Scigolf British Open Coverage.

Curtis’ Life Changed Forever with Open Win
Continued from Main Page.

Heading into this week’s British Open at Royal Troon Golf Club, Curtis is only 104th on the money list. But things appear to be looking up for the Ohio native.
Curtis went through a streak of 17 consecutive TOUR starts since his Open win without registering a top-10 finish. That ended last month at the Memorial Tournament, when Curtis tied for eighth. Despite some post-Open struggles, he’s only dropped six spots in the world ranking since his historic win. The last time Royal Troon hosted the British Open, in 1997, Justin Leonard won by three strokes.

Open Facts and Figures

Location: Royal Troon Golf Club, Ayrshire, Scotland
Par: 36-35-71 Yards: 7,150
2003 Champion: Ben Curtis (283, 1-under)
Margin: One stroke over Thomas Bjorn and Vijay Singh
Purse: $6,000,000 Winner: $1,125,720 (2003 Purse)
Tournament Record: 267, Greg Norman (1993 Royal St. George’s)
Television:
Thursday TNT 7:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. EDT
Friday TNT 7:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. EDT
Saturday TNT 7:00-9:00 a.m. EDT *
ABC 9:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. EDT
Sunday TNT 6:00-8:00 a.m. EDT *
ABC 8:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. EDT
* Will air from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. PDT

Open Notes

Ben Curtis became the first player to win a major championship in his first start in a major since Francis Ouimet at the 1913 U.S. Open. He was also the first player to earn his first PGA TOUR victory at a major since John Daly won the 1991 PGA Championship.

Ben Curtis became the fifth player in the last eight years to collect his first major championship win at the British Open Championship. The others were Tom Lehman (1996), Justin Leonard (1997), Paul Lawrie (1999) and David Duval (2001).

Phil Mickelson (win, second), Ernie Els (second, tie for ninth) and Chris DiMarco (tie for sixth, tie for ninth) are the only players to finish inside the top 10 in the first two majors of the season. Els takes that one step further as only player to record top-10s in his last three majors. He also tied for fifth at the 2003 PGA Championship.

Four players have finished inside the top 10 at the last two British Open Championships (2003, 2002)—Thomas Bjorn (tied for second, tie for eighth), Gary Evans (tie for 10th, tie for fifth), Sergio Garcia (tie for 10th, tie for eighth) and Retief Goosen (tie for 10th, tie for eighth). Garcia also tied for ninth at the 2001 event.

Ben Curtis became the fifth player in his 20s to win the British Open Championship since 1995. The others: John Daly (29) in 1995, Justin Leonard (25) in 1997, Tiger Woods (24) in 2000 and David Duval (29) in 2001.

Four of the last 10 players who held or shared the 54-lead at the British Open, including three of the last four, have gone on to win. The four were Ernie Els (2002), David Duval (2001), Tiger Woods 2000) and Tom Lehman (1996).

Ernie Els is the all-time leader in money earned at the British Open, with $2,188,013 in career earnings. Els has five top-10s and eight top- 25s in nine appearances, including his 2002 victory, He was the runner-up in 1996 and 2000 and tied for third in 2001. Five others have made over $1 million at the tournament, led by Tiger Woods ($1,448,041). The other four are Nick Faldo ($1,222,702), Thomas Bjorn ($1,128,114), Ben Curtis ($1,112,720) and David Duval ($1, 096,764). Bjorn is the only player of the six to not have won the British Open yet. He’s tied for second the last two years.

