2010 BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
Carrying the largest 54-hole lead (4 strokes) into the final round of a British Open since Tiger Woods led by six at St. Andrews in 2000, Louis Oosthuizen carded a final-round 1-under 71 to move to 16-under 272 and a seven-stroke win over Lee Westwood (70). Oosthuizen opened the week with a 65 – the lowest opening score by an eventual British Open winner. His score increased by two each day (65-67-69-71) but it was still plenty to record his first Major win. Prior to this week, Oosthuizen had just one round in the 60s in 18 previous rounds in Major Championships, a second-round 69 en route to a missed cut at the 2006 British Open. Prior to a missed cut at the 2010 Masters, he won the annual Par-3 Contest at the Augusta National Golf Club. Louis Oosthuizen’s seven-stroke win is the largest in a Major Championship since Tiger Woods won the 2000 British Open by eights strokes. It is the largest margin by a player not named Tiger Woods since Jack
Nicklaus won the 1980 PGA Championship by seven strokes over Andy Bean.
Lee Westwood’s runner-up finish is his fifth top-3 finish in his last 10 Major Championship starts.
Rory McIlroy, who opened the 2010 Open with a record-tying 63, carded a 4-under 68 on Sunday to finish T3.
Paul Casey’s T3 finish is his best outing in nine starts at the Open. His only other top-10 was a T7 in 2008. The 2009 Shell Houston Open winner now has five top-10 finishes on TOUR in 2010.
Henrik Stenson finished T3 for his fifth top-10 in his last nine Major Championship appearances. Stenson has nine starts on TOUR in 2010, with seven made cuts and this week’s T3 his best finish. He has wins at the 2007 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and the 2009 PLAYERS Championship.
U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell finished T23 in his seventh British Open start. His best finish at the Open is T11 at St. Andrews in 2005.
This week’s T23 finish represented the seventh start for Tiger Woods in 2010, with top-10 finishes at the Masters Tournament (T4) and the U.S. Open (T4). In 1998, he won the BellSouth Classic in his ninth start – his longest stretch to start a season before winning.
Phil Mickelson posted a 3-over 75 on Sunday to finish the 2010 British Open at 1-over 289 and T48.
Jeff Overton continued his excellent play of late with a T11 finish. He has four top-3 finishes in his last nine starts, including runner-up finishes at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the HP Byron Nelson Championship and 3rd-place finishes at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and the AT&T National.
Tom Lehman, making his 17th start at the British Open, eagled the final hole on Sunday for a 2-under 70 and a four-day total of 4-under 284. His T14 finish is his best finish in a Major since a T13 at the 2005 Masters. The 1996 Open Champion has never failed to finish in red numbers at an Open at St. Andrews,
finishing 10-under in 2000 (T4) and 4-under in 2005 (T23) and 2010 (T14).
John Daly finished T48 in his 60th start in a Major Championship.
Vijay Singh finished T37 in his 65th consecutive major, tops on TOUR.
Of the top 13 finishers this week, only Louis Oosthuizen and Retief Goosen (2001 and 2004 U.S. Open) own Major Championship victories.
