2002 Open Championship


The 2002 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 131st Open Championship, held from 18–21 July at Muirfield Golf Links in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. Ernie Els won his first Claret Jug and third major title in a playoff over Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington, and ultimately in a sudden-death playoff over Thomas Levet.
Tiger Woods' bid for the Grand Slam came to a halt on Saturday with the worst round of his career up to that time, an 81 in cold, gusty rain. It took him and others out of contention, but he rebounded on Sunday with a six-under 65 and finished at even par, six strokes back. Woods was the first in thirty years to win the first two legs, last done by Jack Nicklaus in 1972. Nicklaus' grand slam bid also ended at Muirfield, runner-up by one stroke to Lee Trevino in 1972. The only one to win the first three was Ben Hogan in 1953. Entering the championship, Woods had won seven of the previous eleven majors.

Course

Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Yards4483513782135604681854435083,5544753893811914484151865464493,4807,034
Par444354345364443443543571

Source:
Lengths of the course for previous Opens :

Field

;1. Top 15 and ties from the 2001 Open Championship
Billy Andrade, Alex Čejka, Darren Clarke, David Duval, Ernie Els, Niclas Fasth, Sergio García, Retief Goosen, Mikko Ilonen, Raphaël Jacquelin, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Bernhard Langer, Billy Mayfair, Colin Montgomerie, Jesper Parnevik, Loren Roberts, Vijay Singh, Des Smyth, Kevin Sutherland, Ian Woosnam
;2. Open Champions, 1992–2001
John Daly, Nick Faldo, Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard, Greg Norman, Mark O'Meara, Nick Price, Tiger Woods
;3. Past Open Champions aged 65 or under on 21 July 2002
Mark Calcavecchia, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson
;4. The first 50 players on the OWGR on 30 May 2002
Robert Allenby, Thomas Bjørn, Ángel Cabrera, Michael Campbell, Stewart Cink, José Cóceres, John Cook, Chris DiMarco, Bob Estes, Brad Faxon, Jim Furyk, Pádraig Harrington, Dudley Hart, Scott Hoch, Toshimitsu Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Jerry Kelly, Matt Kuchar, Davis Love III, Shigeki Maruyama, Len Mattiace, Scott McCarron, Paul McGinley, Rocco Mediate, Phil Mickelson, José María Olazábal, Adam Scott, David Toms, Scott Verplank, Mike Weir
;5. Top 20 in the final 2001 European Tour Order of Merit
Mathias Grönberg, David Howell, Robert Karlsson, Thomas Levet, Peter O'Malley
;6. The Volvo PGA Championship winners for 1999–2002
Anders Hansen, Andrew Oldcorn
;7. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2002 European Tour Order of Merit as of 30 May
Barry Lane, Malcolm MacKenzie, Greg Owen, Carl Pettersson, Eduardo Romero
;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 2002 Volvo PGA Championship up to and including the 2002 Scottish Open
Roger Chapman, Bradley Dredge, Gary Evans, Darren Fichardt, Søren Hansen, Fredrik Jacobson, Ian Poulter
;9. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied above, in the 2002 Scottish Open
Warren Bennett, John Bickerton, Paul Casey, Marc Farry, Ricardo González, Stephen Leaney, Jean-François Remésy, Jamie Spence
;10. The U.S. Open Champions for 1993–2002
Lee Janzen, Steve Jones, Corey Pavin
;11. The Masters Champions for 1998–2002
;12. The PGA Champions for 1997–2001
;13. The Players Champions for 1999–2002
Craig Perks, Hal Sutton
;14. Top 20 in the final 2001 PGA Tour Official Money List
Joe Durant, Frank Lickliter
;15. First 5 players, not exempt, in the top 20 of the 2002 PGA Tour Official Money List as of 30 May
K. J. Choi
;16. First 7 PGA Tour members, not exempt, in the top 25 of a cumulative money list taken from the 2002 Players Championship and the five PGA Tour events leading up to and including the 2002 Western Open
Stephen Ames, Jim Carter, Jonathan Kaye, Peter Lonard, Jeff Maggert, Tim Petrovic, Chris Smith
;17. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied above, in the 2002 Western Open
Stuart Appleby, Neal Lancaster, John Riegger, Chris Riley, Steve Stricker, Bob Tway, Duffy Waldorf
;18. Players selected to the 2001 Ryder Cup teams
Pierre Fulke, Phillip Price, Lee Westwood
;19. The 2001 Canadian Open Champion
;20. The 2001 Japan Open Champion
Taichi Teshima
;21. Winner of the 2001 Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit
Thongchai Jaidee
;22. Top 3 from the 2001–02 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit as of 30 May
Scott Laycock, Craig Parry
;23. Top 3 from the 2001 Japan Golf Tour Order of Merit
Dean Wilson
;24. Top 2 from the 2001–02 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit
Tim Clark, Justin Rose
;25. The leading player, not exempt, in the 2002 Mizuno Open
Kiyoshi Miyazato
;26. First 4, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of a cumulative money list taken from all official Japan Golf Tour events from the 2002 Japan PGA Championship up to and including the 2002 Mizuno Open
Kenichi Kuboya, Tsuneyuki Nakajima, Toru Suzuki, Toru Taniguchi
;27. The 2001 Senior British Open Champion
Ian Stanley
;28. The 2002 Amateur Champion
Alejandro Larrazábal
;29. The 2001 U.S. Amateur Champion
;30. The 2001 European Amateur Champion
;Final Qualifying

