2010 Open Championship


The 2010 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and was held from 15 to 18 July over the Old Course at St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It was the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Open in 1860, and the 28th time The Open was played at St Andrews. Usually branded with the edition of the championship, due to the sesquicentennial anniversary, the R&A branded this as the "150th Anniversary Open Championship" rather than "139th Open Championship." The standard branding returned the following year.
Louis Oosthuizen won his only major championship with 272, seven strokes clear of runner-up Lee Westwood. A stroke behind in third were Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy, and Henrik Stenson.

Venue

St Andrews is considered to be the home of golf, and as such, the current Open Championship rota means that the Old Course plays host to the championship every five years. Given the course's standing, even more attention is given to The Open whenever it visits the historic links.
The previous two Opens at St Andrews, in 2000 and 2005, were both won by Tiger Woods, the first with a record 19-under-par total. The primary change to the course from 2005 was at the par-4 17th hole; a new tee extended the Road Hole to, an increase of. Although not altered, the measurement angle of the dogleg was revised for hole #7, resulting in a new length of, a reduction of.

Card of the course

Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship :
  • 2005:
  • 2000:
  • 1995:
  • 1990:
  • 1984:
  • 1978:
  • 1970:
  • 1964:
  • 1960:
  • 1955:

    Field

Each year, around two-thirds of The Open Championship field consists of players that are fully exempt from qualifying for the Open. The players who have already qualified for the 2010 Open Championship are listed below. Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
1. Past Open Champions aged 60 or under on 18 July 2010

Mark Calcavecchia, Stewart Cink, Ben Curtis, John Daly, David Duval, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Todd Hamilton, Pádraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard, Sandy Lyle, Mark O'Meara, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods

2. The Open Champions for 2000–2009
3. Past Open Champions born between 17 July 1944 and 19 July 1948

4. Past Open Champions finishing in the top 10 and tying for 10th place in The Open Championship 2005–2009
5. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2009 Open Championship

Thomas Aiken, Luke Donald, Mathew Goggin, Retief Goosen, Søren Hansen, Richard S. Johnson, Lee Westwood, Chris Wood
6. The first 50 players on the Official World Golf Rankings for Week 21, 2010

Robert Allenby, Ángel Cabrera, Paul Casey, K. J. Choi, Tim Clark, Ben Crane, Ross Fisher, Jim Furyk, Sergio García, Lucas Glover, Peter Hanson, Yuta Ikeda, Ryo Ishikawa, Thongchai Jaidee, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Robert Karlsson, Martin Kaymer, Matt Kuchar, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, Edoardo Molinari, Francesco Molinari, Kevin Na, Geoff Ogilvy, Sean O'Hair, Louis Oosthuizen, Kenny Perry, Ian Poulter, Álvaro Quirós, Charl Schwartzel, Adam Scott, Michael Sim, Henrik Stenson, Steve Stricker, Camilo Villegas, Nick Watney, Oliver Wilson, Yang Yong-eun
7. First 30 in the PGA European Tour Final Race to Dubai for 2009

Simon Dyson, Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño, Anders Hansen, Søren Kjeldsen, Thomas Levet, Ross McGowan, Alex Norén, Robert Rock
8. The BMW PGA Championship winners for 2008–2010

Simon Khan
9. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the 2010 PGA European Tour Race to Dubai on completion of the 2010 BMW PGA Championship

Fredrik Andersson Hed, Rhys Davies
10. 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 BMW International Open and including the U.S. Open

Stephen Gallacher, Grégory Havret
11. The leading player, not exempt having applied above, in the first 5 and ties of each of the 2010 Alstom Open de France and the 2010 Barclays Scottish Open

Alejandro Cañizares, Darren Clarke
12. The U.S. Open Champions for 2006–2010
13. The U.S. Masters Champions for 2006–2010

Trevor Immelman
14. The U.S. PGA Champions for 2005–2009
15. The U.S. PGA Tour Players Champions for 2008–2010
16. Top 30 on the Official 2009 PGA Tour FedEx Cup points list

Jason Dufner, Brian Gay, Jerry Kelly, Marc Leishman, Steve Marino, John Senden, Heath Slocum, Scott Verplank, Mike Weir
17. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the FedEx Cup points list of the 2010 PGA Tour on completion of the HP Byron Nelson Championship

