- 2008 Open Championship
Infobox_Individual_Golf_Tournament
tournament_name = 2008 Open Championship
location = flagicon|EnglandSouthport ,England
course =Royal Birkdale Golf Club
dates = July 17 - 20, 2008
tour =PGA Tour
PGA European Tour
Japan Golf Tour
par = 70
yardage= 7,173
field = 156 players, 83 after cut
cut = 149 (+9)
purse = £4,200,000 [ [http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25485471/ Briish Open coverage on MSNBC] ]
€5,335,867
$8,161,174
winners_share = £750,000
€938,565
$1,498,875
Champion =Pádraig Harrington
Score = 283 (+3)The 2008 Open Championship was the 137thOpen Championship , played fromJuly 17 toJuly 20 2008 , at Royal Birkdale.Pádraig Harrington successfully defended his Open Championship title for his second Open title. Harrington shot four under on the back nine to pull away fromIan Poulter andGreg Norman .Television coverage was provided as usual by the
BBC in the UK, and by ABC and TNT in the United States.Field
World Number One
Tiger Woods was the most notable absentee, as he was recovering from knee surgery.About two thirds of the field each year consists of players that are fully exempt from qualifying for the Open. Below is the list of the exemption categories and the players who are exempt. Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses. Some categories are not shown as all players in that category had already quaified from an earlier category: [cite web|url=http://www.opengolf.com/ChampionshipGolf/TheOpenChampionship/Players/ExemptPlayers.aspx |title=Exempt Players |publisher=OpenGolf |accessdate=2008-07-06 ]
1. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the
2007 Open Championship
K. J. Choi (7,15,19),Stewart Cink (7,19), Ben Curtis (3,4),Ernie Els (3,4,5,7,15,19),Sergio García (5,7,14,15), Richard Green,Pádraig Harrington (3,4,5,7),Hunter Mahan (7,15,19),Andrés Romero (5,7),Steve Stricker (7,15,19),Mike Weir (7,19)2. Past Open Champions born between 20 July 1942 and 19 July 1948
(Eligible but not competing:Tony Jacklin ,Johnny Miller ,Tom Weiskopf )3. Past Open Champions aged 60 or under on 20 July 2008
Mark Calcavecchia (15), John Daly,David Duval (4),Todd Hamilton (4),Paul Lawrie (4),Tom Lehman ,Justin Leonard (7),Sandy Lyle ,Greg Norman ,Mark O'Meara (4), Tom Watson (28) (Eligible but not competing:Nick Faldo ,Tiger Woods )4. The Open Champions for 1998-2007
5. First 20 in the PGA European Tour Final Order of Merit for 2007
Ángel Cabrera (7,11,19),Paul Casey (7),Nick Dougherty ,Niclas Fasth (7),Retief Goosen (7,11,19),Anders Hansen (6),Søren Hansen (7),Peter Hanson ,Grégory Havret ,Søren Kjeldsen ,Colin Montgomerie ,Justin Rose (7,15),Henrik Stenson (7), Richard Sterne (7),Graeme Storm ,Lee Westwood (7)6. The
BMW PGA Championship winners for 2006-2008
David Howell,Miguel Ángel Jiménez (7)7. The first 50 players on the
Official World Golf Rankings for Week 21, 2008Robert Allenby ,Stephen Ames (14),Stuart Appleby (19),Woody Austin (15,19),Aaron Baddeley (15),Tim Clark ,Jim Furyk (15,19,23),J. B. Holmes ,Trevor Immelman (12,19),Zach Johnson (12,15,19),Robert Karlsson ,Martin Kaymer ,Anthony Kim ,Phil Mickelson (12,13,14,15,19),Geoff Ogilvy (11,15,19),Sean O'Hair ,Rod Pampling ,Ian Poulter ,Jeff Quinney ,Rory Sabbatini (15,19),Adam Scott (15,19),Vijay Singh (13,15,19),Brandt Snedeker (15),Scott Verplank (15,19),Boo Weekley ,Oliver Wilson (Eligible but not competing:Shingo Katayama ,Luke Donald withdrew prior to start of tournament with a wrist injury, [http://www.pgatour.com/2008/r/07/11/donald_injured.ap/index.html Donald out of British Open with wrist injury] ]Toru Taniguchi withdrew prior to start of tournament with a back injury [http://www.pga.com/openchampionship/2008/news/slocum_071708.html Slocum's prayers answered with Taniguchi's withdrawal] ] )8. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the 2008
PGA European Tour Order of Merit on completion of the 2008BMW PGA Championship
Richard Finch,Graeme McDowell ,Damien McGrane 9. First 2 European Tour members and any European Tour members tying for 2nd place, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from all official PGA European Tour events from OWGR Week 19 up to and including the
Open de France and including the U.S. OpenPablo Larrazabal ,Scott Strange 10. The leading player, not exempt having applied above, in the first 5 and ties of each of the 2008 European Open and the 2008
Barclays Scottish Open .
