The 2005 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 134th Open Championship, held from 14 to 17 July at the Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland. Tiger Woods led wire-to-wire for his tenth major title, five shots ahead of runner-up Colin Montgomerie. The win was Woods' second Open Championship, both at St. Andrews, and completed his second career grand slam at age 29. The tenth major and second slam were firsts for a player under the age of 30. At age 65, Jack Nicklaus made his final appearance at a major championship.

History of The Open Championship at The Old Course at St Andrews

While winning the Open Championship is a crowning achievement for any golfer, a win at St. Andrews is considered particularly important due to the course's long tradition. Tiger Woods won the Open Championship played at St. Andrews in 2000 with a tournament to par record of 19-under par. Other past winners at St. Andrews include John Daly, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Jack Nicklaus (twice), Tony Lema, Kel Nagle, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Sam Snead, Dick Burton, Denny Shute, Bobby Jones, Jock Hutchison, James Braid (twice), John Henry Taylor (twice), Hugh Kirkaldy, Jack Burns, Bob Martin (twice), Jamie Anderson and Tom Kidd.

Course

Previous lengths of the course for The Open Championship (since 1950):

Field

1. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2004 Open Championship Ernie Els (2,3,4,13), Retief Goosen (3,4,9,13), Todd Hamilton (2,3,13), Thomas Levet (4,17), Davis Love III (3,12,13,17), Phil Mickelson (3,10,13,17), Scott Verplank (3,13), Mike Weir (3,10,13), Lee Westwood (3,4,17), Tiger Woods (2,3,9,10,11,13,17) 2. Past Open Champions aged 65 or under on 17 July 2005 Mark Calcavecchia, Ben Curtis, John Daly (3), David Duval, Nick Faldo, Tony Jacklin, Paul Lawrie, Tom Lehman (3), Justin Leonard (3), Sandy Lyle, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Mark O'Meara, Nick Price, Tom Watson 3. The first 50 players on the OWGR for Week 22, 2005 Stephen Ames (13), Stuart Appleby (13), Thomas Bjørn, Ángel Cabrera (4,5), Chad Campbell (17), K. J. Choi, Stewart Cink (13,17), Tim Clark, Darren Clarke (4,17), Fred Couples, Chris DiMarco (13,17), Luke Donald (4,17), Fred Funk (12,17), Jim Furyk (9,17), Sergio García (4,13,17), Mark Hensby (13), Tim Herron, Charles Howell III, Miguel Ángel Jiménez (4,17), Zach Johnson (13), Jerry Kelly (13), Peter Lonard, Shigeki Maruyama, Graeme McDowell (4), Paul McGinley (17), Colin Montgomerie (17), Nick O'Hern (4), Rod Pampling, Craig Parry, Kenny Perry (17), Ian Poulter (4,17), Rory Sabbatini (13), Adam Scott (12,13), Vijay Singh (11,13,21), David Toms (11,17) 4. First 20 in the European Tour Final Order of Merit for 2004 Paul Casey (17), Stephen Gallacher, Richard Green (19), Joakim Haeggman, Trevor Immelman, Jean-François Remésy 5. The BMW PGA Championship winners for 2003–05 Scott Drummond, Ignacio Garrido 6. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt, in the top 20 of the European Tour Order of Merit for 2005 on completion of the 2005 BMW PGA Championship Stephen Dodd, Peter Hanson, Steve Webster 7. First 2 European Tour members and any European Tour members tying for 2nd place, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from all official European Tour events from the British Masters up to and including the Open de France and including The U.S. Open Søren Hansen, Jean van de Velde 8. The leading player, not exempt, in the first 10 and ties of each of the 2005 European Open and the 2005 Scottish Open Maarten Lafeber, Graeme Storm 9. The U.S. Open Champions for 2001–05 Michael Campbell 10. The Masters Champions for 2001–05 11. The PGA Champions for 2000–04 Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel 12. The Players Champions for 2003–05 13. First 20 on the Official Money List of the PGA Tour for 2004 Steve Flesch 14. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt, in the top 20 of the Official Money List of the PGA Tour for 2005 on completion of the FedEx St. Jude Classic Joe Ogilvie, Tim Petrovic, Ted Purdy 15. First 2 PGA Tour members and any PGA Tour members tying for 2nd place, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from the Players Championship and the five PGA Tour events leading up to and including the 2005 Western Open Bart Bryant 16. The leading player, not exempt having applied (15) above, in each of the 2005 Western Open and the 2005 John Deere Classic Sean O'Hair, Pat Perez 17. Playing members of the 2004 Ryder Cup teams Chris Riley 18. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the Asian Tour for 2004 Thongchai Jaidee 19. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place on the Order of Merit of the PGA Tour of Australasia for 2004 Euan Walters 20. First and anyone tying for 1st place on the Order of Merit of the Sunshine Tour for 2004/2005 Charl Schwartzel 21. The Canadian Open Champion for 2004 22. The Japan Open Champion for 2004 Toru Taniguchi 23. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt, on the Official Money List of the Japan Golf Tour for 2004 Yang Yong-eun 24. The leading 4 players, not exempt, in the 2005 Mizuno Open Chris Campbell, David Smail, Thammanoon Sriroj, Tadahiro Takayama 25. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt having applied (24) above, in a cumulative money list taken from all official Japan Golf Tour events from the 2005 Japan PGA Championship up to and including the 2005 Mizuno Open Hiroyuki Fujita, Hur Suk-ho 26. The Senior Open Champion for 2004 Pete Oakley 27. The Amateur Champion for 2005 Brian McElhinney (a) 28. The U.S. Amateur Champion for 2004 29. The European Amateur Champion for 2004 Matthew Richardson (a) International Final Qualifying Local Final Qualifying (Saturday 9 July and Sunday 10 July) Alternates

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, 14 July 2005 Tiger Woods stormed out to a 66 (−6) for a one shot lead over Mark Hensby, who missed a birdie putt on the 18th green. Defending champion Todd Hamilton shot 74 (+2) and Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion, carded 75 (+3).

Second round

Friday, 15 July 2005 Nicklaus made a 15 ft birdie putt on the final stroke of his professional career. On his walk up to the final green, he received a near ten-minute standing ovation, pausing for photographs on the iconic Swilcan Bridge. Nicklaus shot an even-par 72 in his final competitive round, but his 147 (+3) missed the cut by two strokes. Source: Amateurs: Molinari (−4), Ramsay (−2), Richardson (E), Saltman (E), Florén (+7), McElhinney (+9), Steele (+9).

Third round

Saturday, 16 July 2005

Final round

Sunday, 17 July 2005 Woods moved to 10-0 when leading going into the final round of a major, winning his second Open Championship title. He pulled away from Colin Montgomerie who finished second in a major for the fifth time. Woods shot a 2-under 70, the only round under par among the final 14 players. Fred Couples and Duffy Waldorf shot 68, the low rounds of the day. Source: Amateurs: Saltman (−5), Ramsay (−4), Molinari (+1), Richardson (+9).

Scorecard

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par Source: