Pádraig Harrington successfully defended his Open Championship title, his second; he shot four under par over the final nine holes and was four strokes ahead of runner-up Ian Poulter.

First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2007 Open Championship K. J. Choi (7,15,19), Stewart Cink (7,19), Ben Curtis (3,4), Ernie Els (3,4,5,7,15,19), Sergio García (5,7,14,15), Richard Green, Pádraig Harrington (3,4,5,7), Hunter Mahan (7,15,19), Andrés Romero (5,7), Steve Stricker (7,15,19), Mike Weir (7,19) 2.

Past Open Champions aged 60 or under on 20 July 2008 Mark Calcavecchia (15), John Daly, David Duval (4), Todd Hamilton (4), Paul Lawrie (4), Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard (7), Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman, Mark O'Meara (4), Tom Watson (28) (Eligible but not competing: Ian Baker-Finch, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Bill Rogers, Tiger Woods) 4.

First 20 in the PGA European Tour Final Order of Merit for 2007 Ángel Cabrera (7,11,19), Paul Casey (7), Nick Dougherty, Niclas Fasth (7), Retief Goosen (7,11,19), Anders Hansen (6), Søren Hansen (7), Peter Hanson, Grégory Havret, Søren Kjeldsen, Colin Montgomerie, Justin Rose (7,15), Henrik Stenson (7), Richard Sterne (7), Graeme Storm, Lee Westwood (7) 6.

The first 50 players on the Official World Golf Rankings for Week 21, 2008 Robert Allenby, Stephen Ames (14), Stuart Appleby (19), Woody Austin (15,19), Aaron Baddeley (15), Tim Clark, Jim Furyk (15,19,23), J.

B. Holmes, Trevor Immelman (12,19), Zach Johnson (12,15,19), Robert Karlsson, Martin Kaymer, Anthony Kim, Phil Mickelson (12,13,14,15,19), Geoff Ogilvy (11,15,19), Sean O'Hair, Rod Pampling, Ian Poulter, Jeff Quinney, Rory Sabbatini (15,19), Adam Scott (15,19), Vijay Singh (13,15,19), Brandt Snedeker (15), Scott Verplank (15,19), Boo Weekley, Oliver Wilson (Eligible but not competing: Shingo Katayama, Luke Donald withdrew prior to start of tournament with a wrist injury,[5] Toru Taniguchi withdrew prior to start of tournament with a back injury[6]) 8.

First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the Official Money List of the 2008 PGA Tour on completion of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Bart Bryant, Ryuji Imada 17.

Playing members of the 2007 Presidents Cup teams Lucas Glover, Nick O'Hern (David Toms withdrew prior to start of tournament[9]) 20.

The leading 4 players, not exempt, in the 2008 Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic Michio Matsumura, Prayad Marksaeng, Yoshinobu Tsukada, Azuma Yano 27.

Thursday, 17 July 2008 Rocco Mediate, 2008 U.S. Open runner-up, shot a one-under par round of 69 to take the 18-hole lead alongside Graeme McDowell and Robert Allenby.

Sunday, 20 July 2008 Despite a wrist injury that almost forced him to withdraw prior to the tournament, Pádraig Harrington successfully defended his Open Championship title.