2003 Open Championship
The 2003 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 132nd Open Championship, held from 17 to 20 July at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England. Ben Curtis won his only major title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Thomas Bjørn and Vijay Singh. Bjørn had led in the final round by two shots with three holes to play, but needed three attempts to play out of a greenside bunker on the 16th hole. Playing in his first major championship and number 396 in the world rankings, Curtis became the first debut winner at The Open since Tom Watson in 1975.
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 17–20 July 2003 |
| Location | Sandwich, England |
| Course | Royal St George's Golf Club |
| Organized by | The R&A |
| Tour(s) | European Tour PGA Tour Japan Golf Tour |
| Statistics | |
| Par | 71 |
| Length | 7,106 yards (6,498 m)[1] |
| Field | 156 players, 75 after cut[1] |
| Cut | 150 (+8)[1] |
| Prize fund | £3,900,000 €5,631,600 $6,240,000 |
| Winner's share | £700,000 €1,010,800 $1,112,720 |
| Champion | |
 Ben Curtis | |
| 283 (−1) | |
The 2003 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 132nd Open Championship, held from 17 to 20 July at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England. Ben Curtis won his only major title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Thomas Bjørn and Vijay Singh. Bjørn had led in the final round by two shots with three holes to play, but needed three attempts to play out of a greenside bunker on the 16th hole.[2][3] Playing in his first major championship and number 396 in the world rankings, Curtis became the first debut winner at The Open since Tom Watson in 1975.[4][5][6]
Course layout
[edit]| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yards | 442 | 418 | 210 | 497 | 420 | 172 | 532 | 455 | 388 | 3,534 | 414 | 242 | 381 | 459 | 550 | 475 | 163 | 428 | 460 | 3,572 | 7,106 |
| Par | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 35 | 71 |
Source:[7]
- The 4th hole was a par 4 in previous Opens
Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):[1]
- 1993: 6,860 yards (6,273 m), par 70
- 1985: 6,857 yards (6,270 m), par 70
- 1981: 6,827 yards (6,243 m), par 70
Field
[edit]- 1. Top 15 and ties from the 2002 Open Championship
Stuart Appleby (4), Thomas Bjørn (4,5,18), Steve Elkington, Ernie Els (2,3,4,5,10,14), Gary Evans, Sergio García (4,5,14,18), Retief Goosen (4,5,10,14), Søren Hansen (5), Pádraig Harrington (4,5,18), Justin Leonard (2,3,4,14), Thomas Levet, Peter Lonard (4,22), Davis Love III (4,13,18), Shigeki Maruyama (4,14), Peter O'Malley (22), Nick Price (2,3,4,14)
- Scott Hoch (4,18) did not play.
- 2. Open Champions, 1993–2002
John Daly (3), David Duval (3,18), Paul Lawrie (3,4,5), Tom Lehman (3), Greg Norman (3), Mark O'Meara (3), Tiger Woods (3,4,10,11,12,13,14,18)
- 3. Past Open Champions aged 65 or under on 20 July 2003
Mark Calcavecchia (18), Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson
- Seve Ballesteros withdrew.
- Ian Baker-Finch, Tony Jacklin, Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Bill Rogers, Lee Trevino, and Tom Weiskopf did not enter.
- 4. The first 50 players on the OWGR on 29 May 2003
Robert Allenby (14), Rich Beem (12,14), Ángel Cabrera (5), Michael Campbell (5), Paul Casey, K. J. Choi (14), Darren Clarke (18), Fred Couples, Chris DiMarco (14), Bob Estes, Niclas Fasth (5,18), Brad Faxon, Steve Flesch, Fred Funk (14), Jim Furyk (10,14,18), Jay Haas, Charles Howell III (14), Trevor Immelman (5,24), Jerry Kelly (14), Bernhard Langer (5,18), Len Mattiace (14), Phil Mickelson (14,18), Colin Montgomerie (5,6,18), Craig Parry (22), Kenny Perry, Chris Riley, Eduardo Romero (5), Justin Rose (5), Adam Scott (5), Vijay Singh (11,12,14), Jeff Sluman (14), David Toms (12,14,18), Scott Verplank (18), Mike Weir (11)
- Rocco Mediate and Kirk Triplett did not play.
