2003 Open Championship Explained

2003 Open Championship
Dates:17–20 July 2003
Location:Sandwich, England
Course:Royal St George's Golf Club
Tour:European Tour
PGA Tour
Japan Golf Tour
Org:The R&A
Par:71
Field:156 players, 75 after cut
Cut:150 (+8)
Purse:£3,900,000
€5,631,600
$6,240,000
Winners Share:£700,000
€1,010,800
$1,112,720
Champion: Ben Curtis
Score:283 (−1)
Previous:2002
Next:2004

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.[1] [2] 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.[3] [4] [5]

Course layout

See main article: Royal St George's Golf Club.

Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Yards4424182104974201725324553883,5344142423814595504751634284603,5727,106
Par443543544364344543443571
Source:[6]

Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):[7]

Field

1. Top 15 and ties from the 2002 Open ChampionshipStuart 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)
2. Open Champions, 1993–2002John 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 2003Mark Calcavecchia (18), Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson
4. The first 50 players on the OWGR on 29 May 2003Robert 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)
5. Top 20 in the final 2002 European Tour Order of MeritBradley Dredge, Anders Hansen (6), Stephen Leaney, José María Olazábal (11)
6. The Volvo PGA Championship winners for 2000–03Ignacio Garrido, Andrew Oldcorn
7. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2003 European Tour Order of Merit as of 29 MayBrian 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 OpenAlastair 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 OpenRaphaël Jacquelin, David Lynn, Rolf Muntz, Gary Murphy, Nick O'Hern, Iain Pyman, Mark Roe, Charl Schwartzel
10. The U.S. Open Champions for 1994–2003Lee Janzen, Corey Pavin
11. The Masters Champions for 1999–2003
12. The PGA Champions for 1998–2002
13. The Players Champions for 2000–03Craig Perks, Hal Sutton (18)
14. Top 20 in the final 2002 PGA Tour Official Money List
15. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2003 PGA Tour Official Money List as of 29 MayChad Campbell
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 OpenJoe Durant, Jonathan Kaye, Cliff Kresge, J. L. Lewis, Rory Sabbatini, Duffy Waldorf
17. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied (16) above, in the 2003 Western OpenTom Byrum, José Cóceres, Ben Curtis, Luke Donald, Dudley Hart, Skip Kendall, Scott McCarron, Chris Smith
18. Playing members of the 2002 Ryder Cup teamsPaul Azinger, Stewart Cink, Pierre Fulke, Paul McGinley, Jesper Parnevik, Phillip Price, Lee Westwood
19. The 2002 Canadian Open ChampionJohn Rollins
20. The 2002 Japan Open ChampionDavid Smail
21. Winner of the 2002 Asian PGA Tour Order of MeritJyoti Randhawa
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 MeritShingo Katayama, Nobuhito Sato, Toru Taniguchi
24. Top 2 from the 2002–03 Sunshine Tour Order of MeritMark Foster
25. The leading player, not exempt, in the 2003 Mizuno OpenTodd Hamilton
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 OpenHur Suk-ho, Hirofumi Miyase, Hideto Tanihara, Katsuyoshi Tomori
27. The 2002 Senior British Open ChampionNoboru Sugai
28. The 2003 Amateur ChampionGary Wolstenholme (a)
29. The 2002 U.S. Amateur ChampionRicky Barnes (a)
30. The 2002 European Amateur Champion
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

    First round

    Thursday, 17 July 2003

    PlacePlayerScoreTo par[8]
    1 Hennie Otto68−3
    T2 Davis Love III69−2
    Greg Norman
    T4 S.K. Ho70−1
    Freddie Jacobson
    T6 Fred Couples71E
    Gary Evans
    Mathias Grönberg
    Charles Howell III
    Thomas Levet
    Scott McCarron
    Tom Watson

    Second round

    Friday, 18 July 2003

    PlacePlayerScoreTo par[9]
    1 Davis Love III69-72=141−1
    T2 Thomas Bjørn73-70=143+1
    S.K. Ho70-73=143
    T4 Ben Curtis72-72=144+2
    Alastair Forsyth74-70=144
    Sergio García73-71=144
    Thomas Levet71-73=144
    Hennie Otto68-76=144
    Kenny Perry74-70=144
    Marco Ruiz73-71=144

    Amateurs: Barnes (+11), Wolstenholme (+14), Godfrey (+18).

