Calm Hamilton stuck to his game plan

For the second straight year, a rookie American golfer has won the British Open.

Unlike 27-year-old Ben Curtis, last year's Open champion, 2004 winner Todd Hamilton is a rookie in name only.

The 38-year-old Hamilton earned his first PGA Tour playing card in last December's Qualifying School, but the 38-year-old has spent years playing golf all over the world, primarily on the Asian and Japan tours. His experience showed on Sunday as he faced down world No. 2 Ernie Els over 18 holes of regulation and four more in a playoff to win the game's oldest championship.

Throughout the final round, Hamilton was a methodical, but not plodding. He had a game plan and stuck to it. Frequently he took an iron or hybrid wood off the tee to avoid trouble.

An indication of how well he did that is that Hamilton was in one bunker all week. One bunker on a Royal Troon course that is littered with the nasty little things.

Avoiding the sand was part of Hamilton's strategy for the week. His plan was to play safely, be it short of the bunkers or over them.

"With the fairways as firm as they are, with the little lumps and mounds on them, it's very difficult to judge what kind of bounce you're going to get," Hamilton said. "Because of that you've got to pay a lot of attention to being way short or being past.

"I know a lot of times where the pins were on the front nine, if they were right and it's a short hole, sometimes the play was to take driver and hit it as far left as you could to have an angle on the flag being at the right-hand side."

As well as Hamilton drove the ball this week, his strength was his short game.

On Sunday, he one-putted six times, had 11 two-putt greens and chipped in from behind the green on the 14th as he was trying to remain ahead of both Els and Phil Mickelson.

A further measure of his short-game strength is that Hamilton had one three-putt for the championship, and that came in the second round.

"I've always been blessed with a pretty good hand-eye coordination," Hamilton said. "My hands have always been very good to me, whether it be chipping or putting."

His were good to him on Sunday, particularly on the 18th hole in the playoff when his approach came up 30-some yards short of the green. He went to his utility wood, a club with 14 degrees of loft that replaces his 3-wood. Hamilton bumped the ball onto the green, and it came to rest three feet from the hole. After Els missed his birdie effort to tie, Hamilton drained his putt for the victory.

"I hit a lot of those shots in the practice round, not from 30 yards off the green, though," Hamilton said. "But that club, I use it a lot off the tee and around the greens when you're able to bump-and-run shots, such as the one on the last hole. It's a very versatile club.

"It's about a 14 degree loft, so it's basically a 1-iron, which is great to chip-and-run shots with. It is difficult to judge that far off the green, judge the distance. But the fairways are cut so tight and they're nice and firm, so it's basically a green, maybe the grass is just a little bit higher."

Throughout the 22 holes it took to decide the Open Championship Sunday, Hamilton was a image of coolness.

"I felt very calm the whole day," Hamilton said. "It reminded me a lot of how I felt in the final round of the Honda Classic, which I won back in March. Sometimes I get in situations where you should be biting all your fingernails off. I'm usually kind of a nervous guy, especially if I haven't been playing very well, which I hadn't coming to this tournament.

"But sometimes I get out there and it almost seems fun. And I think today seemed like it was fun for me. I'd never been in a position like that, at least in a tournament as grand as this, and to be out there for the first time in a position like that and feel very calm was kind of an oddity. But as I said, I felt very calm the whole day, believe it or not."

And, believe it or not, at the end of the day, Hamilton was champion golfer of the year.

Email this page to a friend | 2005 Open Coverage | Return to top of page