2004 Open Championship

The 2004 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 133rd Open Championship, held from 15 to 18 July at the Old Course of Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland.

Todd Hamilton won his only major championship, defeating 2002 champion Ernie Els by a stroke in a four-hole playoff. Phil Mickelson finished third, followed by Lee Westwood in fourth. Hamilton was the sixth consecutive American to win at Royal Troon.

History of The Open Championship at Royal Troon
Royal Troon first hosted The Open Championship in 1923 and the 2004 Open was its eighth. Royal Troon's list of champions includes Arthur Havers (1923), 4-time Open winner Bobby Locke (1950), 7-time major winner Arnold Palmer (1962), Tom Weiskopf (1973), 5-time Open champion Tom Watson (1982), Mark Calcavecchia (1989), and Justin Leonard (1997).

Course
Old Course Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):


 * 1997: 7079 yd, par 71
 * 1989: 7097 yd, par 72
 * 1982: 7067 yd, par 72


 * 1973: 7064 yd, par 72
 * 1962: 7045 yd, par 72
 * 1950: 6583 yd, par 70

Opens from 1962 through 1989 played the 11th hole as a par-5.

Field
Thomas Bjørn (3,4), Ben Curtis (2,3), Brian Davis (4), Gary Evans, Nick Faldo (2), Sergio García (3), Retief Goosen (3,4,9,13,17), Freddie Jacobson (3,4), Davis Love III (3,12,13,17), Hennie Otto, Kenny Perry (3,13,17), Phillip Price (4), Vijay Singh (3,10,13,17), Tiger Woods (2,3,9,10,11,13,17)
 * 1. Top 10 and ties from the 2003 Open Championship

Mark Calcavecchia, John Daly, Ernie Els (3,4,13,17), Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard (3,13,17), Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman, Mark O'Meara, Nick Price (3,13,17), Tom Weiskopf
 * 2. Past Open Champions aged 65 or under on 18 July 2004
 * David Duval and Tom Watson (26) withdrew.
 * Ian Baker-Finch, Seve Ballesteros, Tony Jacklin, Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Bill Rogers, and Lee Trevino did not enter.

Robert Allenby (17), Stephen Ames, Stuart Appleby (13,17), Chad Campbell (13), Paul Casey (4), K. J. Choi (17), Stewart Cink, Darren Clarke (4), Chris DiMarco (13,17), Brad Faxon (13), Steve Flesch, Jim Furyk (9,13,17), Jay Haas (13,17), Todd Hamilton (23), Pádraig Harrington (4), Charles Howell III (13,17), John Huston, Trevor Immelman (4), Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Zach Johnson, Jonathan Kaye (13), Jerry Kelly (17), Stephen Leaney (4,17), Peter Lonard (4,17,19), Shigeki Maruyama, Shaun Micheel (11), Phil Mickelson (10,17), Craig Parry, Ian Poulter (4), Chris Riley, Adam Scott (4,12,17), David Toms (11,13,17), Bob Tway (13,21), Scott Verplank (13), Mike Weir (10,13,17)
 * 3. The first 50 players on the OWGR on 27 May 2004
 * Fred Couples, Scott Hoch, and Kirk Triplett did not play.

Michael Campbell, Alastair Forsyth, Ignacio Garrido (5), David Howell, Raphaël Jacquelin, Lee Westwood
 * 4. Top 20 in the final 2003 European Tour Order of Merit

Scott Drummond, Anders Hansen
 * 5. The Volvo PGA Championship winners for 2002–04

Joakim Haeggman, Barry Lane, Graeme McDowell
 * 6. First 3 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2004 European Tour Order of Merit as of 27 May

Richard Green, Jean-François Remésy
 * 7. First 2 European Tour members, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from all official European Tour events from the Deutsche Bank - SAP Open TPC of Europe up to and including the European Open and including the U.S. Open

Thomas Levet, Peter O'Malley
 * 8. The leading player, not exempt having applied (7) above, in each of the 2004 European Open and the 2004 Scottish Open


 * 9. The U.S. Open Champions for 2000–04


 * 10. The Masters Champions for 2000–04

Rich Beem
 * 11. The PGA Champions for 1999–2003

Craig Perks
 * 12. The Players Champions for 2002–04


 * 13. Top 20 in the final 2003 PGA Tour Official Money List


 * 14. First 3 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2004 PGA Tour Official Money List as of 27 May

Frank Lickliter, Rory Sabbatini
 * 15. First 2 PGA Tour members, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from the 2004 Players Championship and the five PGA Tour events leading up to and including the 2004 Western Open

Steve Lowery
 * 16. The leading player, not exempt having applied (15) above, in each of the 2004 Western Open and the 2004 John Deere Classic
 * Mark Hensby did not play.

Tim Clark
 * 17. Playing members of the 2003 Presidents Cup teams
 * Fred Funk did not play.

Arjun Atwal
 * 18. Winner of the 2003 Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit


 * 19. Top 2 from the 2003 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit
 * Andre Stolz did not play.

Darren Fichardt
 * 20. Winner of the 2003–04 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit


 * 21. The 2003 Canadian Open Champion

Keiichiro Fukabori
 * 22. The 2003 Japan Open Champion

Tetsuji Hiratsuka
 * 23. Top 3 from the 2003 Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit
 * Toshimitsu Izawa did not play.


 * 24. The leading player, not exempt, in the 2004 Mizuno Open
 * Hiroaki Iijima did not play.

