19th Hole

Top 10 hardest U.S. Opens

Published

5 years ago

Sep 16, 2020

The U.S. Open has been known as the toughest test in golf throughout the years, and ahead of this week’s championship from Winged Foot, we thought it’d be fun to take a look at the top 10 bloodbaths in the history of the event.

Over the last 70 years, the U.S. Open has thrown up several brutal tests that have made the best in the world look like mere mortals, so here are the top 10 hardest U.S. Opens from 1950 onwards in relation to the winning score to par.

Top 10 hardest U.S. Opens

10. 1975 U.S. Open

Course: Medinah CC

Winner: Lou Graham

Winning Score: +3

Cut Line: +6

Lou Graham would win his first and only major title at the 1975 U.S. Open, after defeating John Mahaffey in an 18-hole Monday playoff. Graham made four birdies in the playoff, and his level par round of 71 gave him the championship.

9. 1958 U.S. Open

Course: Southern Hills CC

Winner: Tommy Bolt

Winning Score: +3

Cut Line: +14

Tommy Bolt went wire-to-wire for his solo major victory at the 1958 U.S. Open. Bolt beat Gary Player by four strokes to win, in a championship where a +10 four day score was good enough for a top-4 finish.

8. 1954 U.S. Open

Course: Baltusrol GC

Winner: Ed Furgol

Winning Score: +4

Cut Line: +11

Ed Furgol came to Baltusrol in 1954 having missed the cut on his last four consecutive trips to the U.S. Open but would triumph in New Jersey by a margin of one stroke over Gene Littler. Furgol did not break par once on his way to victory at Baltusrol in 1954.

7. 2006 U.S. Open

Course: Winged Foot GC

Winner: Geoff Ogilvy

Winning Score: +5

Cut Line: +9

Australian Geoff Ogilvy was the last man standing at Winged Foot in 2006, managing to close with four straight pars to seal his maiden major title. Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie both double-bogeyed the final hole to miss out on a playoff by one stroke, with the former having only needed a par on the last to win the title outright.

6. 2007 U.S. Open

Course: Oakmont CC

Winner: Angel Cabrera

Winning Score: +5

Cut Line: +10

Angel Cabrera claimed his first of two major titles back in 2007 at Oakmont, and he did it the hard way by staring down Tiger Woods down the stretch on Sunday. The Argentine was the only player in the top-10 on Sunday to shoot under par (-1) for the final round.

5. 1950 U.S. Open

Course: Merion GC

Winner: Ben Hogan

Winning Score: +7

Cut Line: +9

Ben Hogan won his second of four U.S. Open titles at Merion GC in 1950 in an event that went to a three-man playoff finish. Hogan’s round of one under par gave him a comfortable victory in Sunday’s playoff, with his competitors Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio struggling to playoff rounds of three over and five over, respectively.

4. 1951 U.S. Open

Course: Oakland Hills CC

Winner: Ben Hogan

Winning Score: +7

Cut Line: +12

Hogan went back-to-back in 1951, and it was a winning score of +7 that was able to give him the victory without the need of a playoff this time. Hogan won by two strokes over Clayton Heafner, thanks to a final round of 67 – eclipsing his second-best score for the week by four strokes.

3. 1974 U.S. Open

Course: Winged Foot GC

Winner: Hale Irwin

Winning Score: +7

Cut Line: +13

Nicknamed ‘The Massacre at Winged Foot’, Hale Irwin survived the war of attrition in New York in 1974 to claim what would be the first of three major victories for the Missouri native. Irwin finished two strokes ahead of Forrest Fezler to win the title, in a year where not one single player broke even par during round one.

2. 1955 U.S. Open

Course: Olympic Club

Winner: Jack Fleck

Winning Score: +7

Cut Line: +15

In a massive upset, municipal course pro Jack Fleck won his only major title at the 1955 U.S. Open and he did so by defeating the great Ben Hogan in a playoff. Both Fleck and Hogan finished five strokes better than anyone else in regulation, and on Sunday’s playoff finish on the west coast, Flecks’s round of one-under-par was enough to secure his victory by a margin of three strokes.

1. 1963 U.S. Open

Course: Brookline

Winner: Julius Boros

Winning Score: +9

Cut Line: +10

Julius Boros’ +9 total gave him victory at the 1963 U.S. Open, prevailing in a three-man playoff against Jacky Cupit and Arnold Palmer. Boros shot 70 in the playoff to finish one stroke better off than Cupit to secure victory. His +9 four-round total is the highest winning score at the U.S. Open since World War II.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

Published

3 weeks ago

Aug 4, 2025

Gianni Magliocco

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish

— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Published

3 weeks ago

Aug 4, 2025

Gianni Magliocco

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Published

3 weeks ago

Aug 1, 2025

Gianni Magliocco

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.