It’s been 22 years since Todd Hamilton claimed the Open Championship at Royal Troon to become the 2004 Champion Golfer of the Year, but the 60-year-old still remembers just about every detail of his week in Scotland.
On this week’s episode of Subpar, Hamilton — who says he doesn’t play much golf anymore in his home of Norman, Okla., and instead spends his time helping out his local high school golf team — reminisced with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz about the definitive achievement of his professional career.
Hamilton said that even he was surprised by the caliber of his play at Royal Troon, and gave plenty of credit to his Sonartec hybrid, a club he wielded with masterful precision throughout the week, even on short shots around the green. On the final hole of his aggregate four-hole playoff against Ernie Els, Hamilton stroked his hybrid to three feet, setting up a magnificent up and down — and ultimately, the win.
“I did not use that shot, growing up as a kid,” Hamilton said. “I probably started using it early in 2004. I was never a big fan of 3-woods, and that Sonartec you just referenced was actually my 3-wood. It was a 17-degree club that one of the manufacturers bent down to 14 degrees, so I used that as my 3-wood.
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“Technically it was a hybrid, but it wasn’t a hybrid the way you would think that they’re used these days,” he continued. “Again, I didn’t start using that shot until early in the year, and it’s not really a shot that works real well over here in the States because the grass is kind of thatchy and grainy, but the ground over there, as you know, Colt, the ground’s very firm, grass is cut down pretty tight. It’s basically a slower putting green.”
Hamilton said he practiced playing bump-and-runs with the Sonartec every day at Royal Troon that week.
“It was a shot I kind of relied on a lot,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I used it during the week. I’m going to guess about 12 to 14 times that I used it as a chip-slash-putt, and I think only one time did I not get up and down with it, and that was because I missed about a 5- or 6-foot putt, and that was in the final round on the 10th hole, so obviously it was a shot that served me well.
“Used the club a lot off the tee,” Hamilton continued. “But, more or less, it was a shot that, around the greens, really helped me achieve what I went over there to achieve, and that was to win the Open Championship.”
For more from Hamilton, including the specific swing thought that helped him at Royal Troon in 2004, check out the full episode of Subpar below.