Jason Bohn, Bill Haas, J. B. Holmes
18. 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 2010 AT&T National

Justin Rose, Bubba Watson
19. The leading player, not exempt having applied above, in the first 5 and ties of each of the 2010 AT&T National and the 2010 John Deere Classic

Paul Goydos, Ryan Moore
20. Playing members of the 2009 Presidents Cup teams

Vijay Singh
21. First place on the 2009 Asian Tour Order of Merit
22. First place on the 2009 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit
23. First place on the 2009 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit
24. The 2009 Japan Open Champion

Ryuichi Oda
25. First 2, not exempt, on the Official Money List of the Japan Golf Tour for 2009

Koumei Oda
26. The leading 4 players, not exempt, in the 2010 Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic

Hirofumi Miyase, Park Jae-bum, Shunsuke Sonoda, Toru Taniguchi
27. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt having applied above, in a cumulative money list taken from all official 2010 Japan Golf Tour events up to and including the 2010 Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic

Kim Kyung-tae, Katsumasa Miyamoto
28. The Senior British Open Champion for 2009

Loren Roberts
29. The 2010 Amateur Champion

Jin Jeong
30. The 2009 U.S. Amateur Champion

An Byeong-hun
31. The 2009 European Individual Amateur Champion

Victor Dubuisson
International Final Qualifying

Local Final Qualifying

  • denotes amateur
Alternates

Drawn from the Official World Golf Rankings of 4 July 2010 :
  • Rickie Fowler awarded exemption as highest ranked player not already qualified.
  • Jeff Overton awarded exemption as highest ranked player not already qualified.
  • Ricky Barnes replaced Anthony Kim.
  • Davis Love III replaced David Toms.
  • Jason Day replaced Greg Norman.

    Round summaries

First round

Thursday, 15 July 2010
For the 28th time, the Open Championship took to the Old Course at St Andrews, and it played perhaps the easiest it has in all its history, with 73 players under par. Rory McIlroy tied a major championship record with 63, only the eighth 63 in Open Championship history, and the 22nd in major championship history. He was bogey-free and played his last ten holes at −8. Louis Oosthuizen was alone in second with 65.
A big surprise of the first round was John Daly; the 1995 champion at St Andrews was at 66, in five-way tie for third with Bradley Dredge, Peter Hanson, Andrew Coltart, and Steven Tiley. Tiger Woods, who switched from his old Scotty Cameron putter to a Nike Method putter that week, headlined the group of nine tied for eighth at 67. That group included PGA Champion Yang Yong-eun and Lee Westwood. 2009 champion Stewart Cink and U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell were at 71, tied for 58th, and Masters champion Phil Mickelson struggled with the putter to a 73.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1

Second round

Friday, 16 July 2010
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Mark Calcavecchia had the earliest tee time and took advantage of the morning conditions to shoot a 67 for a 137. Louis Oosthuizen played in the next group and also shot 67 to move into first place at 132, five shots ahead of Calcavecchia. Phil Mickelson posted a 71 to get to even-par 144. However, the conditions were significantly worse in the afternoon. Rory McIlroy followed his 63 in the opening round with 80 for 143.
Jason Dufner's ball would not stay still on the 7th green due to the gale force winds, which caused play to be suspended for 66 minutes. Winds also caused backup on the course, and some rounds took 7½ hours. Tiger Woods had a bad start with bogeys on the first two holes, and despite three-putting four times that day, grinded out to shoot 73 on Friday for 140, 8 shots behind the leader. Notable players who missed the cut were Ernie Els, Pádraig Harrington, Tom Watson, and Jim Furyk.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1

Third round

Saturday, 17 July 2010
Mark Calcavecchia quickly fell out of contention when he played his first five holes in seven over par. Tiger Woods struggled with the flat stick, with 35 putts for the round and ten three-putts through 54 holes. Phil Mickelson mounted a charge at four-under-par through 13 holes, but fell back with a double-bogey on 16. Louis Oosthuizen's consistency never wavered, and he ended the day with a four-shot lead over Paul Casey, who shot a five-under 67.
PlacePlayerScoreTo par
1