Who are the best players in the history of the U.S. Open golf tournament, those golfers who played the best over the years in the U.S. national championship? Here are our picks for the Top 5 U.S. Open players.
Counting them down to No. 1:
5. Hale Irwin
Hale Irwin has the reputation of a great golfer on tough courses. U.S. Open courses and setups are among the toughest, so it's no surprise that Irwin would win the U.S. Open. In fact, he won it three times.
Irwin's wins came in 1974, 1979 and 1990. In 1990, he became the oldest U.S. Open champion at age 45 years and 15 days. His 1974 victory came at what is now called "The Massacre at Winged Foot," because of the daunting course setup. Irwin's winning total that year was 7-over-par.
Surprisingly, outside of his three wins Irwins finished in the Top 10 at U.S. Opens only four other times. But three wins are three wins - and that's more than anyone else except the four golfers ahead of Irwin on this list. At one point Irwin had played in 32 consecutive U.S. Opens, the second-longest such streak.
4. Tiger Woods
Woods didn't win his first U.S. Open until his sixth try, but then he won by a record 15 strokes at Pebble Beach in 2000. He finished 12-under par that year, the best score in relation to par in tournament history.
Since then, Woods has won twice more and also posted two runner-up finishes, while finishing no worse than 20th.
His second win was at Bethpage Black in 2002, and third at Torrey Pines in 2008. That's where, it was later revealed, Woods was playing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a stress fracture in his leg. He later missed about eight months following surgery, but those problems didn't stop him from making a 72nd-hole birdie to force a playoff against Rocco Mediate, which he won the next day on the 19th extra hole.
3. Ben Hogan
Hogan's four U.S. Open wins came in 1948, 1950, 1951 and 1953. He actually won three in a row, too, in a certain manner: Hogan was unable to play the 1949 Open, so he won three in a row in which he appeared.
Hogan's record in the U.S. Open is remarkably good and remarkably consistent. After missing the cut in his first three Opens, and finishing 62nd in his next, he placed in the Top 5 at his next nine appearances. In 15 appearances over the span from 1940 to 1960, Hogan never finished outside the top 10.
In his 1948 victory, Hogan set a 72-hole scoring record (276) that stood for 19 years.
2. Jack Nicklaus
And Jack Nicklaus is the man who broke Hogan's scoring record, shooting 275 to win in 1967. In 1980, Nicklaus lowered the record to 272, which still stands (Lee Janzen and Tiger Woods have since tied the mark). Nicklaus' two other U.S. Open victories came in 1962 and 1972.
The Golden Bear finished second four more times and in the Top 5 11 times (both shared records). He holds the record alone for most Top 10 finishes - 18.
In 1960, Nicklaus set a record that still stands for low 72-hole total (282) for an amateur in the U.S. Open; he's also the second-oldest player to make the U.S. Open cut (age 58 in 1998). He shares the record for lowest 18-hole score (63 in 1980) and holds the record for most consecutive starts (44).
1. Bobby Jones
After reading Nicklaus' U.S. Open accomplishments, some might be wondering how anyone could best the Bear. But our pick for greatest U.S. Open golfer is Bobby Jones.
The great amateur played the U.S. Open 11 times. Eight of those times, he finished either first or second. Only once did he finish outside the Top 10, and that was an 11th-place showing.
Jones' four victories came in 1923, 1926, 1929 and 1930. He was runner-up in 1922, 1924, 1925 and 1928. Here are Bobby Jones' placements at each U.S. Open he played, from 1920 to 1930: 8, 5, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 11, 2, 1, 1.
That 11-year run of victories and near-victories ended only when Jones retired at age 28.
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