The Open Championship has thrown up multiple surprise winners throughout the years.
The unlikely winners over the past three decades have included John Daly in 1995, Ben Curtis in 2003 and Brian Harman in 2023.
The Open Championship is always one of the hardest major tournaments in which to predict the winner.
The reason for this is that The Open is always held on links golf courses, where the fairways have remained unchanged since the layouts were first designed.
This leads to incredibly lucky bounces and conversely, unbelievably unlucky breaks as well.
The often inclement weather also plays a huge role in the outcomes, and sometimes unheralded journeymen fly in under the radar and play their best golf at just the right time.
The journeyman pro who held off Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson to win The Open Championship
Back in 2004, The Open headed to Royal Troon.
The likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els were all heavily fancied that week.
However, it was Todd Hamilton who came out on top in the end.
The now 59-year-old carded rounds of 71, 69 and 69 to lead The Open after three rounds by one shot from Els and two from Mickelson, Retief Goosen and Thomas Levet.
Heading into the final round at Royal Troon, golf fans and journalists alike predicted that Hamilton would collapse under the pressure on the final day.
However, that didn’t happen. In fact, he was rock steady when he needed to be, especially during the four-hole playoff when he pipped Els by one stroke, after shooting 69 to finish the tournament at 10-under par.
The man from Galesburg, Illinois, will obviously be remembered for his incredible win. However, it was something that he did during the tournament that really stuck in the memory of golf fans.
Hamilton used his hybrid / rescue club to great effect around the greens, and his success in doing so made the shot very popular, especially on links golf courses where bump and runs are required regularly.
Todd Hamilton’s career results on the PGA Tour
Hamilton has a quite frankly bizarre career résumé.
He only won twice on the PGA Tour, with one of those coming at The Open in 2004.
Here are his results on the PGA Tour from the 239 events he played.
| Results | Hamilton’s totals |
| Events played | 239 |
| Majors wins | 1 |
| Wins | 2 |
| Top-5s | 3 |
| Top-10s | 6 |
| Missed cuts | 139 |
As you can see from those numbers above, Hamilton’s career in general was distinctly average.
However, his victory at The Open Championship 21 years ago ensured that he will go down in the history books as the winner of the oldest and most prestigious trophy in the game, and nobody will ever be able to take that away from him.
Hamilton produced some exceptional golf that week at Troon, and the fact that he got the better of seasoned winners in the form of Mickelson and Els shows just how good he was.