The British Open is the oldest major championship in golf and it is now on its third version of playoff rules in the modern era. If players were tied after 72 holes, the playoff used to be a 36-hole slog. That format was last put in play in 1963 and after that, the playoff was reduced to just 18 holes. We’re already finishing this 2015 edition of The Open a day late, so fortunately, that 18-hole playoff went out of use in 1986. Only the U.S. Open uses a full 18-hole playoff now.
British Open playoff format and rules: 4-hole aggregate score used as tiebreaker
Unlike the U.S. Open, which goes an extra day and 18 holes to break a tie, the Open Championship settles a winner with a same-day four-hole playoff.
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For the past 30 years, the R&A has used an aggregate playoff format. If two or more players are tied after the 72nd hole on Monday afternoon, they will play four more holes at St. Andrews and the final tally from that extra game will decide the winner. The holes will be the 1st, 2nd, 17th, and the 18th. If two or more are still tied after those four holes, it becomes a sudden death playoff from there on out.
The last four-hole playoff at The Open took place in 2009 and it was maybe the most crushing in the event’s history. It occurred after Tom Watson made bogey on his 72nd hole of the championship at Turnberry, opening the door for Stewart Cink in extra holes. Watson, who was 59 years old at the time, had run out of wizardry and could not keep up in extra holes as one of the greatest major stories, if not the greatest, cruelly evaporated in a playoff.
The last Open playoff held at St. Andrews occurred in 1995, when John Daly wiped out Constantino Rocca. Those two played the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th holes at the Old Course to decide a winner. Daly was able to comfortably cruise over the Swilcan Bridge and up the 18th after Rocca made a mess on the Road Hole, posting a triple bogey 7 at the 17th. That will be in the rotation again this year and it’s the hardest hole on the course, and toughest par-4 in the world. With disaster looming there, it’s often the difference in a round and probably would be in a playoff.
If necessary, this would be the ninth time The Open has gone to a four-hole aggregate playoff. Only once, in Ernie Els’ 2002 win, was a sudden death hole needed beyond that aggregate game.
The weather is not supposed to cause a delay on Monday at St. Andrews so everything should finish on schedule. The last group should putt out between 6:30 and 7 p.m. local (2 p.m. ET). It stays light out until 10 p.m. in Scotland this time of year so there would be ample time to get a resolution Monday night.
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