2003 Open Championship

Course layout

Main article: Royal St George's Golf Club

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

;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 Lee Janzen, Corey Pavin

• 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)

;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 May Chad 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 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 John Rollins

;20. The 2002 Japan Open Champion David Smail

;21. Winner of the 2002 Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit Jyoti 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 Merit Shingo Katayama, Nobuhito Sato, Toru Taniguchi

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

;25. The leading player, not exempt, in the 2003 Mizuno Open Todd 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 Open Hur Suk-ho, Hirofumi Miyase, Hideto Tanihara, Katsuyoshi Tomori

;27. The 2002 Senior British Open Champion Noboru Sugai

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

;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

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:

References

References

1. (21 July 2003). "Bunkered Bjorn's sandy sorrow". BBC Sport.
2. Bamberger, Michael. (28 July 2003). "A major major upset".
3. (20 July 2003). "Ben who?". BBC Sport.
4. Ferguson, Doug. (21 July 2003). "Rookie pulls off stunner". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
5. Newberry, Paul. (21 July 2003). "Caught in a trap". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
6. (2011). "Media guide". The Open Championship.
7. (2011). "Media guide". The Open Championship.
8. "PGA European Tour - Tournaments".
9. "PGA European Tour - Tournaments".
10. (19 July 2003). "Roe and Parnevik disqualified". [[BBC Sport]].
11. "Mark Roe welcomes new rules change". Golf Today.
12. "Mark Roe Career Record". PGA European Tour.
13. "PGA European Tour - Tournaments".
14. "2003 Open Championship results". databasegolf.com.
15. "British Open Championship". ESPN.