David Frost,Simon Khan 11. The U.S. Open Champions for 2004-2008
Michael Campbell 12. The U.S. Masters Champions for 2004-2008
13. The U.S. PGA Champions for 2003-2007
(Eligible but not competing:Shaun Micheel )14. The U.S. PGA Tour Players Champions for 2006-2008
15. Top 20 on the Official Money List of the
2007 PGA Tour Charles Howell III (19)16. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the Official Money List of the 2008 PGA Tour on completion of the
Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Bart Bryant ,Ryuji Imada 17. First 2 PGA Tour members and any PGA Tour members tying for 2nd place, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from
The Players Championship and the five PGA Tour events leading up to and including the 2008AT&T National Rocco Mediate (Eligible but not competing:Kenny Perry [http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1821105,00.html Kenny Perry facing criticism for skipping British Open] ] [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=golfonline&id=3483322 Field for the British Open] ] )18. The leading player, not exempt having applied above, in the first 5 and ties of each of the 2008
AT&T National and the 2008John Deere Classic Fredrik Jacobson ,Jay Williamson 19. Playing members of the
2007 Presidents Cup teamsLucas Glover ,Nick O'Hern (David Toms withdrew prior to start of tournament [http://www.pgatour.com/2008/r/07/11/kelly.open/index.html Kelly gets spot in British Open after Toms withdraws] ] )20. First place on the 2007
Asian Tour Order of MeritLiang Wen-Chong 21. First 2 on the Order of Merit of the
PGA Tour of Australasia for 2007Craig Parry , David Smail22. First place on the Order of Merit of the Southern Africa
Sunshine Tour for 2007James Kingston 23. The
RBC Canadian Open Champion for 200724. The Japan Open Champion for 2007
25. First 2 on the Official Money List of the
Japan Golf Tour for 2007
Brendan Jones,Hideto Tanihara 26. The leading 4 players, not exempt, in the 2008 Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic
Michio Matsumura ,Prayad Marksaeng ,Yoshinobu Tsukada ,Azuma Yano 27. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt having applied (26) above, in a cumulative money list taken from all official
Japan Golf Tour events from the 2008Japan PGA Championship up to and including the 2008 Mizuno Open Yomiuri ClassicHiroshi Iwata ,Shintaro Kai 28. The Senior British Open Champion for 2007
29. The 2008 Amateur Champion
Reinier Saxton (a)30. The
U.S. Amateur Champion for 2007
(Colt Knost turned professional and forfeited his invitation.)31. The European Individual Amateur Champion for 2007
Benjamin Hebert (a)International Final Qualifying
:Africa:Joshua Cunliffe ,Darren Fichardt ,Douglas McGuigan ,Hennie Otto :Australasia:Peter Fowler ,Brad Lamb ,Ewan Porter ,Andrew Tampion :Asia:Adam Blyth ,Danny Chia ,Chih-Bing Lam ,Angelo Que :America:Craig Barlow ,Rich Beem ,Alex Čejka ,Tom Gillis ,Paul Goydos ,Matt Kuchar ,Doug LaBelle II ,Michael Letzig ,Davis Love III ,Scott McCarron ,Jeff Overton ,Tim Petrovic , John Rollins,Kevin Stadler :Europe:Thomas Aiken ,Phillip Archer , Peter Baker,Grégory Bourdy ,Ariel Cañete ,Simon Dyson ,Pelle Edberg ,Johan Edfors ,Ross Fisher ,Jean-Baptiste Gonnet , David Horsey,José-Filipe Lima ,Alexander Norén ,Simon Wakefield ,Anthony Wall ,Paul Waring ,Steve Webster ,Martin Wiegele Local Final Qualifying
:Hillside:Rohan Blizard (a),Jamie Elson ,Jean Van de Velde , Chris Wood (a):Southport and Ainsdale:Jon Bevan , Gary Boyd, Jamie Howarth,Thomas Sherreard (a):West Lancashire: Peter Appleyard,Barry Hume ,Jonathan Lomas ,Philip Walton Alternates
*Camilo Villegas - took spot not taken byKenny Perry
*Pat Perez - replacedLuke Donald
*Jerry Kelly - replacedDavid Toms
*Heath Slocum - replacedToru Taniguchi Course layout
white18 |name=Yardage|N/A
450|421|451|201|346|499|178|457|414|3417|408|436|184|499|201|544|439|572|473|3756|7,173ummary of rounds of play
The Open Championship is played over four days with an 18 hole round being played each day, for a total of 72 holes plus practice rounds. Everyone outside the top 70 and ties is "cut" after 36 holes.
First round (Thursday)
Final round (Sunday)
Despite a wrist injury that almost forced him to withdraw prior to the tournament,
Pádraig Harrington successfully defended his Open Championship title. [cite web|url = http://www.sportsnet.ca/golf/2008/07/20/open_final_round/ |title = Shark tanks, Padraig defends Open title - Sportsnet.ca |accessdate = 2008-07-21] Harrington pulled away from the field with a tremendous back nine and became only the fifth golfer to repeat at the Open Championship in the last fifty years.Greg Norman , who was attempting to become the oldest major champion ever, faltered with a final round 77 to finish in third place.Ian Poulter attempted to become the first Englishman to win the Open sinceNick Faldo , but finished in second, four strokes behind Harrington. [cite web|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/7516327.stm |title = BBC SPORT | Golf | Brilliant Harrington retains Open |accessdate = 2008-07-21 |date = Page last updated at 17:39 GMT, Sunday, 20 July 2008 18:39 UK |author = Rob Hodgetts]"(a) - amateur"
References
External links
* [http://www.opengolf.com/ The Open Championship official site]
* [http://www.opengolf.com/ChampionshipGolf/TheOpenChampionship/Players/EntryList.aspx Entry list]
* [http://scoring.opengolf.com/leaderboard.sps?iTourNo=2008060&optsel=pos&iTourId=7 Full Results]
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