The 2002 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 131st Open Championship, held from 18 to 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 (+10) 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 (Masters, U.S. Open), 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 (since 1950): 1992: , par 71 1987: , par 71 1980: , par 71 1972: , par 71 1966: , par 71 1959: , par 72
Field 1. Top 15 and ties from the 2001 Open Championship Billy Andrade (4), Alex Čejka, Darren Clarke (4,5,18), David Duval (2,3,4,13,14,18), Ernie Els (4,5,10,14), Niclas Fasth (4,5,18), Sergio García (4,14,18), Retief Goosen (4,5,10), Mikko Ilonen, Raphaël Jacquelin, Miguel Ángel Jiménez (5), Bernhard Langer (4,5,18), Billy Mayfair, Colin Montgomerie (4,5,6,18), Jesper Parnevik (4,18), Loren Roberts, Vijay Singh (4,11,12,14), Des Smyth, Kevin Sutherland (4), Ian Woosnam (5)
2. Open Champions, 1992–2001 John Daly (3,4), Nick Faldo (3), Paul Lawrie (3,5), Tom Lehman (3,4,14), Justin Leonard (3,4), Greg Norman (3), Mark O'Meara (3,11), Nick Price (3,4), Tiger Woods (3,4,10,11,12,13,14,18)
3. Past Open Champions aged 65 or under on 21 July 2002 Mark Calcavecchia (4,14,18), 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 30 May 2002 Robert Allenby (14), Thomas Bjørn (5,18), Ángel Cabrera (5), Michael Campbell (5), Stewart Cink (18), José Cóceres, John Cook, Chris DiMarco (14), Bob Estes (14), Brad Faxon (14), Jim Furyk (14,18), Pádraig Harrington (5,18), Dudley Hart, Scott Hoch (14,18), Toshimitsu Izawa (23), Shingo Katayama (23), Jerry Kelly, Matt Kuchar, Davis Love III (12,14,18), Shigeki Maruyama, Len Mattiace, Scott McCarron, Paul McGinley (5,18), Rocco Mediate, Phil Mickelson (14,18), José María Olazábal (11), Adam Scott (5), David Toms (12,14,18), Scott Verplank (14,18,19), Mike Weir (14) Paul Azinger (18) and Kenny Perry did not play.
5. Top 20 in the final 2001 European Tour Order of Merit Mathias Grönberg, David Howell, Robert Karlsson, Thomas Levet, Peter O'Malley (22)
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, Freddie Jacobson, Ian Poulter
9. The leading 8 players, not exempt having applied (8) 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 (18)
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 (16) above, in the 2002 Western Open Stuart Appleby, Neal Lancaster, John Riegger, Chris Riley, Steve Stricker, Bob Tway, Duffy Waldorf Brandt Jobe did not play.
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 (25) 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 (a)
29. The 2001 U.S. Amateur Champion Bubba Dickerson forfeited his exemption by turning professional.
30. The 2001 European Amateur Champion Stephen Browne forfeited his exemption by turning professional.
Final Qualifying (Sunday 14 July and Monday 15 July) Dunbar – Luke Donald, Mattias Eliasson, Steve Elkington, Ian Garbutt, Patrik Sjöland, Esteban Toledo, Simon Young (a) Gullane No. 1 – Fredrik Andersson, Gary Emerson, Richard Green, James Kingston, Adam Mednick, Raymond Russell, John Senden Luffness New – Peter Baker, Benn Barham, Andrew Coltart, Paul Eales, John Kemp (a), Jarrod Moseley, Magnus Persson Atlevi North Berwick – Matthew Cort, Scott Henderson, Trevor Immelman, Paul Mayoh, David Park, Roger Wessels, Tom Whitehouse
Round summaries
First round Thursday, 18 July 2002
PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Carl Pettersson67−4 David Toms Duffy WaldorfT4 Stephen Ames68−3 Thomas Bjørn Søren Hansen Steve Jones Sandy Lyle Shigeki Maruyama Len Mattiace Phil Mickelson Nick Price Jean-François Remésy Justin Rose Des Smyth
Second round Friday, 19 July 2002
PlacePlayerScoreTo parT1 Ernie Els70-66=136−6 Pádraig Harrington69-67=136 Shigeki Maruyama68-68=136 Bob Tway70-66=136 Duffy Waldorf67-69=136T6 Søren Hansen68-69=137−5 Carl Pettersson67-70=137 Des Smyth68-69=137T9 Stephen Ames68-70=138−4 Thomas Bjørn68-70=138 Thomas Levet72-66=138 Colin Montgomerie74-64=138 Mark O'Meara69-69=138 Ian Poulter69-69=138 Nick Price68-70=138 Tiger Woods70-68=138
Amateurs: Young (+5), Kemp (+6), Larrazábal (+10).
Third round Saturday, 20 July 2002
PlacePlayerScoreTo par1 Ernie Els70-66-72=208−52 Søren Hansen68-69-73=210−3T3 Thomas Bjørn68-70-73=211−2 Sergio García71-69-71=211 Justin Leonard71-72-68=211 Shigeki Maruyama68-68-75=211 Scott McCarron71-68-72=211 Justin Rose68-75-68=211 Des Smyth68-69-74=211T10 Steve Elkington71-73-68=212−1 Pádraig Harrington69-67-76=212 Thomas Levet72-66-74=212 Peter Lonard72-72-68=212
Final round Sunday, 21 July 2002
PlacePlayerScoreTo parMoney (£)T1 Ernie Els 70-66-72-70=278 −6 Playoff Thomas Levet 72-66-74-66=278 Stuart Appleby 73-70-70-65=278 Steve Elkington 71-73-68-66=278T5 Gary Evans 72-68-74-65=279 −5 140,000 Pádraig Harrington 69-67-76-67=279 Shigeki Maruyama 68-68-75-68=279T8 Thomas Bjørn 68-70-73-69=280 −4 77,500 Sergio García 71-69-71-69=280 Retief Goosen 71-68-74-67=280 Søren Hansen 68-69-73-70=280 Scott Hoch 74-69-71-66=280 Peter O'Malley 72-68-75-65=280 Source:
Scorecard Final round Hole123456789101112131415161718Par444354345 444344354 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 Appleby E E E +1 E E E E −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 +1 E E −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 (#16, par 3), 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 (#18) 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 (1.6 m) putt to win the title. Through 2025, this is the only four-man playoff in Open Championship history, and no other current major championship has had a four-way playoff.
PlacePlayerFour-holeSudden-deathMoney (£) Score To par Score To par 1 Ernie Els 4-3-5-4=16 E 4 E 700,000T2 Thomas Levet 4-2-5-5=16 5 +1 286,667 Stuart Appleby 4-4-4-5=17 +1 Steve Elkington 5-3-4-5=17
Scorecard Hole 1 16 17 18 Par4354 Els E E E E Levet E −1 −1 E Appleby E +1 E +1 Elkington +1 +1 E +1Sudden-death Els E Levet +1 Cumulative playoff scores, relative to par
References
External links Muirfield 2002 (Official site) 131st Open Championship - Muirfield (European Tour)