Ben Curtis won his only major title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Thomas Bjørn and Vijay Singh.

[2][3] Playing in his first major championship and number 396 in the world rankings, Curtis became the first debut winner at The Open since Tom Watson in 1975.

[4][5][6] Source:[7] Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950):[1] Stuart Appleby (4), Thomas Bjørn (4,5,18), Steve Elkington, Ernie Els (2,3,4,5,10,14), Gary Evans, Sergio García (4,5,14,18), Retief Goosen (4,5,10,14), Søren Hansen (5), Pádraig Harrington (4,5,18), Justin Leonard (2,3,4,14), Thomas Levet, Peter Lonard (4,22), Davis Love III (4,13,18), Shigeki Maruyama (4,14), Peter O'Malley (22), Nick Price (2,3,4,14) John Daly (3), David Duval (3,18), Paul Lawrie (3,4,5), Tom Lehman (3), Greg Norman (3), Mark O'Meara (3), Tiger Woods (3,4,10,11,12,13,14,18) Mark Calcavecchia (18), Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson Robert Allenby (14), Rich Beem (12,14), Ángel Cabrera (5), Michael Campbell (5), Paul Casey, K. J. Choi (14), Darren Clarke (18), Fred Couples, Chris DiMarco (14), Bob Estes, Niclas Fasth (5,18), Brad Faxon, Steve Flesch, Fred Funk (14), Jim Furyk (10,14,18), Jay Haas, Charles Howell III (14), Trevor Immelman (5,24), Jerry Kelly (14), Bernhard Langer (5,18), Len Mattiace (14), Phil Mickelson (14,18), Colin Montgomerie (5,6,18), Craig Parry (22), Kenny Perry, Chris Riley, Eduardo Romero (5), Justin Rose (5), Adam Scott (5), Vijay Singh (11,12,14), Jeff Sluman (14), David Toms (12,14,18), Scott Verplank (18), Mike Weir (11) Bradley Dredge, Anders Hansen (6), Stephen Leaney, José María Olazábal (11) Ignacio Garrido, Andrew Oldcorn Brian Davis, Robert-Jan Derksen, Kenneth Ferrie, Mathias Grönberg, Freddie Jacobson Alastair Forsyth, Philip Golding, David Howell, Søren Kjeldsen, Mark McNulty, Greg Owen, Ian Poulter Raphaël Jacquelin, David Lynn, Rolf Muntz, Gary Murphy, Nick O'Hern, Iain Pyman, Mark Roe, Charl Schwartzel Lee Janzen, Corey Pavin Craig Perks, Hal Sutton (18) Chad Campbell Joe Durant, Jonathan Kaye, Cliff Kresge, J. L. Lewis, Rory Sabbatini, Duffy Waldorf Tom Byrum, José Cóceres, Ben Curtis, Luke Donald, Dudley Hart, Skip Kendall, Scott McCarron, Chris Smith Paul Azinger, Stewart Cink, Pierre Fulke, Paul McGinley, Jesper Parnevik, Phillip Price, Lee Westwood John Rollins David Smail Jyoti Randhawa Shingo Katayama, Nobuhito Sato, Toru Taniguchi Mark Foster Todd Hamilton Hur Suk-ho, Hirofumi Miyase, Hideto Tanihara, Katsuyoshi Tomori Noboru Sugai Gary Wolstenholme (a) Ricky Barnes (a) Thursday, 17 July 2003 Friday, 18 July 2003 Amateurs: Barnes (+11), Wolstenholme (+14), Godfrey (+18).

[10] The rule that resulted in the disqualifications was changed two years later;[11] Roe never played in another major.

Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods also moved into early contention, but fell behind Curtis with late bogeys, leaving Thomas Bjørn with a three stroke lead with four holes to play.