    Third round

    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]

    PlacePlayerScoreTo par[13]
    1 Thomas Bjørn73-70-69=212−1
    2 Davis Love III69-72-72=213E
    T3 Ben Curtis72-72-70=214+1
    Sergio García73-71-70=214
    Kenny Perry74-70-70=214
    Vijay Singh75-70-69=214
    Tiger Woods73-72-69=214
    T8 Hur Suk-ho70-73-72=215+2
    Phillip Price74-72-69=215
    T10 Gary Evans71-75-70=216+3
    Pierre Fulke77-72-67=216
    Freddie Jacobson70-76-70=216
    Peter Lonard73-73-70=216

    Final round

    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 10feet 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.

    PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)
    1 Ben Curtis 72-72-70-69=283 −1 700,000
    T2 73-70-69-72=284 E 345,000
    75-70-69-70=284
    T4 69-72-72-72=285 +1 185,000
    73-72-69-71=285
    T6 77-73-68-68=286 +2 134,500
    70-76-70-70=286
    T8 76-74-67-70=287 +3 155,383
    74-70-70-73=287
    T10 71-75-70-72=288 +4 97,750
    73-71-70-74=288
    73-75-71-69=288
    68-76-75-69=288
    74-72-69-73=288
    Source:[14]

    Scorecard

    Final round

    Hole123456789101112131415161718
    Par443543544434454344
    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]

    External links

    51.274°N 1.367°W

    Notes and References

    1. News: Bunkered Bjorn's sandy sorrow . 21 July 2003 . 19 April 2018 . BBC Sport.
    2. A major major upset . Sports Illustrated . Bamberger . Michael . 28 July 2003 . 24 June 2013.
    3. News: Ben who? . 20 July 2003 . 19 April 2018 . BBC Sport.
    4. News: Rookie pulls off stunner . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Ferguson . Doug . Associated Press . 21 July 2003 . C-1 . 24 June 2013.
    5. News: Caught in a trap . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Newberry . Paul . Associated Press . 21 July 2003 . C-3 . 24 June 2013.
    6. Web site: Media guide . The Open Championship . 2011 . 5 . 29 June 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120418224641/http://www.theopen.com/~/media/The%20Open/Information/Media_Guide.ashx . 18 April 2012 .
    7. Web site: Media guide . The Open Championship . 2011 . 27, 203 . 2 July 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120418224641/http://www.theopen.com/~/media/The%20Open/Information/Media_Guide.ashx . 18 April 2012 .
    8. Web site: PGA European Tour - Tournaments . https://archive.today/20090904162907/http://www.europeantour.com/default.sps?syndicatorguid=&rmasiteinstanceguid=&pagegid=%7BAEFB93B0-EFF5-4C05-AB0F-FD08D947D944%7D&infosid=1&eventid=2003040&roundno=1 . 4 September 2009 . dead . 23 August 2009.
    9. Web site: PGA European Tour - Tournaments . 4 September 2009 . dead . 23 August 2009 . https://archive.today/20090904162913/http://www.europeantour.com/default.sps?syndicatorguid=&rmasiteinstanceguid=&pagegid=%7BAEFB93B0-EFF5-4C05-AB0F-FD08D947D944%7D&infosid=1&eventid=2003040&roundno=2.
    10. News: Roe and Parnevik disqualified . . 19 July 2003 . 13 July 2016.
    11. Web site: Mark Roe welcomes new rules change . Golf Today . 13 July 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161110105246/http://www.golftoday.co.uk/news/yeartodate/news05/roe.html . 10 November 2016 . dead .
    12. Web site: Mark Roe Career Record . PGA European Tour . 13 July 2016.
    13. Web site: PGA European Tour - Tournaments . https://archive.today/20090904162919/http://www.europeantour.com/default.sps?syndicatorguid=&rmasiteinstanceguid=&pagegid=%7BAEFB93B0-EFF5-4C05-AB0F-FD08D947D944%7D&infosid=1&eventid=2003040&roundno=3 . 4 September 2009 . dead . 23 August 2009.
    14. Web site: 2003 Open Championship results . databasegolf.com . 2 July 2012.
    15. News: British Open Championship . ESPN . 10 August 2015.

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