The 1979 Open Championship was the 108th Open Championship, held 18–21 July at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England. Seve Ballesteros, 22, won the first of his five major titles, three strokes ahead of runners-up Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw. It was the first of his three Open Championship victories; he raised the Claret Jug again in 1984 and 1988.

This was the last Open scheduled to end on Saturday; in 1980 it moved to a Sunday final round, similar to the other three majors.

Course

Hole	Yards	Par		Hole	Yards	Par
1	206	3		10	334	4
2	436	4		11	542	5
3	458	4		12	201	3
4	393	4		13	339	4
5	212	3		14	445	4
6	486	5		15	468	4
7	551	5		16	356	4
8	394	4		17	453	4
9	162	3		18	386	4
Out	3,298	35		In	3,524	36
Source:			Total		6,822	71

Hole #6 was a par 4 in 2012.

Lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):

• 1974: 6,822 yards (6,238 m), par 71
• 1969: 6,848 yards (6,262 m), par 71
• 1963: 6,836 yards (6,251 m), par 70
• 1958: 6,635 yards (6,067 m), par 71
• 1952: 6,657 yards (6,087 m)

Round summaries

First round

Wednesday, 18 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Bill Longmuir	65	−6
2	Hale Irwin	68	−3
3	Jerry Pate	69	−2
4	Isao Aoki	70	−1
T5	Terry Gale	71	E
	Peter McEvoy (a)
	Orville Moody
	Lee Trevino
T9	Hugh Baiocchi	72	+1
	Ken Brown
	Dennis Clark
	Ben Crenshaw
	Gary Cullen
	Jack Nicklaus
	Tom Watson

Source:

Second round

Thursday, 19 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Hale Irwin	68-68=136	−6
2	Seve Ballesteros	73-65=138	−4
3	Bill Longmuir	65-74=139	−3
4	Tom Watson	72-68=140	−2
T5	Dennis Clark	72-69=141	−1
	Jack Nicklaus	72-69=141
7	Graham Marsh	74-68=142	E
T8	Ken Brown	72-71=143	+1
	Bob Byman	73-70=143
	Ben Crenshaw	72-71=143
	Jerry Pate	69-74=143

Source:

Amateurs: McEvoy (+3), Player (+8), Hallberg (+14), Hoad (+15),
                 Bennett (+17), Myers (+18), Guy (+20), Whelan (+23).

Third round

Friday, 20 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Hale Irwin	68-68-75=211	−2
2	Seve Ballesteros	73-65-75=213	E
T3	Mark James	76-69-69=214	+1
	Jack Nicklaus	72-69-73=214
T5	Rodger Davis	75-70-70=215	+2
	Bob Byman	73-70-72=215
	Ben Crenshaw	72-71-72=215
T8	Isao Aoki	70-74-72=216	+3
	Greg Norman	73-71-72=216
	Tom Watson	72-68-76=216
	Bill Longmuir	65-74-77=216

Amateurs: McEvoy (+4), Player (+19).

Final round

Saturday, 21 July 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money (£)
1	Seve Ballesteros	73-65-75-70=283	−1	15,000
T2	Ben Crenshaw	72-71-72-71=286	+2	11,250
	Jack Nicklaus	72-69-73-72=286
4	Mark James	76-69-69-73=287	+3	7,500
5	Rodger Davis	75-70-70-73=288	+4	6,500
6	Hale Irwin	68-68-75-78=289	+5	6,000
T7	Graham Marsh	74-68-75-74=291	+7	5,000
	Isao Aoki	70-74-72-75=291
	Bob Byman	73-70-72-76=291
T10	Bob Charles	78-72-70-72=292	+8	4,000
	Masashi Ozaki	75-69-75-73=292
	Greg Norman	73-71-72-76=292

Source:

Amateurs: McEvoy (+10)