2004 British Open Field
(As of noon, July 12. Subject to change)

Robert Allenby
Stephen Ames
Stuart Appleby
Lewis Atkinson
Arjun Atwal
Aaron Baddeley
Scott Barr
Cameron Beckman
Rich Beem
Warren Bennett
Thomas Bjorn
Paul Bradshaw
Paul Broadhurst
Andrew Buckle
Mark Calcavecchia
Chad Campbell
Lloyd Campbell (A)
Michael Campbell
Paul Casey
Christian Cevaer
Dinesh Chand
Jonathan Cheetham
K.J. Choi
Stewart Cink
Tim Clark
Darren Clarke
Nicolas Colsaerts
Ben Curtis
John Daly
Brian Davis
Glen Day
Chris DiMarco
Luke Donald
Scott Drummond
David Duval
Simon Dyson
Steve Elkington
Ernie Els
Gary Emerson Klas Eriksson
Martin Erlandsson
Bob Estes
Gary Evans
Nick Faldo
Brad Faxon
Kim Felton
Kenneth Ferrie
Darren Fichardt
Nicholas Flanagan
Steve Flesch
Alastair Forsyth
Mark Foster
Jim Furyk
Sergio Garcia
Ignacio Garrido
Mathew Goggin
Retief Goosen
Richard Green
Mathias Gronberg
Jay Haas
Joakim Haeggman
Todd Hamilton
Anders Hansen
Padraig Harrington
Matthew Hazelden
Peter Hedblom
Tim Herron
Tetsuji Hiratsuka
S.K. Ho
Hidemasa Hoshino
Charles Howell III
David Howell
John Huston
Trevor Immelman
Toshi Izawa
Frederik Jacobson
Raphael Jacquelin
Miguel Angel Jimenez Zach Johnson
Brendan Jones
Takahashi Kamiyama
Jonathan Kaye
Jerry Kelly
Skip Kendall
James Kingston
Maarten Lafeber
Barry Lane
Paul Lawrie
Adam Le Vesconte
Stephen Leaney
Tom Lehman
Justin Leonard
Frank Lickliter
Euan Little
Peter Lonard
Davis Love III
Steve Lowery
Sandy Lyle
Hunter Mahan
Shigeki Maruyama
Graeme McDowell
Brian McElhinney (A)
Paul McGinley
Spike McRoy
Shaun Micheel
Phil Mickelson
Anthony Millar
Colin Montgomerie
Grant Muller
Greg Norman
Marten Olander
Andrew Oldcorn
Peter O’Malley
Mark O’Meara
Louis Oosthuizen
Henni Otto
Rod Pampling Craig Parry
Craig Perks
Kenny Perry
Carl Pettersson
Ian Poulter
Nick Price
Phillip Price
Jyoti Randhawa
Jean-Francois Remesy
Chris Riley
Eduardo Romero
Rory Sabbatini
Adam Scott
Paul Sheehan
Vijay Singh
Andre Stolz
Sven Struver
Daniel Sugrue
Steven Tiley (A)
David Toms
Yoshinobu Tsukada
Miles Tunnicliff
Bob Tway
Tjaart van der Walt
Bo Van Pelt
Scott Verplank
Simon Wakefield
Mike Weir
Tom Weiskopf
Paul Wesselingh
Lee Westwood
Sean Whiffin
Andrew Willey
Ben Willman
Stuart Wilson (A)
Tiger Woods
(A) Denotes Amateur

You Should Know

This week, Tom Weiskopf will be playing in a PGA TOUR event for the first time since he missed the cut at the 1996 U.S. Open.
Weiskopf, who won 16 PGA TOUR titles between 1968 and 1982, won his only major championship, the British Open, in 1973 when it was held at Royal Troon Golf Club, site of this year’s tournament.
Weiskopf, a noted golf course designer who also won four times on the Champions Tour, last played in the British Open in 1995 at St. Andrews. He shot rounds of 76-75 to miss the cut. Besides his win at Troon in 1973, Weiskopf has played in only one other British Open at the club in Ayrshire, Scotland. In 1989, Weiskopf shot rounds of 74-73 to miss the cut.

A Player to Watch

Only one player has enjoyed top-10 finishes in each of the last three British Opens. Sergio Garcia tied for ninth in 2001, tied for eighth a year later and tied for 10th in 2003.
2003   T10    73-71-70-74 288    +4    $108,092
2002    T8     71-69-71-69 280    -4     $122,465
2001    T9     70-72-67-70 279    -5     $  91,194