- 5. Top 20 in the final 2002 European Tour Order of Merit
Bradley Dredge, Anders Hansen (6), Stephen Leaney, José María Olazábal (11)
- 6. The Volvo PGA Championship winners for 2000–03
Ignacio Garrido, Andrew Oldcorn
- 7. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2003 European Tour Order of Merit as of 29 May
Brian Davis, Robert-Jan Derksen, Kenneth Ferrie, Mathias Grönberg, Freddie Jacobson
- 8. First 7 European Tour members, not exempt, in the top 25 of a cumulative money list taken from all official European Tour events from the 2003 Volvo PGA Championship up to and including the 2003 Scottish Open
Alastair Forsyth, Philip Golding, David Howell, Søren Kjeldsen, Mark McNulty, Greg Owen, Ian Poulter
- 9. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied (8) above, in the 2003 Scottish Open
Raphaël Jacquelin, David Lynn, Rolf Muntz, Gary Murphy, Nick O'Hern, Iain Pyman, Mark Roe, Charl Schwartzel
- 10. The U.S. Open Champions for 1994–2003
- Steve Jones did not play.
- 11. The Masters Champions for 1999–2003
- 12. The PGA Champions for 1998–2002
- 13. The Players Champions for 2000–03
Craig Perks, Hal Sutton (18)
- 15. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2003 PGA Tour Official Money List as of 29 May
- 16. First 7 PGA Tour members, not exempt, in the top 25 of a cumulative money list taken from the 2003 Players Championship and the five PGA Tour events leading up to and including the 2003 Western Open
Joe Durant, Jonathan Kaye, Cliff Kresge, J. L. Lewis, Rory Sabbatini, Duffy Waldorf
- Joey Sindelar did not play.
- 17. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied (16) above, in the 2003 Western Open
Tom Byrum, José Cóceres, Ben Curtis, Luke Donald, Dudley Hart, Skip Kendall, Scott McCarron, Chris Smith
- 18. Playing members of the 2002 Ryder Cup teams
Paul Azinger, Stewart Cink, Pierre Fulke, Paul McGinley, Jesper Parnevik, Phillip Price, Lee Westwood
- 19. The 2002 Canadian Open Champion
- 20. The 2002 Japan Open Champion
- 21. Winner of the 2002 Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit
- 22. Top 3 from the 2002–03 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit
- 23. Top 3 from the 2002 Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit
Shingo Katayama, Nobuhito Sato, Toru Taniguchi
- 24. Top 2 from the 2002–03 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit
- 25. The leading player, not exempt, in the 2003 Mizuno Open
- 26. First 4, not exempt having applied (25) above, in the top 20 of a cumulative money list taken from all official Japan Golf Tour events from the 2003 Japan PGA Championship up to and including the 2003 Mizuno Open
Hur Suk-ho, Hirofumi Miyase, Hideto Tanihara, Katsuyoshi Tomori
- 27. The 2002 Senior British Open Champion
- 28. The 2003 Amateur Champion
- 29. The 2002 U.S. Amateur Champion
Ricky Barnes (a)
- 30. The 2002 European Amateur Champion
- Raphaël Pellicioli forfeited his exemption by turning pro.
- Final Qualifying (Sunday 13 July and Monday 14 July)
- Littlestone – Steven Bowditch, Robert Coles, Scott Godfrey (a), Adam Le Vesconte, Christopher Smith, Anthony Wall, Paul Wesselingh
- North Foreland – Gary Emerson, Andrew George, Adam Mednick, Mårten Olander, Hennie Otto, Anthony Sproston, Simon Wakefield
- Prince's – Mathew Goggin, Jarrod Moseley, Cameron Percy, Andrew Raitt, Marco Ruiz, Steen Tinning, Ian Woosnam
- Royal Cinque Ports – Markus Brier, Charles Challen, Ben Crane, Peter Fowler, Euan Little, Malcolm MacKenzie, Mark Smith
Round summaries
[edit]First round
[edit]Thursday, 17 July 2003
| Place | Player | Score | To par[8] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Hennie Otto |
68 | −3 |
| T2 | Davis Love III |
69 | −2 |
 Greg Norman
| |||
| T4 |  S.K. Ho |
70 | −1 |
 Freddie Jacobson
| |||
| T6 | Fred Couples |
71 | E |
 Gary Evans
| |||
| Mathias Grönberg
| |||
| Charles Howell III
| |||
 Thomas Levet
| |||
| Scott McCarron
| |||
| Tom Watson
|
Second round
[edit]Friday, 18 July 2003
| Place | Player | Score | To par[9] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davis Love III |
69-72=141 | −1 |
| T2 |  Thomas Bjørn |
73-70=143 | +1 |
| S.K. Ho |
70-73=143 | ||
| T4 | Ben Curtis |
72-72=144 | +2 |
 Alastair Forsyth |
74-70=144 | ||
 Sergio García |
73-71=144 | ||
| Thomas Levet |
71-73=144 | ||
| Hennie Otto |
68-76=144 | ||
| Kenny Perry |
74-70=144 | ||
 Marco Ruiz |
73-71=144 |
Amateurs: Barnes (+11), Wolstenholme (+14), Godfrey (+18).
