2002 Open Championship: Ernie Els wins at Muirfield
Ernie Els won the 2002 Open Championship at Muirfield, Gullane, Scotland with 278 (−6), beating Thomas Levet and Stuart Appleby and Steve Elkington in a playoff.
Updated October 23, 2026
See 2002 in The Open room, or every year on The Open winners list.
- Dates
- 18 July 2002 to 21 July 2002
- Course
- Muirfield, Gullane, Scotland
- Edition
- 131st Open Championship
- Format
- 72 holes of stroke play
- Par
- 71
- Field
- 156
- Made the cut
- 83 (cut at 144)
- Purse
- £3,800,000 · winner's share £700,000
- Trophy
- Claret Jug (replica to winner)
- Champion
- Ernie Els · age 32 · South Africa · born Johannesburg, South Africa
- Champion's title
- 1st Open title
- World ranking entering
- No. 3
- Winning score
- 70-66-72-70 = 278 (−6)
- Runners-up
- Thomas Levet (278), Stuart Appleby (278), Steve Elkington (278)
- 54-hole leader
- Ernie Els (208)
- Playoff
- 4-hole aggregate, then sudden death; beat Thomas Levet (sudden death); Stuart Appleby; Steve Elkington; Els 16 then 4; Levet 16 then 5; Appleby 17; Elkington 17
- Deciding hole
- No. 18, round playoff, playoff hole 5
- Caddie
- Ricci Roberts
Top 13 as recorded
| Pos. | Player | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | To par |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ernie Els | 70 | 66 | 72 | 70 | 278 | −6 |
| T2 | Thomas Levet | 72 | 66 | 74 | 66 | 278 | −6 |
| T2 | Stuart Appleby | 73 | 70 | 70 | 65 | 278 | −6 |
| T2 | Steve Elkington | 71 | 73 | 68 | 66 | 278 | −6 |
| T5 | Pádraig Harrington | 69 | 67 | 76 | 67 | 279 | −5 |
| T5 | Shigeki Maruyama | 68 | 68 | 75 | 68 | 279 | −5 |
| T5 | Gary Evans | 72 | 68 | 74 | 65 | 279 | −5 |
| T8 | Peter O'Malley | 72 | 68 | 75 | 65 | 280 | −4 |
| T8 | Søren Hansen | 68 | 69 | 73 | 70 | 280 | −4 |
| T8 | Thomas Bjørn | 68 | 70 | 73 | 69 | 280 | −4 |
| T8 | Sergio García | 71 | 69 | 71 | 69 | 280 | −4 |
| T8 | Retief Goosen | 71 | 68 | 74 | 67 | 280 | −4 |
| T8 | Scott Hoch | 74 | 69 | 71 | 66 | 280 | −4 |
What happened at the 2002 Open Championship
Tiger Woods shot 81 in the cold, wet third round, which ended his bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam.
In sudden death at the 18th, Levet found a fairway bunker and bogeyed, and Els got up and down from a greenside bunker for par.
After the four-hole aggregate left Els and Levet tied, they played the 18th again, where Levet bogeyed and Els played a delicate bunker shot to make his four.
How this was built
Every value is shown as recorded in GNN's The Open data. A value no source confirmed is left out; nothing is estimated. Where sources disagree, the organizer's own record is used.
Data: the-open.json (The Open room's data), with GNN's Open Championship addendum tables L (top ten by round), H (deciding hole), W (final-day weather).