The US OPEN

The first us Open was played at Newport, Rhode Island in 1895. It was won by H. J. Rawlins. Winners in the early years of the championship included Willie Anderson, who won four times between 1901 and 1905, and is the only person ever to have won the tournament on three successive occasions. John McDermott was the first "home-grown" American to win in 1911. Before that, all the winners had been expatriate Scots who made their living teaching golf in the USA. McDermott's back-to-back victories were followed by the sensational triumph of Francis Ouimet whose victory over Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in a play-off in 1913 did so much to popularize golf in the USA. The US Open is a difficult tournament to win. Apart from Anderson, the only players to have won the title on four occasions have been Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan while Jones, Snead, Palmer and Nicklaus have all been second four times.

Bobby Jones, in 1929 and 1930, Ralph Guhldahl, 1937 and 1938, Ben Hogan, 1950 and 1951, and Curtis Strange, 1988 and 1989, have all won two years in succession. There have been five amateur winners: Bobby  Jones, Francis Ouimet, Chick Evans, Jerome Travers and Johnny Goodman andJack Nicklaus finished second as an amateur to Arnold Palmer in 1960.

In the last 20 years, apart from Curtis Strange, only Andy North has won the title twice and he has won only three tournaments in all on the USPGA circuit.

The tournament is almost always won by an American. Harry Vardon in 1900, Ted Ray in 1920 and Tony Jacklin in 1970, have been the only British winners, though Faldo lost a play-off with Curtis Strange in 1988 and was third in 1990 and fourth in 1992, and Colin Montgomerie also lost a play-off in 1994 and was third in 1992. The South Africans, Gary Player and Ernie Els, won in 1965 and 1994 respectively, and David Graham has been the sole Australian winner, in 1981.