2008 Open Championship

World Number One Tiger Woods was the most notable absentee, as he was recovering from knee surgery following his victory at the U.S. Open. 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 qualified from an earlier category: 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: Ian Baker-Finch, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Bill Rogers, 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, 2008 Robert 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, Toru Taniguchi withdrew prior to start of tournament with a back injury) 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 2008 BMW 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. Open Pablo Larrazábal, 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 2008 AT&T National Rocco Mediate (Eligible but not competing: Kenny Perry) 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 2008 John Deere Classic Freddie Jacobson, Jay Williamson 19. Playing members of the 2007 Presidents Cup teams Lucas Glover, Nick O'Hern (David Toms withdrew prior to start of tournament) 20. First place on the 2007 Asian Tour Order of Merit Liang Wenchong 21. First 2 on the Order of Merit of the PGA Tour of Australasia for 2007 Craig Parry, David Smail 22. First place on the Order of Merit of the Southern Africa Sunshine Tour for 2007 James Kingston 23. The RBC Canadian Open Champion for 2007 24. 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 2008 Japan PGA Championship up to and including the 2008 Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic Hiroshi 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 Hébert (a) International Final Qualifying :Africa: Josh Cunliffe, Darren Fichardt, Doug McGuigan, Hennie Otto :Australasia: Peter Fowler, Brad Lamb, Ewan Porter, Andrew Tampion :Asia: Adam Blyth, Danny Chia, Lam Chih Bing, 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, Alex Norén, Simon Wakefield, Anthony Wall, Paul Waring, Steve Webster, Martin Wiegele Local Final Qualifying (Monday 7 July and Tuesday 8 July) :Hillside: Rohan Blizard (a), Jamie Elson, Jean van de Velde, Chris Wood (a) :Southport and Ainsdale: Jon Bevan, Gary Boyd, Jamie Howarth, Tom Sherreard (a) :West Lancashire: Peter Appleyard, Barry Hume, Jonathan Lomas, Philip Walton Alternates • Camilo Villegas - took spot not taken by Kenny Perry • Pat Perez - replaced Luke Donald • Jerry Kelly - replaced David Toms • Heath Slocum - replaced Toru Taniguchi ==Venue==

Course layout {{white18 |name=Yards|n/a Source: Lengths of the course for previous Opens: • 1998: , par 70 • 1991: , par 70 • 1983: , par 71 • 1976: , par 72 • 1971: , par 73 • 1965: , par 73 • 1961: , par 72{{cite news • 1954: ==Round summaries==

First round Thursday, 17 July 2008 Rocco Mediate, 2008 U.S. Open runner-up, shot a one-under par round of 69 to take the 18-hole lead alongside Graeme McDowell and Robert Allenby. One shot back at even-par was 53-year old two-time champion Greg Norman with fellow countryman Adam Scott. Second round Friday, 18 July 2008 The cut was at 149 (+9) and 83 advanced, including Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, who played in the terrible morning conditions in the first round. Amateurs: Wood (+5), Sherreard (+6), Hébert (+12), Blizard (+15), Saxton (+17). Third round Saturday, 19 July 2008 Greg Norman, age 53, became the oldest to hold at least a share of the 54-hole lead (it lasted just one year, as Tom Watson led after three rounds in 2009 at age 59). Due to extremely high winds, there were no under-par rounds, and it was first time since 1986 when the 54-hole leader was not under par. Final round Sunday, 20 July 2008 Despite a wrist injury that almost forced him to withdraw prior to the tournament, Pádraig Harrington successfully defended his Open Championship title. Harrington pulled away from the field with a tremendous back nine and became only the fifth to repeat at the Open in the last fifty years. Runner-up Ian Poulter matched Harrington's 69 and was four strokes back, while Greg Norman faltered with eight bogeys for 77 and tied for third place with Henrik Stenson. Source: Amateurs: Wood (+10), Sherreard (+14). • (a) denotes amateur Scorecard Final round Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par Source: ==References==