim | 72-68-70-70—280 |
| Rickie Fowler | 70-70-68-72—280 |
| Raphael Jacquelin | 74-67-71-69—281 |
| Sergio Garcia | 70-70-74-68—282 |
| Davis Love III | 70-68-72-72—282 |
| Simon Dyson | 68-72-72-70—282 |
| Steve Stricker | 69-71-72-71—283 |
| Martin Kaymer | 68-69-73-73—283 |
| Lucas Glover | 66-70-73-74—283 |
| George Coetzee | 69-69-72-74—284 |
| Y.E. Yang | 71-69-73-72—285 |
| Webb Simpson | 66-74-72-73—285 |
| Charl Schwartzel | 71-67-75-72—285 |
| Richard Green | 70-71-73-71—285 |
| Fredrik Jacobson | 70-70-73-72—285 |
| Zach Johnson | 72-68-71-74—285 |
| Tom Lehman | 71-67-73-75—286 |
| Anders Hansen | 69-69-72-76—286 |
| Tom Watson | 72-70-72-72—286 |
| Adam Scott | 69-70-73-75—287 |
| Miguel Angel Jimenez | 66-71-72-78—287 |
| Rory McIlroy | 71-69-74-73—287 |
| Charles Howell III | 71-70-73-74—288 |
| Ryan Moore | 69-74-76-69—288 |
| Seung-yul Noh | 69-72-75-73—289 |
| a-Tom Lewis | 65-74-76-74—289 |
| Pablo Larrazabal | 68-70-76-75—289 |
| Stewart Cink | 70-71-77-71—289 |
| Ryan Palmer | 68-71-72-78—289 |
| Bubba Watson | 69-72-74-74—289 |
| Gary Woodland | 75-68-74-72—289 |
| Jason Day | 71-70-76-72—289 |
| Gary Boyd | 71-70-76-73—290 |
| Robert Rock | 69-71-74-76—290 |
| Yuta Ikeda | 69-71-75-75—290 |
| Trevor Immelman | 70-72-72-76—290 |
| Simon Khan | 71-72-77-70—290 |
| Jeff Overton | 68-71-78-73—290 |
| Spencer Levin | 72-69-81-69—291 |
| Justin Rose | 72-70-79-70—291 |
| Kyle Stanley | 68-72-77-74—291 |
| K.J. Choi | 71-72-75-73—291 |
| Floris De Vries | 70-73-76-73—292 |
| Robert Allenby | 69-72-75-76—292 |
| Gregory Bourdy | 73-70-77-72—292 |
| a-Peter Uihlein | 71-71-75-75—292 |
| Richard McEvoy | 69-72-75-76—292 |
| Jim Furyk | 72-70-76-74—292 |
| Louis Oosthuizen | 72-70-74-77—293 |
| Rory Sabbatini | 71-70-77-75—293 |
| Paul Casey | 74-69-78-72—293 |
| Fredrik Andersson Hed | 68-75-77-74—294 |
| Ricky Barnes | 68-74-78-74—294 |
| Bo Van Pelt | 73-69-73-79—294 |
| Stephen Gallacher | 70-71-77-76—294 |
| Bill Haas | 72-70-79-73—294 |
| Gregory Havret | 72-71-78-73—294 |
| Matthew Millar | 71-72-80-73—296 |
| Joost Luiten | 73-69-79-75—296 |
| Mark Wilson | 74-68-75-79—296 |
| Edoardo Molinari | 69-74-76-78—297 |
| Paul Lawrie | 73-70-81-73—297 |
| Henrik Stenson | 72-71-75-80—298 |
| Harrison Frazar | 72-70-77-80—299 |
| Kenneth Ferrie | 71-71-76-83—301 |
| Jung-Gon Hwang | 68-74-83-79—304 |
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