Ben Curtis Biography

Ben Curtis was born in Columbus, Ohio on 26th May 1977. He grew up in Ostrander, Ohio. where his family run the Mill Creek Golf Club. Curtis is a graduate of Buckeye Valley High School and Kent State University, where he was a star on the golf team.

Curtis enjoyed a successful amateur career, winning the Ohio Amateur in 1999 and 2000 (joining professional golfers John Cook and Arnold Palmer as the only men to win the Ohio Amateur in consecutive years), and also the Players Amateur in 2000. He turned professional later that year.

Curtis began playing on the Nationwide Tour without much success. At the end of 2002, he finished in a tie for 26th at that year's Q-School, earning his PGA Tour card for the following year. His first year on tour began unspectacularly as he made a fair amount of cuts, but had no finishes in the top 25 until a tie for 13th at the Western Open, a result which qualified him to play in that year's British Open.

Curtis entered the British Open at Royal St George's in 2003 as a 300-1 outsider. However, he defied the odds to win the tournament by one stroke from Thomas Bjørn and Vijay Singh on the final day.

The 2003 British Open was Curtis' first major and he became the first golfer since Francis Ouimet in the 1913 U.S. Open to win his major championship debut. Following his victory, Curtis jumped from 396th in the Official World Golf Rankings to 35th, the highest jump for any person. This victory and a solid first season on the PGA Tour led to Curtis' being named the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for 2003.

The British Open victory gave Curtis a five year exemption on the PGA Tour and a ten year exemption on the European Tour, and he played events on both tours in 2004. However, he did not experience immediate success, missing many cuts and only recording one top ten finish on the PGA Tour. He missed even more cuts in 2005 and only had two top ten finishes.

2006 saw an improvement in Curtis's results as he made the cut more consistently and recorded two wins: the Booz Allen Classic and the 84 Lumber Classic. His consistent form continued into 2007 and he tied for 8th place at that year's British Open in Carnoustie, his best result in a major since winning the tournament.

2008 was Curtis's most consistent season to date, recording five top ten finishes and missing only four cuts all year. He bettered his British Open result from the previous year by finishing in a tie for 7th at Royal Birkdale and followed it up a month later by finishing tied for 2nd place in the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. This second place finish qualified him for the 2008 Ryder Cup, his first appearance in the event.

Curtis's consistent form continued into 2009, with only three missed cuts in 18 PGA Tour events that year. However, despite this statistic he only managed one top 20 finish and ended the year outside the top 100 in the money list, but he did achieve two top ten finishes on the European Tour. At the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry, Curtis shot a 65 to tie for second after the first round, but a second round 80 meant that he missed the cut by one shot.