1996 -

Mark O'Meara, who waited 18 years to win his first major at the Masters in April, amazingly became Open champion just three months later at Royal Birkdale today.

The 41-year-old American lifted the famous claret jug by beating fellow American Brian Watts by two shots in a four-hole play-off.

O'Meara and Watts, one a Ryder Cup player of known star quality and the other a 32-year-old in contention for a major for the first time, had tied on the even-par total of 280, one ahead of a fast-finishing Tiger Woods.

His experience made O'Meara favourite to become the fourth successive American winner - after John Daly, Tom Lehman and Justin Leonard - and he used it to the full.

After taking the lead when he holed from six feet for birdie and Watts missed from five at the first extra hole, the long 15th, O'Meara made solid pars at the next two to preserve the advantage.

Watts then bunkered his approach to the last just as he had at the 72nd, but with O'Meara safely at the back of the green in two there seemed no way back.

A bogey five meant O'Meara could three-putt for the title and the record £300,000 first prize - but he needed only two.

Yet in becoming the oldest player ever to win two majors in the same year, O'Meara might concede in time that a week full of heart-stopping incident and, until today, gale-force winds, belonged just as much - maybe more - to the youngest player taking part.

Seventeen-year-old Justin Rose, almost literally an overnight sensation, finished a brilliant joint fourth - holing a 45-yard pitch shot on the last to the biggest roar of the week and then announcing it was his last-ever shot as an amateur.

It was the highest finish by an amateur in the Open since American Frank Stranahan was second at Carnoustie in 1953.

If Rose had been able to accept a cheque it would have been one for £69,875 - but pretty soon, once all the contracts are signed, that might seem like a drop in the ocean.

The Hampshire youngster, who will make his professional debut in this week's Dutch Open, said: ``What a way to finish. It's been just an incredible week and that was unbelievable - a magic moment.''

His father Ken, a management consultant who will now try to guide him through what is sure to be a continuing high-profile media spotlight, added: ``I'm just gob-smacked.''

O'Meara looked set to win in regulation time when Watts, having copied his 18-foot birdie putt on the 17th, drove into a greenside bunker down the last.

But the little-known Montreal-born player with an English father and German mother, despite a difficult stance, splashed out brilliantly to two feet and holed the putt to match O'Meara's total.

Woods looked out of the hunt until thrillingly chipping in for 30 feet for birdie on the 17th and then holed a putt from the same distance at the last.

The world number one shot 66 and said: ``It was a great round but ultimately not good enough. I knew even par was likely to be the number.''

He could have cursed his three-putt on the first green but commented: ``I made a whole bunch of mistakes.''

The other 66 of the day came from Scotland's Raymond Russell and brought him into a tie for fourth with Rose, American Jim Furyk and Swede Jesper Parnevik, who after two runners-up finishes in the last four years suffered more disappointment.

The front-nine action had been like gentle sparring before the real fight began.

Watts took a two-shot lead into the day, had it cut to one by O'Meara, but thanks to a 25-foot putt on the 344-yard fifth turned two ahead again.

Furyk mirrored Watts' outward half of 34 exactly, bogeying the short fourth and picking up a stroke at the next, in his case by pitching to four feet.

O'Meara made his move with 15-foot birdie putts at the 11th and 12th only to find sand with his approach to the 498-yard par-four 13th and fail to get up and down.

Watts, however, carved his tee shot on the short 12th and when he bogeyed as well it was a three-way tie.

O'Meara broke the deadlock in stunning fashion. His tee shot to the 198-yard 14th pulled up three feet from the flag and in went his third birdie putt in four holes to take him to level par and ahead on his own for the first time.

At Augusta in April he was not in that position until he made his dramatic 20-foot birdie putt on the final green of the final match. Had he got there too soon this time?

Others were starting to suspect they had left themselves too much to do. Parnevik, playing with Watts, fell three behind when he drove into rough at the 13th and just failed to recover.

Woods had left himself a mountain to climb by three-putting the first and while he did improve from six over there to three over with two to play the 22-year-old American knew a birdie on the long 17th was the minimum he needed.

A bad drive meant he could not make the green in two and when he pitched too strongly it looked all over. But this amazing golfer then sank the chip, the ball dropping in on its last roll.

``Come on,'' he yelled at himself, not knowing that his chances had been helped by O'Meara missing an eight-foot birdie putt on the par-five 15th and by Furyk taking six there.

And when Woods made his putt on the last and O'Meara bogeyed the 16th after missing the green and misreading a 10-footer, the close friends were level with Watts and the stage was set for a gripping climax to the 127th Championship.

The clubhouse target had been set just before by Russell, who made a brilliant effort for a man lying 205th in this season's European Order of Merit and with 10 missed halfway cuts in his last 11 tournaments.

