Facts About the US Golf Open

Golf Monthly

16 facts on the annual open national championship of golf - The U.S. Open. It is the third of the four men's major golf championships, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour.

Transcript

00:00On the calendar as a major since 1895, the US Open is steeped in tradition and history.

00:06Known to some as the toughest of the four majors on the men's calendar,

00:09many of golf's greats have won this tournament. But how much do you know about the US Open?

00:14Well, buckle up because here are 16 things you may not know about the US Open.

00:21Each year, any amateur with a handicap index of 1.4 or lower can enter,

00:26with over 8,000 golfers attempting to qualify each year.

00:29There's over 100 local qualifying sites around the US, with 11 final qualifying events in total.

00:35A record 10,127 golfers entered in 2014.

00:40The first ever US Open took place in 1895,

00:44but it was actually considered the sideshow compared to the US amateur.

00:48In the first US Open, 11 golfers played four rounds at the nine-hole Newport Golf and Country Club,

00:54where 21-year-old Englishman Horace Rawlins became the inaugural US Open champion.

00:59It wasn't until 1912 when an American, John McDermott, first won the US Open.

01:05This was because the tournament was initially conducted mainly for the British wave of immigrant

01:09golf professionals coming to the United States.

01:12In 1954, the US Open was roped from tee to green and was televised across the nation for the first ever time.

01:18The tournament moved from 36 to 72 holes in 1898, but it wasn't until 1965 when it became four days of 18 holes.

01:28Previously, it had been two and three day formats.

01:30In 2002, Bethpage State Park's famous Black Course became the first ever public course to host a US Open.

01:38Tiger Woods won the event with Phil Mickelson coming second.

01:42In 2005, international qualifying for the US Open was introduced for the first time,

01:47and it was that year when Michael Campbell, who came through qualifying at Walton Heath in England,

01:52won the US Open at Pinehurst.

01:5417-year-old Bo Hosler became the youngest man to make the cut at the US Open since World War II in 2012,

02:01while 61-year-old Sam Sneed was the oldest player to make the cut back in 1973.

02:06Four men have won four US Opens.

02:09That includes Scotland's Willie Anderson and American's Robert Trent Jones Jr., Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus.

02:17Tiger Woods and Hale Irwin have won three US Opens each.

02:20Tiger Woods is the only man to have won the US Junior Amateur, the US Amateur and the US Open.

02:27The last person to win the US Open on their debut was American amateur Francis Wimay in 1913.

02:34He'd won an 18-hole playoff against Harry Varden and Ted Ray,

02:38after the three of them tied the 72-hole lead at 6 over par.

02:42It was a famous victory against the two Brits, who were strong favourites against the Americans.

02:47Wimay's win is credited for a huge boost in popularity of the game in the US.

02:52This battle at Brookline was made into the 2005 feature film, The Greatest Game Ever Played.

02:58The US Open is famed for being played on long and difficult golf courses.

03:02In 2007, Oakmont's par-3 eighth hole measured 300 yards, which is the longest par-3 in US Open history.

03:09The winner of that tournament, Angel Cabrera, finished at 6 over par for the tournament,

03:14one of the highest scores in recent history. On that note of high scores, the highest ever

03:19winning score at a US Open was 331 by Willie Anderson in 1901.

03:25Rory McIlroy set the tournament record score of 268 at Congressional.

03:29He also became the first ever golfer to reach 17 under par in the US Open and holds the record

03:35score to par of 16 under with Brooks Koepka, who managed his total in 2017 at Erwin Hills.

03:42JD Tucker set the unwanted record for the highest ever single-round score in a US Open.

03:47This was when he shot 157 at Myopia Hunt Club in 1898.

03:53Tiger Woods holds the record for the largest winning margin when he won the 2000 US Open

03:58at Pebble Beach by a whopping 15 strokes.

04:01The US Open is the only major Phil Mickelson hasn't won. He's been runner-up in this event

04:06on six occasions and if you were to ever win it, he'd complete Golf's Grand Slam of majors.

04:12So there you have it, 16 facts about the US Open, one of Golf's greatest events on the calendar.

04:19For more facts and stats on your favourite players and your favourite tournaments,

04:23you can visit the Tour section on the Golf Point 3 website.

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