20 fun U.S. Open facts
1. With the addition of sectional qualifying tournaments in England and Japan, last year was the first time that participants could qualify for the U.S. Open without entering the country. It didn't take long for the rule to have a major impact — 2005 champion Michael Campbell was one of nine players to qualify from the England site. "It's highly unlikely he would have traveled all the way to the States for a qualifier," said USGA executive director David Fay in an e-mail to the Honolulu Advertiser.
2. Not everyone needs to qualify for the U.S. Open through local or sectional tournaments — there are 17 ways to earn an exemption. Some are obvious — the 10 previous U.S. Open winners and anyone who has won a major title in the past five years; the 15 lowest scores (and ties) from the previous U.S. Open, the top 30 on last year's money list and the top 50 in the world rankings. Also exempt are the top two money makers on the Japan Golf Tour and the PGA Tour of Australasia.
3. Who wants to be a millionaire? Anyone who wins the U.S. Open automatically qualifies. Michael Campbell earned $1,170,000 for his upset win last year, up from the $1,125,000 Retief Goosen won in 2004. How does this compare to other sports? Last year's U.S. Open tennis champions earned $1,100,000, though the most recent World Series of Poker champion collected $7,500,000.
4. The U.S. Open comes from rather inauspicious beginnings. The first tournament in 1895 was played on a nine-hole course at Newport (R.I.) Golf and Country Club, and was pushed back a month because of a scheduling conflict with the America's Cup yachting races. There were 11 entrants and it was held in just one day — golfers went around the Newport course four times in a row. Horace Rawlins was the winner.
5. Back-to-back wins by international golfers the last two years harkens back to the tournament's roots. No native-born American won the title in the first 16 years of the U.S. Open's existence. It wasn't until John J. McDermott of Atlantic City won a three-way playoff in 1911 that the streak was broken. McDermott successfully defended his title the next year, when he officially became the first player to break par over 72 holes.
6. While Michael Campbell's win last year was certainly shocking (it was his first PGA Tour victory), nothing compares with the feat pulled off by amateur Francis Ouimet in 1913. Ouimet, a 20-year-old playing on the same Brookline, Mass., course where he had caddied, defeated respected English professionals Ted Ray and Harry Varden in a playoff in his first U.S. Open. Ouimet never turned professional, but that upset was popularized by the recent Disney movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played."
7. The greatest fourth-round comeback was pulled off by Arnold Palmer, who overcame a seven-stroke deficit to win by two over Jack Nicklaus in 1960. Palmer's final-round 65 was illustrated by his tee shot on the par-4 first, when he hit his drive almost 300 yards to the green and made the first of four straight birdies. Incidentally, Palmer also won the Masters that year by birdieing the final two holes to beat Ken Venturi by a stroke.
8. Though Nicklaus was two shots behind Palmer in 1960, his score of 282 was the lowest 72-hole score posted by an amateur, and the best finish by an amateur in more than 50 years (the next-best was James Simons, who shot a 283 and tied for fifth in 1971). The last of five amateur winners was John Goodman in 1933, who followed in the footsteps of the Francis Ouimet, Jerome D. Travers, Charles Evans Jr., and the most famous of all, four-time champion Bobby Jones.
9. Four players have won four U.S. Open titles — Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Willie Anderson, a former pro at the Apawamis Club in Rye. Anderson, who won his four titles in a five-year span (1901, 1903-05), won the last three playing under the Apawamis name. He later won the club championship there six times from 1911-20. When Anderson was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, former Apawamis caddie Gene Sarazen gave the speech.
10. Anderson isn't the only local product to win the Open. Johnny Farrell — who won the 1928 title by one stroke in a 36-hole playoff against Bobby Jones — was the head pro at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale from 1919-30. Farrell won seven tournaments in a row in 1927, a streak that slots him between Byron Nelson's 11 straight titles in 1945 and Ben Hogan's six straight in 1948.
11. The most consistent play in a victory belongs to Lee Janzen, who in 1993 became the only golfer to shoot under 70 in all four rounds at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. Janzen's total of 272 included two 67s and two 69s, leaving him 8-under. Janzen's tally was also the lowest score in U.S. Open history, a mark that ties him with Jack Nicklaus in 1980 (also at Baltusrol), Tiger Woods in 2000 and Jim Furyk in 2003.
12. The 2002 tournament at Bethpage State Park in Long Island was historic for two reasons — it was the first time the U.S. Open was held on a public-owned facility, and it was the first time a two-tee start was used in the first two rounds. Fred Ridley, the championship committee chairman at the time, said the two-tee start would add two more hours of daylight and allow for flexibility in case of bad weather.
13. Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus are most celebrated for their four U.S. Open titles, tied for the most all-time. But Jones and Nicklaus are also tied for the most runner-up finishes, also with four. While they would most likely not be happy with that honor (Nicklaus, after posting the lowest-ever score by an amateur in 1960, said: "Nobody ever remembers who finished second at anything"), they certainly have good company — Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer were also four-time runners-up.
