U.S. Open (golf) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
U.S. Open

Tournament information
Established	1895
Organized by	United States Golf Association
Tour(s)	PGA Tour European Tour Japan Golf Tour
Format	Stroke play
Prize fund	$21,500,000
Month played	June
Tournament record score
Aggregate	268 Rory McIlroy (2011)
To par	−16 Rory McIlroy (2011) −16 Brooks Koepka (2017)
Current champion
J. J. Spaun

The United States Open Championship, usually just called the U.S. Open, is the national golf championship of the United States. It is one of the four most important tournaments in men's golf, known as the major championships. The U.S. Open is played every June and is run by the United States Golf Association (USGA).

The tournament is a 72-hole stroke play event. This means each golfer plays four rounds on an 18-hole course, for a total of 72 holes. The player who takes the fewest shots (strokes) to complete all the holes is the winner.

The U.S. Open is famous for being extremely difficult. The USGA sets up the courses to be very challenging, so hitting the ball straight and accurately is extra important. Winning the U.S. Open is a huge achievement and comes with a big prize. In 2024, the total prize money was $21.5 million, the most of any major.

History of the U.S. Open

The First Tournament

The very first U.S. Open was held on October 4, 1895, at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island. It was a short tournament, with only 36 holes played in a single day. Eleven golfers—ten professionals and one amateur—played in it.

The winner was Horace Rawlins, a 21-year-old from England. He had just moved to the U.S. that year to work at the club hosting the tournament. For his victory, he won $150, a gold medal, and a trophy for his club.

American Golfers Rise to the Top

For the first several years, the U.S. Open was won by skilled British golfers. That changed in 1911 when John J. McDermott became the first American-born player to win. After his victory, American golfers started winning the tournament much more often.

The U.S. Open Trophy is one of the most famous prizes in golf.

Since 1911, most winners have been from the United States. However, great players from other countries have also won. Golfers from South Africa, Australia, Spain, and Northern Ireland have all lifted the trophy. The tournament truly brings together the best players from around the world.

The Challenge of a U.S. Open Course

Why is the U.S. Open known as golf's toughest test? The USGA prepares the golf course each year to challenge the world's best players in specific ways.

• Long Courses: The courses are often very long, requiring powerful drives.
• Narrow Fairways: The area of short grass where you want your ball to land (the fairway) is made very narrow. If a player misses the fairway, their ball ends up in the rough.
• Thick Rough: The "rough" is the long, thick grass on the sides of the fairway. At the U.S. Open, it's so thick that it's very hard to hit a good shot out of it.
• Fast, Bumpy Greens: The greens, where the hole is, are made to be very fast and have tricky slopes. One commentator, Johnny Miller, once said putting on the greens at Pinehurst Resort was like "trying to hit a ball on top of a VW Beetle."

Because the courses are so hard, winning scores are often close to par (the expected score for a hole or round). Sometimes, the winner even finishes with a score that is over par, which is rare in other professional tournaments.

How to Play in the U.S. Open

The U.S. Open is "open" because any professional golfer, or any amateur with a very low handicap, can try to qualify. There are 156 spots in the tournament. There are two ways to get one of those spots.

Exemptions

About half of the players get in automatically through an "exemption." This means they don't have to qualify because they have already achieved something great in golf. Some ways to be exempt include:

• Winning the U.S. Open in the last 10 years.
• Winning one of the other three majors (the Masters Tournament, The Open Championship, or the PGA Championship) in the last five years.
• Being one of the top 60 players in the Official World Golf Ranking.
• Winning the U.S. Amateur championship.

Qualifying

Golfers who are not exempt can try to earn a spot through a difficult two-stage qualifying process.

1. Local Qualifying: This is the first step, held at over 100 courses across the U.S. Thousands of golfers compete in an 18-hole round.
2. Final Qualifying: The players who succeed in local qualifying move on to the final stage. Here, they play 36 holes in a single day. These events are held in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

This tough process means that any golfer who makes it into the U.S. Open has truly earned their place.

Prizes and Perks of Winning

Winning the U.S. Open can change a golfer's life. Besides the large cash prize, the champion receives many other benefits.

• Major Invitations: The winner is automatically invited to play in the other three major championships for the next five years.
• U.S. Open Exemption: They are exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Open for the next 10 years.
• Tour Membership: The winner gets a five-year membership on the PGA Tour, the main professional golf tour in the U.S.

These perks provide job security and allow the champion to play in the biggest events without worrying about qualifying.

What Happens in a Tie?

If two or more players are tied at the end of 72 holes, a playoff is held to decide the winner.