Dinesh Chand, Hidemasa Hoshino, Hur Suk-ho, Takashi Kamiyama
 * 25. First 4, not exempt having applied (24) above, in a cumulative money list taken from all official Japan Golf Tour events from the 2004 Japan PGA Championship up to and including the 2004 Mizuno Open


 * 26. The 2003 Senior British Open Champion

Stuart Wilson (a)
 * 27. The 2004 Amateur Champion

Nick Flanagan (a)
 * 28. The 2003 U.S. Amateur Champion

Brian McElhinney (a)
 * 29. The 2003 European Amateur Champion


 * International Final Qualifying
 * Africa – James Kingston, Grant Muller, Louis Oosthuizen, Tjaart van der Walt
 * Australasia – Andrew Buckle, Matthew Hazelden, Brendan Jones, Adam Le Vesconte, Paul Sheehan
 * Asia – Scott Barr, Kim Felton, Jyoti Randhawa, Yoshinobu Tsukada
 * America – Aaron Baddeley, Cameron Beckman, Glen Day, Luke Donald, Bob Estes, Mathew Goggin, Mathias Grönberg, Tim Herron, Skip Kendall, Hunter Mahan, Spike McRoy, Rod Pampling, Carl Pettersson, Bo Van Pelt
 * Steve Elkington qualified but withdrew prior to the tournament.
 * Europe – Paul Broadhurst, Christian Cévaër, Nicolas Colsaerts, Gary Emerson, Klas Eriksson, Kenneth Ferrie, Mark Foster, Peter Hedblom, Maarten Lafeber, Euan Little, Paul McGinley, Colin Montgomerie, Mårten Olander, Eduardo Romero, Miles Tunnicliff, Simon Wakefield
 * Warren Bennett qualified but withdrew prior to the tournament.


 * Local Final Qualifying (Saturday 10 July and Sunday 11 July)
 * Glasgow (Gailes) – Paul Bradshaw, Simon Dyson, Anthony Millar, Andrew Willey
 * Irvine – Jonathan Cheetham, Martin Erlandsson, Andrew Oldcorn, Sven Strüver
 * Turnberry Kintyre – Lloyd Campbell (a), Steven Tiley (a), Paul Wesselingh, Sean Whiffin
 * Western Gailes – Lewis Atkinson, Daniel Sugrue, Ben Willman


 * Alternates
 * Jimmy Green – IFQ America – replaced Steve Elkington
 * Barry Hume – Western Gailes – replaced Mark Hensby
 * Ian Spencer – Irvine – replaced Toshimitsu Izawa
 * Neil Evans – Turnberry Kintyre – replaced Warren Bennett
 * Brett Taylor – Glasgow (Gailes) – replaced Andre Stolz
 * David Griffiths – Western Gailes – replaced David Duval

First round
Thursday, 15 July 2004

Paul Casey and Thomas Levet both carded 66 (−5) and held a two stroke lead over a group of nine players. The group at 3-under included amateur Stuart Wilson and Vijay Singh. Defending champ Ben Curtis carded a 75 (+4). In total there were 39 rounds under par, 25 of those being in the 60s. Home favourite Colin Montgomerie started with a 2-under 69.

Second round
Friday, 16 July 2004

Skip Kendall stormed into the lead with a 66 to reach the halfway stage at 135 (−7). Casey dropped down the leaderboard with a 77, while Levet shot a 70 to drop down into second. K. J. Choi continued his good start with a 69, keeping him in a tie for third place with Barry Lane. Todd Hamilton finished the round with a 67 to move up into a tie for fifth place.

Amateurs: Stuart Wilson (+1), Campbell (+5), Tiley (+5), Flanagan (+6), McElhinney (+10).

Third round
Saturday, 17 July 2004

Hamilton surged up the leader with a second consecutive 67 to finish the day at 205 (−8). Ernie Els, the 2002 champion, moved up to second at 206 with a 68, while one shot behind lay the reigning Masters champion Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen, and Thomas Levet at 207 (−6).

Final round
Sunday, 18 July 2004

A see-saw final round led to a two-man playoff between Hamilton and Els. Hamilton, playing in only his eighth major, opened up a two-shot lead after chipping in for birdie from 30 ft on the par-3 14th to get to 10 under. Then he holed a 12 ft birdie on the par-5 16th to keep his cushion. Els had to make birdies to keep up, and he came through with pure putts on the 16th and 17th. Then came the wild 72nd hole, with Hamilton holding a one shot lead. Hamilton pushed his iron off the tee and into the rough, then chopped it across the fairway next to a guard railing that restricted his swing. Els hit his approach to within the shadow of the flag, leaving a 12-foot birdie attempt. Hamilton chipped to 20 ft and missed to take bogey. Els suddenly had a putt to win, but left it short. Mickelson carded a final round 68 to finish a shot back at 275 (−9). A 67 moved Lee Westwood into sole fourth, matching Davis Love III for low score of the final round.

Amateurs: Wilson (+12) Source:

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

Playoff
After 72 holes, Hamilton and Els were tied for the lead at 274 (−10), requiring a four-hole aggregate playoff, played over the 1st, 2nd, 17th, and 18th holes. (The first use of this format in The Open was fifteen years earlier in 1989, also at Royal Troon.) Both players parred the first two holes, both par fours, and Hamilton managed a par 3 on the 222 yd 17th. Els overshot the green and bogeyed, then parred the last, leaving Hamilton a 3-foot (1 m) par putt to win the Open, which he holed. Els had all four rounds in the 60s for the second time in an Open without winning; the other time was at Royal St. George's in 1993.

Scorecard
Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par