Golf Tours - PGA Tour - US Open
The United States Open Championship is an
annual men's golf tournament staged by the United States Golf
Association each June. It is one of the four major championships in
men's golf and is on the official schedule of both the PGA TOUR and the
PGA European Tour. The U.S. Open is staged at a variety of courses, and
they are usually set up in such a way that low scoring is very difficult
and there is a premium on accurate driving.
History
The first U.S. Open Men's Championship was played on October 4, 1895 on
a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island. It was a thirty six hole
competition and was played in a single day. Ten professionals and one
amateur entered. The winner was a 21 year old Englishman called Horace
Rawlins who had arrived in the U.S. in January that year to take up a
position at the host club. He received $150 dollars out of a cash prize
fund of $325 plus a $50 dollar gold medal and for his club, the Open
Championship Cup, which was presented by the USGA.
In the beginning, the tournament was dominated by experienced British
players until 1911 when John J. McDermott became the first native-born
American winner. Very quickly American golfers began to win and the
tournament evolved to become one of the four majors.
Qualification and prizes
The U.S. Open is open to any professional, or to any amateur with an
up-to-date USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 1.4. The field is 156
players. Players may obtain a place by being fully exempt or by
competing successfully in Qualifying.
Around half of the field is made up of players who are fully exempt from
qualifying. There are seventeen full exemption categories, including
winners of the U.S. Open for the last ten years and the other three
majors for the last five years, the top 30 from the previous year's PGA
Tour money list, the top 15 from the previous year's European Tour money
list, and the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings as of two weeks
before the tournament. [1].
Would be competitors who are not fully exempt must enter the Qualifying
process, which has two stages. Firstly there is Local Qualifying, which
is played over 18 holes at over 100 courses around the United States.
Many leading players are exempt from this first stage [2], and they join
the successful local qualifiers at the Sectional Qualifying stage, which
is played over 36 holes at several sites in the U.S. and one each in
Europe and Japan.
The purse at the 2005 U.S. Open was $6,500,000, and the winner's share
was $1,170,000. In line with the other majors, winning the U.S. Open
gives a golfer several privileges which make his career much more
secure, if he is not already one of the elite of the sport. U.S. Open
champions are automatically invited to play in the other three majors
(The Masters, British Open and the PGA Championship) for the next five
years, and are exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Open itself for ten
years. They also receive membership on the PGA TOUR for the following
five seasons and invitations to THE PLAYERS Championship for five years.
The top fifteen finishers at the U.S. Open are fully exempt from
qualifying for the following year's Open, and the top eight are
automatically invited to the following season's Masters.
Records
Oldest champion: Hale Irwin in 1990 at 45 years, 0 months and 15 days.
Youngest champion: John McDermott in 1911 at 19 years, 10 months and 14
days.
Oldest player to make the cut: Sam Snead in 1973 at 61 years old. He
tied for 29th place.
Most consecutive victories: 3 by Willie Anderson 1903-1905.
Most consecutive opens started: 44 by Jack Nicklaus from 1957 to 2000.
Lowest score for 72 holes:
* 272: Jack Nicklaus (63-71-70-68) at Baltusrol Golf Club (Lower Course)
in 1980.
* 272: Lee Janzen (67-67-69-69) at Baltusrol Golf Club (Lower Course) in
1993.
* 272: Tiger Woods (65-69-71-67) at Pebble Beach Golf Links in 2000.
* 272: Jim Furyk (67-66-67-72) at Olympia Fields Country Club (North
Course) in 2003.
Most strokes under par for 72 holes: 12 under (272) by Tiger Woods at
Pebble Beach Golf Links in 2000.
Most frequent venues:
* 7 Opens: Baltusrol Golf Club; 1903, 1915, 1936, 1954, 1967, 1980 and
1993.
* 7 Opens: Oakmont Country Club: 1927, 1935, 1953, 1962, 1973, 1983 and
1994.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Open_%28golf%29
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