14. It's hard to believe that the 1896 U.S. Open was played on a Shinnecock Hills course that measured only 4,423 yards. That was practically the distance of just the front nine on the 7,214-yard Black Course at Bethpage State Park, where the 2002 event was played. A year before, golfers faced the longest hole, the 642-yard No. 5 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
15. The worst hole ever played belongs to Ray Ainsley. It started when he sent his ball into a creek on the par-4 16th at Cherry Hills in 1938. It's unclear whether he was stubborn, or just unaware of the drop rule — in any case, he kept swinging at the ball while it floated down the stream, and by the time his ball was safely in the hole, he had posted a 19, the highest score ever in the tournament.
16. The back-to-back wins by South Africa's Retief Goosen and New Zealand's Michael Campbell made 2004-05 the first time since 1924-25 that international champions won consecutive Opens. International players won 21 times from 1895-1927, but only eight times since (five times by South Africans Gary Player, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen). While Scottish golfers won 12 times in the first 16 years, they haven't won since Tommy Armour in 1927.
17. As unlikely a champion as Michael Campbell was (he hadn't won a tournament in three years before earning the 2005 Open title), don't count on him replicating his feat. The last player to successfully defend his championship was Curtis Strange in 1989 at the age of 34. Remarkably, Strange never won another PGA tournament. On the other hand, the last winner to miss the cut the following year was Retief Goosen in 2002.
18. The best career comeback story might belong to Steve Jones. After suffering ligament and joint damage to his left ring finger due to a 1991 dirt-bike accident, Jones took almost three years off and needed to go through sectional qualifying to compete in the 1996 U.S. Open. He made it through and eventually won the title by a stroke over Tom Lehman and Davis Love III, becoming the first winner to come through sectional qualifying since Jerry Pate in 1976.
19. The least competitive finish came in 2000, when Tiger Woods won by 15 strokes with a 12-under 272 at Pebble Beach. (The previous record for a major championship belonged to Old Tom Morris, who won the 1862 British Open by 13 strokes.) Two years later, Woods also became the first champion to lead from start to finish, without even being tied after any round, though when it was over he had defeated Phil Mickelson by only three shots
20. It isn't exactly "Dewey Defeats Truman," but NBC signed off on its one-hour coverage in 1955 by announcing that Ben Hogan had won his fifth U.S. Open title. It would have been a record, and it was the result everyone was expecting, since the only other contender was unknown club pro Jack Fleck. But Fleck, using clubs made by the Ben Hogan Golf Company, birdied 18 to force a playoff, and then defeated Hogan 69-72 the next day to complete the monumental upset.
2. Not everyone needs to qualify for the U.S. Open through local or sectional tournaments — there are 17 ways to earn an exemption. Some are obvious — the 10 previous U.S. Open winners and anyone who has won a major title in the past five years; the 15 lowest scores (and ties) from the previous U.S. Open, the top 30 on last year's money list and the top 50 in the world rankings. Also exempt are the top two money makers on the Japan Golf Tour and the PGA Tour of Australasia.
3. Who wants to be a millionaire? Anyone who wins the U.S. Open automatically qualifies. Michael Campbell earned $1,170,000 for his upset win last year, up from the $1,125,000 Retief Goosen won in 2004. How does this compare to other sports? Last year's U.S. Open tennis champions earned $1,100,000, though the most recent World Series of Poker champion collected $7,500,000.
4. The U.S. Open comes from rather inauspicious beginnings. The first tournament in 1895 was played on a nine-hole course at Newport (R.I.) Golf and Country Club, and was pushed back a month because of a scheduling conflict with the America's Cup yachting races. There were 11 entrants and it was held in just one day — golfers went around the Newport course four times in a row. Horace Rawlins was the winner.
5. Back-to-back wins by international golfers the last two years harkens back to the tournament's roots. No native-born American won the title in the first 16 years of the U.S. Open's existence. It wasn't until John J. McDermott of Atlantic City won a three-way playoff in 1911 that the streak was broken. McDermott successfully defended his title the next year, when he officially became the first player to break par over 72 holes.
6. While Michael Campbell's win last year was certainly shocking (it was his first PGA Tour victory), nothing compares with the feat pulled off by amateur Francis Ouimet in 1913. Ouimet, a 20-year-old playing on the same Brookline, Mass., course where he had caddied, defeated respected English professionals Ted Ray and Harry Varden in a playoff in his first U.S. Open. Ouimet never turned professional, but that upset was popularized by the recent Disney movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played."
7. The greatest fourth-round comeback was pulled off by Arnold Palmer, who overcame a seven-stroke deficit to win by two over Jack Nicklaus in 1960. Palmer's final-round 65 was illustrated by his tee shot on the par-4 first, when he hit his drive almost 300 yards to the green and made the first of four straight birdies. Incidentally, Palmer also won the Masters that year by birdieing the final two holes to beat Ken Venturi by a stroke.