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Missed the cut

Source:

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, 18 July 2002
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Carl Pettersson67−4
T1David Toms67−4
T1Duffy Waldorf67−4
T4Stephen Ames68−3
T4Thomas Bjørn68−3
T4Søren Hansen68−3
T4Steve Jones68−3
T4Sandy Lyle68−3
T4Shigeki Maruyama68−3
T4Len Mattiace68−3
T4Phil Mickelson68−3
T4Nick Price68−3
T4Jean-François Remésy68−3
T4Justin Rose68−3
T4Des Smyth68−3

Second round

Friday, 19 July 2002
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Ernie Els70-66=136−6
T1Pádraig Harrington69-67=136−6
T1Shigeki Maruyama68-68=136−6
T1Bob Tway70-66=136−6
T1Duffy Waldorf67-69=136−6
T6Søren Hansen68-69=137−5
T6Carl Pettersson67-70=137−5
T6Des Smyth68-69=137−5
T9Stephen Ames68-70=138−4
T9Thomas Bjørn68-70=138−4
T9Thomas Levet72-66=138−4
T9Colin Montgomerie74-64=138−4
T9Mark O'Meara69-69=138−4
T9Ian Poulter69-69=138−4
T9Nick Price68-70=138−4
T9Tiger Woods70-68=138−4

Amateurs: Young, Kemp, Larrazábal.

Third round

Saturday, 20 July 2002
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Ernie Els70-66-72=208−5
2Søren Hansen68-69-73=210−3
T3Thomas Bjørn68-70-73=211−2
T3Sergio García71-69-71=211−2
T3Justin Leonard71-72-68=211−2
T3Shigeki Maruyama68-68-75=211−2
T3Scott McCarron71-68-72=211−2
T3Justin Rose68-75-68=211−2
T3Des Smyth68-69-74=211−2
T10Steve Elkington71-73-68=212−1
T10Pádraig Harrington69-67-76=212−1
T10Thomas Levet72-66-74=212−1
T10Peter Lonard72-72-68=212−1

Final round

Sunday, 21 July 2002
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo parMoney
T1Ernie Els70-66-72-70=278−6Playoff
T1Thomas Levet72-66-74-66=278−6Playoff
T1Stuart Appleby73-70-70-65=278−6Playoff
T1Steve Elkington71-73-68-66=278−6Playoff
T5Gary Evans72-68-74-65=279−5140,000
T5Pádraig Harrington69-67-76-67=279−5140,000
T5Shigeki Maruyama68-68-75-68=279−5140,000
T8Thomas Bjørn68-70-73-69=280−477,500
T8Sergio García71-69-71-69=280−477,500
T8Retief Goosen71-68-74-67=280−477,500
T8Søren Hansen68-69-73-70=280−477,500
T8Scott Hoch74-69-71-66=280−477,500
T8Peter O'Malley72-68-75-65=280−477,500

Source:

Scorecard

Final round
Hole123456789101112131415161718
Par444354345444344354
Els−4−4−5−5−5−5−5−5−6−7−7−8−8−7−7−5−6−6
Levet−1−2−3−3−3−3−3−3−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−6−6
ApplebyEEE+1EEEE−1−2−2−3−3−3−4−4−5−6
Elkington−1−1−1−2−2−2−2−3−4−4−5−5−5−5−5−5−6−6
Evans+2+1EE−1−2−3−4−4−5−6−6−6−6−6−6−6−5
Harrington−1−1−1−1−2−2−3−4−4−4−4−4−4−4−5−5−6−5
Maruyama−1−2−3−3−4−5−5−5−6−5−5−4−3−3−3−4−5−5

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source:

Playoff

The four-hole aggregate playoff was contested over holes 1, 16, 17, & 18; Levet and Elkington went off in the first pair and Els and Appleby in the last. After a birdie putt on the second hole, Levet led by a stroke, but bogeyed the last to tie Els at even-par. Appleby and Elkington also bogeyed the last hole and were eliminated by a stroke. At the first hole of sudden death, Levet put his tee shot in a fairway bunker and bogeyed. Els saved par from a greenside bunker with a five-foot putt to win the title. Through 2019, this is the only four-man playoff in Open Championship history, and no other current major championship has had a four-way playoff.

Scorecard

Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par