US Open

The US Open Championship is the annual open golf tournament of the United States, the second of four major championships in golf, and an event on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, with the current champion Justin Rose taking the title at the Merion Golf Course in Pennsylvania. 

The first US Open was played on October 4th in 1895, on a nine-hole course at the Newport Country Club, Rhode Island. It was a 36-hole competition and was played in a single day. Ten professionals and one amateur entered, with 21-year-old Englishman Horace Rawlins winning the inaugural tournament, earning $150 cash out of a prize fund of $335, plus a $50 gold medal.

Whilst it was the British who dominated the tournament in the early years, in 1911 John J. McDermott became the first native-born American winner of the US Open, opening the door for American players to begin regularly beating their British rivals and winning the tournament. Since 1950, players from only six countries other than the United States have won the tournament, most successfully South Africa, which has boasted winners on five occasions since 1965. 

A streak of four consecutive non-American winners occurred from 2004 to 2007 for the first time since 1910. These four players were South African Retief Goosen (2004), New Zealander Michael Campbell (2005), Australian Geoff Ogilvy (2006) and Argentine Ángel Cabrera (2007). Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell (2010) became the first European player to win the event since Tony Jacklin of England in 1970, with Justin Rose becoming the first Englishman to win for 33 years. 

The US Open is staged at a variety of courses, set up in such a way that scoring is very difficult, with much of the focus placed on accurate but powerful driving. US Open courses are often characterised by tight scoring throughout the weekend, with the winner usually taking victory with an average score of around even par. Normally, an Open course is quite long and will have a high cut of primary and unforgiving greens. 

Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus tie for the record of most US Open victories, with four victories each, while Hale Irwin remains the tournament's oldest winner following his victory in 1990 at 45 years and 15 days old. The youngest winner of the US Open is 1911 champion, John McDermott, who lifted the trophy at just 19 years, 10 months and 14 days in 1911. 

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