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.

Course layout
Source:
 * The 4th hole was a par 4 in previous Opens

Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):
 * 1993: 6860 yd, par 70
 * 1985: 6857 yd, par 70
 * 1981: 6827 yd, par 70

Field
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)
 * 1. Top 15 and ties from the 2002 Open Championship
 * Scott Hoch (4,18) did not play.

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)
 * 2. Open Champions, 1993–2002

Mark Calcavecchia (18), Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson
 * 3. Past Open Champions aged 65 or under on 20 July 2003
 * Seve Ballesteros withdrew.
 * Ian Baker-Finch, Tony Jacklin, Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Bill Rogers, Lee Trevino, and Tom Weiskopf did not enter.

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)
 * 4. The first 50 players on the OWGR on 29 May 2003
 * Rocco Mediate and Kirk Triplett did not play.

Bradley Dredge, Anders Hansen (6), Stephen Leaney, José María Olazábal (11)
 * 5. Top 20 in the final 2002 European Tour Order of Merit

Ignacio Garrido, Andrew Oldcorn
 * 6. The Volvo PGA Championship winners for 2000–03

Brian Davis, Robert-Jan Derksen, Kenneth Ferrie, Mathias Grönberg, Freddie Jacobson
 * 7. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2003 European Tour Order of Merit as of 29 May

Alastair Forsyth, Philip Golding, David Howell, Søren Kjeldsen, Mark McNulty, Greg Owen, Ian Poulter
 * 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

Raphaël Jacquelin, David Lynn, Rolf Muntz, Gary Murphy, Nick O'Hern, Iain Pyman, Mark Roe, Charl Schwartzel
 * 9. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied (8) above, in the 2003 Scottish Open

Lee Janzen, Corey Pavin
 * 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

Craig Perks, Hal Sutton (18)
 * 13. The Players Champions for 2000–03


 * 14. Top 20 in the final 2002 PGA Tour Official Money List

Chad Campbell
 * 15. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2003 PGA Tour Official Money List as of 29 May

Joe Durant, Jonathan Kaye, Cliff Kresge, J. L. Lewis, Rory Sabbatini, Duffy Waldorf Tom Byrum, José Cóceres, Ben Curtis, Luke Donald, Dudley Hart, Skip Kendall, Scott McCarron, Chris Smith
 * 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
 * Joey Sindelar did not play.
 * 17. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied (16) above, in the 2003 Western Open

Paul Azinger, Stewart Cink, Pierre Fulke, Paul McGinley, Jesper Parnevik, Phillip Price, Lee Westwood
 * 18. Playing members of the 2002 Ryder Cup teams

John Rollins
 * 19. The 2002 Canadian Open Champion

David Smail
 * 20. The 2002 Japan Open Champion

Jyoti Randhawa
 * 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

Shingo Katayama, Nobuhito Sato, Toru Taniguchi
 * 23. Top 3 from the 2002 Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit

Mark Foster
 * 24. Top 2 from the 2002–03 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit

Todd Hamilton
 * 25. The leading player, not exempt, in the 2003 Mizuno Open

Hur Suk-ho, Hirofumi Miyase, Hideto Tanihara, Katsuyoshi Tomori
 * 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

Noboru Sugai
 * 27. The 2002 Senior British Open Champion

Gary Wolstenholme (a)
 * 28. The 2003 Amateur Champion

Ricky Barnes (a)
 * 29. The 2002 U.S. Amateur Champion


 * 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

First round
Thursday, 17 July 2003

Second round
Friday, 18 July 2003

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. The rule that resulted in the disqualifications was changed two years later; Roe never played in another major.

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 10 ft 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.

Source:

Scorecard
Final round Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par Source: