Activities Sports & Athletics 1998 British Open: O'Meara the Champ Via Playoff Print Andrew Redington/Getty Images Sports & Athletics Golf Golf Tournaments Basics History Gear Golf Courses Famous Golfers Baseball Bicycling Billiards Bodybuilding Bowling Boxing Car Racing Cheerleading Extreme Sports Football Gymnastics Ice Hockey Martial Arts Professional Wrestling Skateboarding Skating Paintball Soccer Swimming & Diving Table Tennis Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Other Activities Learn More By Brent Kelley Brent Kelley Brent Kelley is an award-winning sports journalist and golf expert with over 30 years in print and online journalism. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on 11/04/19 The year 1998 was a pretty good one for Mark O'Meara. He birdied the 72nd hole at Augusta National to win The Masters, then, a few months later, won a playoff to also take the British Open. The 1998 British Open got off to a most auspicious start with Tiger Woods shooting 65 to share the first-round lead. Unheralded Brian Watts, an American who had played mostly in Japan to this point, took the second-round lead. Woods, 17-year-old amateur Justin Rose, and 3-time major champion Nick Price were tied for second. Bad weather hit Royal Birkdale in Round 3, and the 72 carded by O'Meara was one of the best scores of the day. He moved into second, two strokes back of Watts. Rose stirred the crowd by finishing in fourth place, and Woods charged with a final-round 66, but Watts and O'Meara finished tied and headed into the four-hole playoff. Which O'Meara won with a birdie on the first hole coupled with a Watts bogey on the fourth hole. 1998 British Open Scores Results and prize money (USD) from the 1998 British Open played at Royal Birkdale (par 70) in Southport, England (p-won four-hole playoff; a-amateur): p-Mark O'Meara, $492,000 72-68-72-68-280 Brian Watts, $308,320 68-69-73-70-280 Tiger Woods, $221,400 65-73-77-66-281 Jesper Parnevik, $125,733 68-72-72-70-282 Jim Furyk, $125,733 70-70-72-70-282 a-Justin Rose 72-66-75-69-282 Raymond Russell, $125,733 68-73-75-66-282 Davis Love III, $81,180 67-73-77-68-285 Costantino Rocca, $69,994 72-74-70-70-286 Thomas Bjorn, $69,994 68-71-76-71-286 Brad Faxon, $54,666 67-74-74-72-287 David Duval, $54,666 70-71-75-71-287 John Huston, $54,666 65-77-73-72-287 Gordon Brand, $47,560 71-70-76-71-288 Greg Turner, $38,786 68-75-75-71-289 Des Smyth, $38,786 74-69-75-71-289 Jose Maria Olazabal, $38,786 73-72-75-69-289 Peter Baker, $38,786 69-72-77-71-289 Mark James, $28,240 71-74-74-71-290 Sandy Lyle, $28,240 71-72-75-72-290 Curtis Strange, $28,240 73-73-74-70-290 Vijay Singh, $28,240 67-74-78-71-290 Robert Allenby, $28,240 67-76-78-69-290 Peter O'Malley, $20,467 71-71-78-71-291 Lee Janzen, $20,467 72-69-80-70-291 Sam Torrance, $20,467 69-77-75-70-291 Stephen Ames, $20,467 68-72-79-72-291 Bob Estes, $20,467 72-70-76-73-291 Loren Roberts, $16,892 66-76-76-74-292 Shigeki Maruyama, $16,892 70-73-75-74-292 Ernie Els, $16,892 72-74-74-72-292 a-Sergio Garcia 69-75-76-72-292 Scott Dunlap, $16,892 72-69-80-71-292 Nick Price, $16,892 66-72-82-72-292 Sven Struver, $14,596 75-70-80-68-293 Santiago Luna, $14,596 70-72-80-71-293 Mark Calcavecchia, $14,596 69-77-73-74-293 Philip Walton, $13,694 68-76-74-76-294 Joakim Haeggman, $13,694 71-74-78-71-294 Steen Tinning, $13,694 69-76-77-72-294 Tom Kite, $13,694 72-69-79-74-294 Patrik Sjoland, $13,694 72-72-77-73-294 Naomichi Ozaki, $13,694 72-73-76-73-294 David Carter, $12,433 71-75-76-73-295 Payne Stewart, $12,433 71-71-78-75-295 David Howell, $12,433 68-77-79-71-295 Rodger Davis, $12,433 76-70-78-71-295 David Frost, $12,433 72-73-78-72-295 Nick Faldo, $12,433 72-73-75-75-295 Andrew Coltart, $12,433 68-77-75-75-295 Katsuyoshi Tomori, $12,433 75-71-70-79-295 Frankie Minoza, $11,250 69-75-76-76-296 Steve Stricker, $11,250 70-72-80-74-296 Larry Mize, $11,250 70-75-79-72-296 Brandt Jobe, $11,250 70-73-82-71-296 Billy Mayfair, $11,250 72-73-77-74-296 Ian Woosnam, $10,273 72-74-76-75-297 Steve Jones, $10,273 73-72-79-73-297 Trevor Dodds, $10,273 73-71-81-72-297 Ignacio Garrido, $10,273 71-74-80-72-297 Justin Leonard, $10,273 73-73-82-69-297 Greg Chalmers, $10,273 71-75-77-74-297 Eduardo Romero, $10,273 71-70-79-77-297 Lee Westwood, $9,799 71-71-78-78-298 Carlos Franco, $9,799 71-73-76-78-298 Michael Long, $9,512 70-74-78-77-299 Stewart Cink, $9,512 71-73-83-72-299 Michael Campbell, $9,512 73-73-80-73-299 a-Didier de Vooght 70-76-80-73-299 Mark Brooks, $9,512 71-73-75-80-299 Fred Couples, $9,512 66-74-78-81-299 Andrew Clapp, $9,266 72-74-81-73-300 Gary Evans, $9,184 69-74-84-74-301 Bob May, $9,184 70-73-85-75-303 Andrew McLardy, $9,184 72-74-80-78-304 Fredrik Jacobson, $9,184 67-78-81-79-305 Kazuhiko Hosokawa, $9,184 72-73-81-80-306 Robert Giles, $9,184 72-74-83-78-307 Phil Mickelson, $9,184 71-74-85-78-308 Andrew Oldcorn, $9,184 75-71-84-79-309 Dudley Hart, $9,184 73-72-85-80-310 Return to British Open Winners index for more tournament recaps. 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