GULLANE, Scotland — When Todd Hamilton introduced himself to mainstream golf with his shocking 2004 British Open victory at Royal Troon, it was supposed to be a beginning for him.
Who knew it would turn out to be the beginning of the end?
Look up the word "abyss" in the dictionary and you might find a picture of Hamilton with a listing of his dismal results since that life-altering win.
Since Hamilton's British Open triumph, his results have spiraled to such depths he lost his PGA Tour playing privileges and must rely on sponsor invitations and the dwindling exemptions remaining from his victory to get into tournaments.
AP
REMEMBER ME? Todd Hamilton, the surprise winner of the 2004 Open, has seen his career go downhill the past decade, but he fired a 2-under-par 69 yesterday.
Hamilton has played in only two PGA Tour events this year, missing the cut in both, and is playing most of his golf in whatever European Tour events he can get into.
This week's British Open at Muirfield is Hamilton's third PGA Tour event of the year and — as the Scottish locals like to say — he got off to a "cracking'' start with a 2-under-par 69 to stand three shots out of the lead held by Zach Johnson.
This is significant for Hamilton, considering he has missed six of the last eight British Open cuts (with a tie for 68th and 32nd mixed in) and is a cumulative 69-over par since he hoisted the Claret Jug nine years ago.
From 2005 to this week, Hamilton has made only 74 of 188 cuts in his PGA Tour career, with just 11 finishes in the Top 25 and only two Top 10s.
"I definitely thought my golfing career would have been better after that [win] than it was,'' Hamilton said. "Looking back, though, I had done a lot of good things overseas at places that people probably wouldn't know that golf even exists. I played a lot in Japan, I played a lot in Asia.
"So when I won the Open, I was kind of at the end. I was 38, so I was kind of at the end or close to the end of a decent career. I thought it was decent. I just didn't do it on the European Tour or U.S. Tour.''
Asked to reflect on the nine years since his career highlight, Hamilton made no attempt to sugarcoat his answer.
"Terrible,'' he said. "I try not to reflect on it. It's been trying. There's been days when I didn't want to play.''
Therein lies the rub. You will find few professional golfers who enjoy playing golf more than Hamilton, who has been known to play rounds with friends in his free time during tournament weeks.
He is a golf junkie.
"I just enjoy golf,'' Hamilton said. "Usually guys, when they take time off, they don't touch a club for weeks. If I go one, maybe two days without doing it, then I start to get angry and tense up and I've just got to get out and play golf — even if it's bad golf.''
Ron Levin, who caddied for Hamilton until 2007, said his theory about Hamilton's demise is he inadvertently burned himself out on the thing he loves the most — golf.
Hamilton won the 2004 Honda Classic, his first PGA Tour victory, and that qualified him for more events, including the major championships. Then he won the British, which opened more doors for him to play all over the world, and Hamilton soaked it all in and kept playing.
He became a poster child for that saying, "Sometimes the thing you love most will kill you.''
"I think it all turned into a blur for him — probably like an NFL quarterback having a game every week for 40 weeks when he's used to having a 16-week season,'' Levin said.
Levin said he believes Hamilton never fully recovered from the rush that followed his major championship breakthrough.
"That usually happens to guys when they are 25 or 30,'' Levin said. "It happened to Todd when he was 38, and I think it wore him down mentally.''
Hamilton attributes his struggles to a slow deterioration in confidence.
"This game is a lot of confidence,'' he said. "That's in any sport, really. You can watch a guy in the NBA one night go 10 for 11 and the next night he's 1 for 15. I've had a lot of 1 for 15s the last few years.''
Now, he has a special reason to want one more hot shooting week, and what better setting than this British Open, where he set himself up well with yesterday's start?
"I have two boys, 15 and 10, that play golf,'' Hamilton said. "And I'd like to show them that I can still play good golf.''
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