The Open Championship Championship in 2008. In 2009, 59-year-old Tom Watson turned in one of the most remarkable performances ever seen at The Open. Leading the tournament through 71 holes and needing just a par on the last hole to become the oldest ever winner of a major championship, Watson bogeyed, setting up a four-hole playoff, which he would lose to Stewart Cink. In 2013, Phil Mickelson won his first Open Championship at Muirfield. His victory meant that he had won 3 of the 4 majors in pursuit of the career grand slam, just needing the U.S. Open, where he has finished runner-up
Timeline of golf history (1945–99) his 18th professional major championship, and 20th in all. His final-day charge takes him past virtually all of the leading players of the generation below him, including Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson and Tom Kite. In June, Raymond Floyd also rolls back the years to win the U.S. Open, aged 44. The Sony Rankings system, now the Official World Golf Rankings, is introduced, the first formally recognised ranking system for men's golf. The first-ever number one, in April 1986, is 1985 Masters Champion Bernhard Langer. Bob Tway sinks a bunker shot at the final hole to beat Greg Norman