Tue, Jul 20, 2004 page20

• Hamilton wins British Open

  THE BIG TIME The usually laconic Todd Hamilton beat back a leaderboard loaded with majors champions on Sunday to walk away with the oldest trophy in golf

  • AP
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  Unflappable to the very end, Todd Hamilton tapped in a par putt to win the British Open in a playoff, bending over to get the ball out of the hole as if it were just another round of golf.

  Then he stopped.

  And only then did the enormity of the moment -- and how he got there -- start to sink in.

  

  Todd Hamilton of the US jumps into the arms of his caddie, Ron Levin, after winning the British Open golf championship at Royal Troon golf course in Troon, Scotland, on Sunday.

  PHOTO: AP

  Twelve years toiling in the most obscure outposts in golf. Eight tries at PGA Tour school before reaching the big leagues as a 38-year-old father of three.

  Now, British Open champion.

  Turning his back on the hole, he let out a whoop, raised both arms in the air and hugged his caddie.

  

  Kent Hamilton, right, leaps from his easy chair in his Oquawka, Illinois, home as his son, Todd Hamilton, is seen on television sinking the winning put at the British Open on Sunday. His friend Terri Rauhaus, left, celebrates while a member of a Keithsburg radio station captures the sound.

  PHOTO: AP

  "I hoped that something like this would happen," Hamilton said.

  Tough times only hardened his resolve on the back nine of Royal Troon, where Hamilton overcame Phil Mickelson and outlasted Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff on Sunday to capture the silver claret jug.

  Hamilton made four pars in the playoff, the last one the toughest of them all. From 40 yards short of the hole, he used a utility club to bump the ball along the crusty grass until it stopped 2 feet from the cup.

  Els had a 12-foot birdie putt in regulation to win. His last chance was a 15-foot birdie putt from the same line to keep the playoff going, but it turned away to the left.

  "I had my chances," Els said after his third close call in the majors this year.

  For the second year in a row, the jug went to a player no one could have imagined at the start of the week. But unlike Ben Curtis, who was ranked 396th when he won at Royal St. George's in his first major, no one will ever call Hamilton a fluke. Not after he beat back a leaderboard loaded with majors champions.

  Not after he refused to get flustered when Mickelson took the lead with eight holes to play.

  And certainly not after going toe-to-toe with Els in a pressure-packed playoff.

  "I've won tournaments around the world before, but nothing on a stage like this," Hamilton said.

  An 11-time winner on the Japanese tour, Hamilton thought he had hit the big time when he birdied the final two holes for a one-shot victory over Davis Love III at the Honda Classic in March.

  His name is now on the oldest trophy in golf alongside Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

  "I knew I was a decent golfer. I knew I tried hard, I knew I worked hard," Hamilton said. "Sometimes I think what kept me back ... I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well, and a lot of times I felt that in tournaments like this, if I happened to get into them, I didn't really feel that I belonged."

  Els had to make 10-footers for birdie on the 16th and 17th holes to keep his hopes alive at Royal Troon. And when Hamilton bogeyed the 18th hole in regulation, the Big Easy had a 12-foot putt for the win.

  But he left it short, and his putter let him down in the playoff. He missed a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 1, and fell behind when he overshot the third extra hole, the par-3 17th, and missed a 10-footer for par.

  Hamilton made sure he never caught up.

  "Coming so close obviously is disappointing," Els said. "To get into the playoff from where I was, you've got to take the positive."

  Els shot 68 in the final round and earned a dubious distinction. He had all four rounds in the 60s for the second time in a British Open without winning; the other time was at Royal St. George's in 1993.

  Hamilton closed with a 2-under 69 to become the sixth consecutive American to win the Open at Royal Troon.

  Even in the playoff, the odds favored Els. He was No. 2 in the world with three major titles, going against a journeyman in contention for the first time in a Grand Slam event.

  Els never saw it that way. He met Hamilton during his global travels and knew what he was up against.

  "And I knew he wasn't going to back off," Els said.
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