US Open Golf HistoryAt the time the US Open Championship was considered secondary to the US Amateur Open, which was also taking place at the same nine-hole Newport course that week. Horace Rawlins, an Englishman who had arrived in the U.S. earlier that year to take up a position at the Newport club, was the eventual winner. The winners prize was $150 dollars from a total prize fund of $325, plus a gold medal. The winners trophy, The Open Championship Cup, was presented to the winners’ home club, by the USGA.
The early years of US Open Golf history was dominated by British golfers. Willie Anderson, from Scotland, won the event three years in a row from 1903 to 1905. It was not until 1911 that John J. McDermott became the first American to win the event. That victory popularised the event which then became dominated by American golfers. Since that first American victory in 1911, the event has been won by a non-American golfer on only 11 occasions. See the US Open Championship results page for a full listing. The US Open Championship is open to any golf professional, or to any amateur with an up-to-date USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 1.4. The field is usually made up of 156 players. Players may obtain a place by being fully exempt or by competing successfully in the various qualifying competitions.
Around half of the field is made up of players who are fully exempt from qualifying. Entrants who are not part of this group must pre-qualify. Local Qualifying, which is played over 18 holes at over 100 courses around the United States is the first qualifying stage. Many of the top players are exempt from this first stage. Approximately 750 entrants, including those exempt from Local Qualifying, are eligible for Sectional Qualifying Rounds which are played over 36 holes at several sites in the U.S. and one each in Europe and Japan. The final field of 156 players is comprised of place-winners in the Sectional Qualifying Rounds and those exempt as listed above. Results of previous US Open Championships from its inception in 1865, until the present day, can be viewed at
US Open Results & Statistics
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