2002 The 131st Open

Archive note

The 2002 edition was played at Muirfield, and won by Ernie Els with 278.

Record sources

• The Open Records and Statistics
  • 2002 The 131st Open · Championship identity

    The official Champion Golfers register directly enumerates this playing with ordinal, venue, and champion. Historical venue and champion spellings follow that register; any trailing parenthesized win count is occurrence metadata and is not part of the recorded winner name. The official Previous Opens decade record independently cross-checks the reviewed identity. Dates are null because the reviewed register does not state them, and no date was inferred.

    Verified 2026-08-20
• The Open historical venue records and official Course identity
  • Muirfield

    The official Open venue directory, historical guide, and named Course evidence bind this continuing venue identity. Historical routing and scoring conditions are not replaced by current scorecard values. Historical host-year authority: https://www.theopen.com/latest/open-venues-guide; locality authority: https://www.theopen.com/venues. The 2026 Royal Birkdale result is separately verified by the bound final-round report.

    Verified 2026-09-09
• The Open official champion and playoff records
  • Ernie Els

    The official champion register establishes the winner and historical regulation total. The separate official playoff register establishes historical playoff status, including the 1876 walkover. The 2026 final report establishes that winner in regulation; no unverified total or relative score is inferred.

    Verified 2026-09-09