Carnoustie's prestige in the golf community is irrefutable as the list of champions includes Tommy Armour (1931), Henry Cotton (1937), Ben Hogan (1953), Gary Player (1968), Tom Watson (1975) and Paul Lawrie (1999).

Jean van de Velde stood on the 72nd tee with a three-shot lead, needing only a double-bogey to win.

Carnoustie Golf Links – Championship Course ^ the 6th hole was named Long until 2003 Lengths of the course for previous Opens:[1]

First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2006 Open Championship Ángel Cabrera (3,4,5,9), Chris DiMarco (3,17), Ernie Els (2,3,4), Jim Furyk (3,9,13,17,21), Sergio García (3,4,17), Carl Pettersson (3,13), Andrés Romero, Adam Scott (3,13), Hideto Tanihara, Tiger Woods (2,3,10,11,13,17) 2.

Past Open Champions aged 65 or under Mark Calcavecchia, Ben Curtis, John Daly, Nick Faldo, Todd Hamilton, Tony Jacklin, Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard, Sandy Lyle, Mark O'Meara 3.

The first 50 players on the Official World Golf Rankings for 28 May 2007 Robert Allenby, Stephen Ames (12), Stuart Appleby (13), Aaron Baddeley, Chad Campbell (13,17), Paul Casey (4,17), K. J. Choi, Stewart Cink (13,17), Luke Donald (4,13,17), Joe Durant (13), Niclas Fasth (4), Retief Goosen (4,9,13), Anders Hansen (5), Pádraig Harrington (4,17), Charles Howell III, David Howell (4,5,17), Trevor Immelman (13), Zach Johnson (10,17), Robert Karlsson (4,17), Davis Love III (13), Phil Mickelson (10,11,12,13,17), Colin Montgomerie (4,17), Arron Oberholser, Geoff Ogilvy (9,13), Nick O'Hern (19), Rod Pampling (13), Ian Poulter (4), John Rollins, Justin Rose, Rory Sabbatini (13), Charl Schwartzel (4,20), Vijay Singh (11,13), Henrik Stenson (4,17), Richard Sterne, Steve Stricker, Vaughn Taylor (17), David Toms (13,17), Scott Verplank (17), Mike Weir (10), Lee Westwood (17), Brett Wetterich (13,17) 4.

First 20 in the European Tour Final Order of Merit for 2006 John Bickerton, Thomas Bjørn, Paul Broadhurst, Johan Edfors, Jeev Milkha Singh (18), Anthony Wall 5.

First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the Official Money List of the 2007 PGA Tour on completion of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Nick Watney, Boo Weekley 15.

The leading player, not exempt having applied above, in the first 5 and ties of each of the 2007 AT&T National and the 2007 John Deere Classic Pat Perez, Jonathan Byrd 17.

Tiger Woods began his campaign for a third straight Open Championship with a 69 (−2), including an eagle at Hogan's Alley, the famous 6th hole at Carnoustie.

Source:[5] Friday, 20 July 2007 First round leader Sergio García shot a level par 71 to stay at −6 and led by two strokes.

At eight strokes behind the leader, his quest for a third straight Open Championship was improbable; he had never won a major when trailing after 54 holes.

Meanwhile, Harrington had four birdies followed by an eagle at the 14th hole to move to 9-under for the championship, and stood on the 18th tee with a one-shot lead.

He left himself a ten footer (3 m) for par and the title, but the putt lipped out and he had to settle for a playoff, scoring a 73 (+2) for the round.

He was at 9-under after 70 holes with a two-stroke lead, but the Argentine was done in by a double bogey-bogey ending to finish a single stroke out of the playoff.

Rory McIlroy shot +1 on the day, +5 for the tournament, to finish tied 42nd and win the silver medal for top amateur in his first Open.

Top amateur: Rory McIlroy (+5) Full Leaderboard Archived 9 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine Final round Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par Harrington became the first Irishman to win the Open Championship since Fred Daly at Royal Liverpool in 1947 and also the first Open Championship winner from the Republic of Ireland after defeating García in a playoff by one shot.

Both players parred the next two holes (García hit the pin on the par-3 16th but his ball rolled a distance away), so Harrington still led by two strokes heading into the dangerous 18th.