It was eight years ago that an essentially unknown 26-year-old American hoisted golf’s most-prized trophy. Ben Curtis came out of virtually no where to outlast such golfing luminaries as Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Davis Love III and win the Claret Jug by one stroke. Now, Curtis returns to the scene of his greatest golfing accomplishment as Royal St. George’s prepares to host the Open Championship for the 14th time starting on Thursday.
British Open 2011: Ben Curtis Returns To Site Of Greatest Feat
Curtis has not won another major since then, but he has won three other PGA events and has three top-10 finishes in majors since his British breakthrough. As the 194th ranked player in the world, he seems to realize that repeating as champion is a bit of a longshot:
“Obviously you want to win, but I just want to play good for four days. I’ve been struggling a little bit the last few months, and just want to play good golf and try to make as many birdies as I can, keep the ball in play and out of those bunkers, and try to hit as many greens as I can.”
In 2003, Curtis was the only player in the field to come in under par, needing a final-round 69 to pull it off. As much as any player, he seems to understand how to play on what can be one of the world’s tougher courses.
“You’ve got to be able to control the flight of your ball here, more so than in the States, and you’ve got to know — you’ve got to kind of figure out how much roll you’re going to get after the ball lands. And that’s just through a little bit of preparation, playing today, tomorrow and Wednesday, just getting used to seeing how far each club in the bag would roll downwind, into the wind, side wind. You have a pretty good idea by Thursday, and then you still learn more as you go on and on.”
Curtis will be in a group with Paul Casey and Aaron Baddeley. They will tee off at 8:58 a.m. local time.
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