The men's individual recurve competition at the 2003 World Archery Championships took place in July 2003 in New York City, United States. 174 archers entered the competition. Following a qualifying 144 arrow FITA round, the top 64 archers qualified for the 6-round knockout tournament, drawn according to their qualification round scores. The semi-finals and finals then took place on 20 July. Despite Korean archers dominating the qualification tournament, Italian Michele Frangilli was victorious, becoming the first non-Korean winner of the men's individual recurve tournament since 1991.