ZACH JOHNSON HAS won the 2015 Open Championship after Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman at St. Andrews this evening.
The American claimed the second Major of his career, after finishing the four hole playoff on -1.
“It sounds beautiful. It still sounds extremely surreal. The tone to it is very humbling. I feel blessed to be the champion and honoured to be part of the history of this game,” Johnson told the BBC after his victory.
Jordan Spieth, meanwhile, missed getting into the playoff by one shot and thus saw his hopes shattered of becoming just the second player to win the Masters, US and British Opens in the same year.
Johnson, Oosthuizen and Leishman all finished with totals of 15-under 273 after Johnson and Leishman had 66s and Oosthuizen a 69.
That forced the first British Open playoff since Stewart Cink defeated Tom Watson at Turnberry in 2009 and the first three-way playoff since 1999 when Paul Lawrie triumphed.
Played over holes 1, 2, 17 and 18, Oosthuizen and Johnson immediately distanced themselves from Leishman with opening birdies to his bogey.
Johnson then went clear with a birdie at the second, but he hit a poor approach to the notorious 17th, the Road Hole, and bogeyed, only for Oosthuizen to miss a four-footer to get back on level terms.
It all came down to the famous 18th hole with its historic town centre backdrop, and a par was enough for Johnson with Oosthuizen narrowly missing an eight-footer to force sudden death.d
The news was not so good for the Irish contenders with overnight leader Paul Dunne shooting six over par to finish -6. Padraig Harrington was one shot better at -7.
Additional reporting from AFP.