8. Though Nicklaus was two shots behind Palmer in 1960, his score of 282 was the lowest 72-hole score posted by an amateur, and the best finish by an amateur in more than 50 years (the next-best was James Simons, who shot a 283 and tied for fifth in 1971). The last of five amateur winners was John Goodman in 1933, who followed in the footsteps of the Francis Ouimet, Jerome D. Travers, Charles Evans Jr., and the most famous of all, four-time champion Bobby Jones.
9. Four players have won four U.S. Open titles — Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Willie Anderson, a former pro at the Apawamis Club in Rye. Anderson, who won his four titles in a five-year span (1901, 1903-05), won the last three playing under the Apawamis name. He later won the club championship there six times from 1911-20. When Anderson was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, former Apawamis caddie Gene Sarazen gave the speech.
10. Anderson isn't the only local product to win the Open. Johnny Farrell — who won the 1928 title by one stroke in a 36-hole playoff against Bobby Jones — was the head pro at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale from 1919-30. Farrell won seven tournaments in a row in 1927, a streak that slots him between Byron Nelson's 11 straight titles in 1945 and Ben Hogan's six straight in 1948.
11. The most consistent play in a victory belongs to Lee Janzen, who in 1993 became the only golfer to shoot under 70 in all four rounds at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. Janzen's total of 272 included two 67s and two 69s, leaving him 8-under. Janzen's tally was also the lowest score in U.S. Open history, a mark that ties him with Jack Nicklaus in 1980 (also at Baltusrol), Tiger Woods in 2000 and Jim Furyk in 2003.
12. The 2002 tournament at Bethpage State Park in Long Island was historic for two reasons — it was the first time the U.S. Open was held on a public-owned facility, and it was the first time a two-tee start was used in the first two rounds. Fred Ridley, the championship committee chairman at the time, said the two-tee start would add two more hours of daylight and allow for flexibility in case of bad weather.
13. Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus are most celebrated for their four U.S. Open titles, tied for the most all-time. But Jones and Nicklaus are also tied for the most runner-up finishes, also with four. While they would most likely not be happy with that honor (Nicklaus, after posting the lowest-ever score by an amateur in 1960, said: "Nobody ever remembers who finished second at anything"), they certainly have good company — Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer were also four-time runners-up.
14. It's hard to believe that the 1896 U.S. Open was played on a Shinnecock Hills course that measured only 4,423 yards. That was practically the distance of just the front nine on the 7,214-yard Black Course at Bethpage State Park, where the 2002 event was played. A year before, golfers faced the longest hole, the 642-yard No. 5 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
15. The worst hole ever played belongs to Ray Ainsley. It started when he sent his ball into a creek on the par-4 16th at Cherry Hills in 1938. It's unclear whether he was stubborn, or just unaware of the drop rule — in any case, he kept swinging at the ball while it floated down the stream, and by the time his ball was safely in the hole, he had posted a 19, the highest score ever in the tournament.
16. The back-to-back wins by South Africa's Retief Goosen and New Zealand's Michael Campbell made 2004-05 the first time since 1924-25 that international champions won consecutive Opens. International players won 21 times from 1895-1927, but only eight times since (five times by South Africans Gary Player, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen). While Scottish golfers won 12 times in the first 16 years, they haven't won since Tommy Armour in 1927.
17. As unlikely a champion as Michael Campbell was (he hadn't won a tournament in three years before earning the 2005 Open title), don't count on him replicating his feat. The last player to successfully defend his championship was Curtis Strange in 1989 at the age of 34. Remarkably, Strange never won another PGA tournament. On the other hand, the last winner to miss the cut the following year was Retief Goosen in 2002.
18. The best career comeback story might belong to Steve Jones. After suffering ligament and joint damage to his left ring finger due to a 1991 dirt-bike accident, Jones took almost three years off and needed to go through sectional qualifying to compete in the 1996 U.S. Open. He made it through and eventually won the title by a stroke over Tom Lehman and Davis Love III, becoming the first winner to come through sectional qualifying since Jerry Pate in 1976.
19. The least competitive finish came in 2000, when Tiger Woods won by 15 strokes with a 12-under 272 at Pebble Beach. (The previous record for a major championship belonged to Old Tom Morris, who won the 1862 British Open by 13 strokes.) Two years later, Woods also became the first champion to lead from start to finish, without even being tied after any round, though when it was over he had defeated Phil Mickelson by only three shots
20. It isn't exactly "Dewey Defeats Truman," but NBC signed off on its one-hour coverage in 1955 by announcing that Ben Hogan had won his fifth U.S. Open title. It would have been a record, and it was the result everyone was expecting, since the only other contender was unknown club pro Jack Fleck. But Fleck, using clubs made by the Ben Hogan Golf Company, birdied 18 to force a playoff, and then defeated Hogan 69-72 the next day to complete the monumental upset.
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