Before 2018, a tie led to a full 18-hole playoff round on the next day (Monday). If the players were still tied after that, they would play a "sudden-death" hole, where the first player to win a hole wins the tournament. This happened in 2008, when Tiger Woods famously beat Rocco Mediate on the first sudden-death hole after their 18-hole playoff.

Since 2018, the USGA has used a shorter format. Now, tied players compete in a two-hole aggregate playoff. Their scores from those two holes are added together, and the player with the lower score wins. If they are still tied, they go to sudden-death.

Recent Winners

Here is a list of the U.S. Open champions since the year 2000.

Year	Winner	Score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up	Winner's share ($)	Venue
2025	J. J. Spaun	279	–1	2 strokes	Robert MacIntyre	4,300,000	Oakmont
2024	Bryson DeChambeau (2)	274	−6	1 stroke	Rory McIlroy	4,300,000	Pinehurst Resort
2023	Wyndham Clark	270	−10	1 stroke	Rory McIlroy	3,600,000	Los Angeles Country Club
2022	Matt Fitzpatrick	274	−6	1 stroke	Scottie Scheffler Will Zalatoris	3,150,000	The Country Club
2021	Jon Rahm	278	−6	1 stroke	Louis Oosthuizen	2,250,000	Torrey Pines
2020	Bryson DeChambeau	274	−6	6 strokes	Matthew Wolff	2,250,000	Winged Foot
2019	Gary Woodland	271	−13	3 strokes	Brooks Koepka	2,250,000	Pebble Beach
2018	Brooks Koepka (2)	281	+1	1 stroke	Tommy Fleetwood	2,160,000	Shinnecock Hills
2017	Brooks Koepka	272	−16	4 strokes	Hideki Matsuyama Brian Harman	2,160,000	Erin Hills
2016	Dustin Johnson	276	−4	3 strokes	Jim Furyk Shane Lowry Scott Piercy	1,800,000	Oakmont
2015	Jordan Spieth	275	−5	1 stroke	Dustin Johnson Louis Oosthuizen	1,800,000	Chambers Bay
2014	Martin Kaymer	271	−9	8 strokes	Erik Compton Rickie Fowler	1,620,000	Pinehurst Resort
2013	Justin Rose	281	+1	2 strokes	Jason Day Phil Mickelson	1,440,000	Merion
2012	Webb Simpson	281	+1	1 stroke	Graeme McDowell Michael Thompson	1,440,000	Olympic Club
2011	Rory McIlroy	268	−16	8 strokes	Jason Day	1,440,000	Congressional
2010	Graeme McDowell	284	E	1 stroke	Grégory Havret	1,350,000	Pebble Beach
2009	Lucas Glover	276	−4	2 strokes	Ricky Barnes David Duval Phil Mickelson	1,350,000	Bethpage State Park
2008	Tiger Woods (3)	283	−1	Playoff	Rocco Mediate	1,350,000	Torrey Pines
2007	Ángel Cabrera	285	+5	1 stroke	Jim Furyk Tiger Woods	1,260,000	Oakmont
2006	Geoff Ogilvy	285	+5	1 stroke	Jim Furyk Phil Mickelson Colin Montgomerie	1,225,000	Winged Foot
2005	Michael Campbell	280	E	2 strokes	Tiger Woods	1,170,000	Pinehurst Resort
2004	Retief Goosen (2)	276	−4	2 strokes	Phil Mickelson	1,125,000	Shinnecock Hills
2003	Jim Furyk	272	−8	3 strokes	Stephen Leaney	1,080,000	Olympia Fields
2002	Tiger Woods (2)	277	−3	3 strokes	Phil Mickelson	1,000,000	Bethpage State Park
2001	Retief Goosen	276	−4	Playoff	Mark Brooks	900,000	Southern Hills
2000	Tiger Woods	272	−12	15 strokes	Ernie Els Miguel Ángel Jiménez	800,000	Pebble Beach

Tournament Records

• Most Wins: 4 wins, by Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus.
• Most Consecutive Wins: 3 wins in a row by Willie Anderson (1903–1905).
• Oldest Champion: Hale Irwin in 1990, who was 45 years old.
• Youngest Champion: John McDermott in 1911, who was 19 years old.
• Largest Margin of Victory: 15 strokes by Tiger Woods in 2000. This is a record for all major championships.
• Lowest 72-Hole Score: 268 strokes by Rory McIlroy in 2011.
• Lowest Score to Par: 16-under-par, by Rory McIlroy in 2011 and Brooks Koepka in 2017.
• Lowest 18-Hole Score: 62 strokes, by Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele in the first round in 2023.
• Most Runner-Up Finishes: 6 times by Phil Mickelson.

Future U.S. Open Sites

See also

In Spanish: Abierto de Estados Unidos (golf) para niños

• Golf in the United States