2008 British Open Winner and Scores
The 2008 British Open was 137th time the tournament was played. Padraig Harrington took advantage of Greg Norman's final-round stumble to win The Open for the second consecutive year.
Winner: Padraig Harrington, 283
Where it was played: Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, England
Tournament dates: July 17-20
Leader after first round: Rocco Mediate, Robert Allenby and Graeme McDowell, 69
Leader after second round: K.J. Choi, 139
Leader after third round: Greg Norman, 2012
What Happened in the 2008 Open Championship
Padraig Harrington won his first major at the preceding year's Open Championship. But when Harrington reached the 2008 Open and the defense of his title, he was in pain.Suffering from a wrist injury, Harrington considered withdrawing. Only the fact that this was his title defense kept him from doing so. Still, he had to cut his preparations and practice time short in favor of treatment for the wrist.
So what happened? Harrington only went out and won the British Open again.
Although he opened with a 74, Harrington rebounded with a second-round 68. By the end of the third round, Harrington moved up to second place, two strokes behind the very surprising Greg Norman.
Norman was the 1986 British Open and 1993 British Open champion, but he was in semi-retirement at this point, and hadn't played The Open in several years. He was 53 years old, and the final-round conditions were very windy and tough.
And Norman couldn't keep the magic going for four rounds, stumbling with a final-round 77.
None of the other challengers stepped up, but Harrington carded a strong 69 to pull away for the win. Harrington thus became the first European golfer since James Braid in 1905-06 to win The Open back-to-back.
2008 British Open Final Scores
| Padraig Harrington | 74-68-72-69—283 |
| Ian Poulter | 72-71-75-69—287 |
| Greg Norman | 70-70-72-77—289 |
| Henrik Stenson | 76-72-70-71—289 |
| a-Chris Wood | 75-70-73-72—290 |
| Jim Furyk | 71-71-77-71—290 |
| David Howell | 76-71-78-67—292 |
| Robert Karlsson | 75-73-75-69—292 |
| Anthony Kim | 72-74-71-75—292 |
| Steve Stricker | 77-71-71-73—292 |
| Robert Allenby | 69-73-76-74—292 |
| Stephen Ames | 73-70-78-71—292 |
| Paul Casey | 78-71-73-70—292 |
| Ben Curtis | 78-69-70-75—292 |
| Ernie Els | 80-69-74-69—292 |
| KJ Choi | 72-67-75-79—293 |
| Justin Leonard | 77-70-73-73—293 |
| Adam Scott | 70-74-77-72—293 |
| Paul Waring | 73-74-76-71—294 |
| Alexander Noren | 72-70-75-77—294 |
| a-Thomas Sherreard | 77-69-76-72—294 |
| Paul Waring | 73-74-76-71—294 |
| Graeme McDowell | 69-73-80-72—294 |
| Rocco Mediate | 69-73-76-76—294 |
| Phil Mickelson | 79-68-76-71—294 |
| Jean Van De Velde | 73-71-80-70—294 |
| Simon Wakefield | 71-74-70-79—294 |
| Anders Hansen | 78-68-74-74—294 |
| Trevor Immelman | 74-74-73-73—294 |
| Fredrik Jacobson | 71-72-79-72—294 |
| Gregory Havret | 71-75-77-71—294 |
| Davis Love III | 75-74-70-75—294 |
| Tom Lehman | 74-73-73-75—295 |
| Nick O'Hern | 74-75-74-72—295 |
| Andres Romero | 77-72-74-72—295 |
| Retief Goosen | 71-75-73-76—295 |
| Richard Green | 76-72-76-71—295 |
| Todd Hamilton | 74-74-72-75—295 |
| Heath Slocum | 73-76-74-72—295 |
| Graeme Storm | 76-70-72-78—296 |
| Mike Weir | 71-76-74-75—296 |
| Camilo Villegas | 76-65-79-76—296 |
| Jay Williamson | 73-72-77-74—296 |
| Ariel Canete | 78-71-76-71—296 |
| David Duval | 73-69-83-71—296 |
| Ross Fisher | 72-74-71-79—296 |
| Gregory Bourdy | 74-74-75-73—296 |
| Bart Bryant | 70-78-74-74—296 |
| Woody Austin | 76-72-74-74—296 |
| Thomas Aiken | 75-71-82-68—296 |
| Simon Khan | 77-72-71-76—296 |
| Zach Johnson | 73-72-76-76—297 |
| Doug LaBelle | 78-70-74-75—297 |
| Sergio Garcia | 72-73-74-78—297 |
| David Frost | 75-73-73-76—297 |
| Stuart Appleby | 72-71-79-75—297 |
| Michael Campbell | 75-74-74-74—297 |
| Anthony Wall | 71-73-81-72—297 |
| Scott Verplank | 77-67-78-76—298 |
| Colin Montgomerie | 73-75-74-76—298 |
| Kevin Stadler | 72-75-78-73—298 |
| Richard Finch | 75-73-78-72—298 |
| Tom Gillis | 74-72-79-73—298 |
| Peter Hanson | 71-72-78-77—298 |
| Soren Hansen | 75-69-77-78—299 |
| Jonathan Lomas | 75-73-76-75—299 |
| Liang Wen-Chong | 77-71-77-74—299 |
| Lee Westwood | 75-74-78-73—300 |
| Jean Baptiste Gonnet | 75-72-73-80—300 |
| David Horsey | 74-70-79-77—300 |
| Pablo Larrazabal | 75-74-73-79—301 |
| Jose Lima | 73-76-75-77—301 |
| Martin Wiegele | 75-74-78-74—301 |
| Brendan Jones | 74-73-83-71—301 |
| John Rollins | 73-75-77-76—301 |
| Justin Rose | 74-72-82-73—301 |
| Jeff Overton | 72-75-75-79—301 |
| Craig Parry | 77-70-77-77—301 |
| Lucas Glover | 78-71-77-76—302 |
| Nick Dougherty | 75-71-79-77—302 |
| Martin Kaymer | 75-72-79-77—303 |
| Philip Archer | 75-74-78-77—304 |
| Sean O'Hair | 75-73-80-78—306 |
| Chih-Bing Lam | 72-75-83-81—311 |
Previous and next:
2007 British Open - 2009 British Open
Sources:
Hodgetts, Rob. "The 137th Open Championship," BBC.com, https://web.archive.org/web/20080721001723/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/7516327.stm.
TheOpen.com. "2008 / Royal Birkdale," The R&A, https://www.theopen.com/previous-opens/137th-open-royal-birkdale-2008.
R&A. 148th Open Championship Media Guide, All-Time Records, 2019.