Russell, struck low by hepatitis at the start of the year, holed from a bunker at the short 14th, birdied the 15th and even had an eagle putt to go into the joint lead at the 17th, though he did not know it because he was ignoring every single scoreboard.

At two over, one more birdie would have really put the pressure on, but after a bad drive into the left-hand rough he did well to get a par, his third shot finishing four feet from the flag.

Meanwhile, Rose continued to receive a wonderful ovation from the crowd the whole way round - and with two holes to play he still had a chance to become the first amateur winner since Bobby Jones in 1930.

When he did not birdie the 17th he needed an eagle two at the 472-yard 18th to tie Woods. It did not happen, but the next best thing did - after a drive into the crowd and a second that failed to get back on the fairway he holed his pitch and the crowd exploded.

That would have been the perfect end to an amazing week. But there was still an Open to be won.

Collated fourth round scores from the Open Championship, Royal Birkdale, (Gbr & Irl unless stated, Par 70):

(x) denotes amateur

280 M O'Meara (USA) 72 68 72 68 (O'Meara won four-hole play-off), B Watts (USA) 68 69 73 70 (O'Meara wins £300,000, Watts £188,000)

281 T Woods (USA) 65 73 77 66 (£135,000)

282 R Russell 68 73 75 66, (x) J Rose 72 66 75 69, J Furyk (USA) 70 70 72 70, J Parnevik (Swe) 68 72 72 70 (£76,666 each)

285 D Love III (USA) 67 73 77 68 (£49,500)

286 C Rocca (Ita) 72 74 70 70, T Bjorn (Den) 68 71 76 71 (£40,850 each)

287 D Duval (USA) 70 71 75 71, B Faxon (USA) 67 74 74 72, J Huston (USA) 65 77 73 72 (£33,333 each)

288 G Brand Jnr 71 70 76 71 (£29,000)

289 J M Olazabal (Spa) 73 72 75 69, P Baker 69 72 77 71, D Smyth 74 69 75 71, G Turner (Nzl) 68 75 75 71 (£23,650 each)

290 R Allenby (Aus) 67 76 78 69, C Strange (USA) 73 73 74 70, V Singh (Fij) 67 74 78 71, M James 71 74 74 71, S Lyle 71 72 75 72 (£17,220 each)

291 L Janzen (USA) 72 69 80 70, S Torrance 69 77 75 70, P O'Malley (Aus) 71 71 78 71, S Ames (Tri) 68 72 79 72, B Estes (USA) 72 70 76 73

292 S Dunlap (USA) 72 69 80 71, N Price (Zim) 66 72 82 72, (x) S Garcia (Spa) 69 75 76 72, E Els (Rsa) 72 74 74 72, L Roberts (USA) 66 76 76 74, S Maruyama (Jpn) 70 73 75 74

293 S Struver (Ger) 75 70 80 68, S Luna (Spa) 70 72 80 71, M Calcavecchia (USA) 69 77 73 74

294 J Haeggman (Swe) 71 74 78 71, S Tinning (Den) 69 76 77 72, P Sjoland (Swe) 72 72 77 73, N Ozaki (Jpn) 72 73 76 73, T Kite (USA) 72 69 79 74, P Walton 68 76 74 76

295 D Howell 68 77 79 71, R Davis (Aus) 76 70 78 71, D Frost (Rsa) 72 73 78 72, D Carter 71 75 76 73, P Stewart (USA) 71 71 78 75, N Faldo 72 73 75 75, A Coltart 68 77 75 75, K Tomori (Jpn) 75 71 70 79

296 B Jobe (USA) 70 73 82 71, L Mize (USA) 70 75 79 72, S Stricker (USA) 70 72 80 74, B Mayfair (USA) 72 73 77 74, F Minoza (Phi) 69 75 76 76

297 J Leonard (USA) 73 73 82 69, T Dodds (Nam) 73 71 81 72, I Garrido (Spa) 71 74 80 72, S Jones (USA) 73 72 79 73, G Chalmers (Aus) 71 75 77 74, I Woosnam 72 74 76 75, E Romero (Arg) 71 70 79 77

298 L Westwood 71 71 78 78, C Franco (Par) 71 73 76 78

299 S Cink (USA) 71 73 83 72, M Campbell (Nzl) 73 73 80 73 (x) D de Vooght (Bel) 70 76 80 73, M Long (Nzl) 70 74 78 77, M Brooks (USA) 71 73 75 80, F Couples (USA) 66 74 78 81

300 A Clapp 72 74 81 73

301 G Evans 69 74 84 74

303 B May (USA) 70 73 85 75

304 A McLardy (Rsa) 72 74 80 78

305 F Jacobson (Swe) 67 78 81 79

306 K Hosokawa (Jpn) 72 73 81 80

307 R Giles 72 74 83 78

308 P Mickelson (USA) 71 74 85 78

309 A Oldcorn 75 71 84 79

310 D Hart (USA) 73 72 85 80