Third round
[edit]Saturday, 19 July 2003
Mark Roe shot a 67 to finish at one over par, but he and playing partner Jesper Parnevik were disqualified, having failed to exchange scorecards and therefore having signed incorrect scorecards.[10] The rule that resulted in the disqualifications was changed two years later;[11] Roe never played in another major.[12]
| Place | Player | Score | To par[13] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Bjørn |
73-70-69=212 | −1 |
| 2 | Davis Love III |
69-72-72=213 | E |
| T3 | Ben Curtis |
72-72-70=214 | +1 |
| Sergio García |
73-71-70=214 | ||
| Kenny Perry |
74-70-70=214 | ||
 Vijay Singh |
75-70-69=214 | ||
| Tiger Woods |
73-72-69=214 | ||
| T8 | Hur Suk-ho |
70-73-72=215 | +2 |
 Phillip Price |
74-72-69=215 | ||
| T10 | Gary Evans |
71-75-70=216 | +3 |
| Pierre Fulke |
77-72-67=216 | ||
| Freddie Jacobson |
70-76-70=216 | ||
| Peter Lonard |
73-73-70=216 |
Final round
[edit]Sunday, 20 July 2003
Ben Curtis shot six-under in the first 11 holes to grab a 2 stroke lead, but dropped four strokes in the next six holes to fall behind, and sank a 10-foot (3 m) par putt on the final hole to post the clubhouse lead. Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods also moved into early contention, but fell behind Curtis with late bogeys, leaving Thomas Bjørn with a three stroke lead with four holes to play. He finished bogey-double bogey-bogey-par and tied for second, one stroke back.
It was not only Curtis' first win, but his first top-10 finish in a PGA Tour event.
| Place | Player | Score | To par | Money (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Curtis |
72-72-70-69=283 | −1 | 700,000 |
| T2 | Thomas Bjørn |
73-70-69-72=284 | E | 345,000 |
| Vijay Singh |
75-70-69-70=284 | |||
| T4 | Davis Love III |
69-72-72-72=285 | +1 | 185,000 |
| Tiger Woods |
73-72-69-71=285 | |||
| T6 | Brian Davis |
77-73-68-68=286 | +2 | 134,500 |
| Freddie Jacobson |
70-76-70-70=286 | |||
| T8 | Nick Faldo |
76-74-67-70=287 | +3 | 155,383 |
| Kenny Perry |
74-70-70-73=287 | |||
| T10 | Gary Evans |
71-75-70-72=288 | +4 | 97,750 |
| Sergio García |
73-71-70-74=288 | |||
| Retief Goosen |
73-75-71-69=288 | |||
| Hennie Otto |
68-76-75-69=288 | |||
| Phillip Price |
74-72-69-73=288 |
Source:[14]
Scorecard
[edit]Final round
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Par | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Curtis |
E | E | E | −1 | −1 | −1 | −2 | −2 | −3 | −4 | −5 | −4 | −4 | −3 | −2 | −2 | −1 | −1 |
| Bjørn |
E | E | −1 | −2 | −2 | −2 | −3 | −3 | −3 | −3 | −3 | −3 | −3 | −4 | −3 | −1 | E | E |
| Singh |
+1 | E | E | E | −1 | −2 | −3 | −2 | −2 | −1 | −1 | −1 | E | −1 | −1 | E | E | E |
| Love |
+1 | +2 | +2 | +3 | +3 | +2 | +2 | +2 | +3 | +2 | +2 | +1 | E | E | E | E | +1 | +1 |
| Woods |
+1 | +1 | +1 | E | −1 | −1 | −2 | −1 | −1 | E | E | E | E | −1 | E | E | +1 | +1 |
Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source:[15]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Media guide". The Open Championship. 2011. pp. 27, 203. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
- ^ "Bunkered Bjorn's sandy sorrow". BBC Sport. 21 July 2003. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
- ^ Bamberger, Michael (28 July 2003). "A major major upset". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ "Ben who?". BBC Sport. 20 July 2003. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
- ^ Ferguson, Doug (21 July 2003). "Rookie pulls off stunner". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. p. C-1. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ Newberry, Paul (21 July 2003). "Caught in a trap". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. p. C-3. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ "Media guide". The Open Championship. 2011. p. 5. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
- ^ "PGA European Tour - Tournaments". Retrieved 23 August 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ "PGA European Tour - Tournaments". Retrieved 23 August 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ "Roe and Parnevik disqualified". BBC Sport. 19 July 2003. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ^ "Mark Roe welcomes new rules change". Golf Today. Archived from the original on 10 November 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ^ "Mark Roe Career Record". PGA European Tour. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- ^ "PGA European Tour - Tournaments". Retrieved 23 August 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ "2003 Open Championship results". databasegolf.com. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
- ^ "British Open Championship". ESPN. Retrieved 10 August 2015.