Quiz! Can You Name Every U.S. Open Winner This Century?

In this quiz we consider golf’s U.S. Open. You may have had a go at naming the Open winners of the 21st Century or winners of the Masters Tournament since 2000. Here, we’ll give four minutes to try and name every U.S. Open champion of the 21st century. Good luck.

If you enjoyed that quiz try to name:
Every Open Championship winner this century
Every Masters Tournament winner this century
Every Ryder Cup venue since 1980

It’s widely regarded that the U.S. Open presents the most exacting test in professional golf. Characterised by long rough, narrow fairways and terrifyingly fast greens, the tournament delivers a complete mental and physical examination. The winner must display consummate skill, great resolve and unflinching patience.

The first U.S. Open was held at Newport Country Club on Rhode Island the day after the inaugural US Amateur Championship was contested over the same course. There were 11 entrants and the winner was an Englishman named Horace Rawlins. He had recently taken a post as professional at the host club.

Golf was just emerging as a sport in the USA at the end of the 19th Century and more experienced players hailing from the British Isles dominated the tournament in its early years, indeed they won the first 16 championships. Willie Anderson was the most successful of the British emigrants claiming four titles in total and three consecutively between 1903 and 1905.

John McDermott was the first native-born American to win the US Open in 1911 and, from that point, the USA barely looked back. Home players captured all but four of the next 47 championships. In fact, when Gary Player of South Africa won the 1965 US Open at Bellerive, he ended a run of 33 straight American victories.

 Bobby Jones was four times a champion in the space of just eight years from 1923 to 1930. Ben Hogan topped that by capturing four titles in just six years from 1948 to 1953. Jack Nicklaus is the only other player to win four US Opens. His victories were spread over 19 seasons from 1962 to 1980. The first of those came at Oakmont in Jack’s rookie season on the PGA Tour. Just 22, Nicklaus defeated crowd favourite Arnold Palmer in a Sunday playoff.

 Like all great championships, there have been some notable US Open upsets over the years. In 1913 a 20-year-old local amateur named Francis Ouimet defeated the formidable British duo of Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff at Brookline Country Club. His improbable victory planted golf firmly in the American conscience. In 1955 municipal golf course professional Jack Fleck came from nowhere to tie the great Ben Hogan after 72 holes at The Olympic Club. Fleck went on to beat the four-time champion by three shots in the next day’s playoff. It ranks as one of the most unexpected results in sporting history.

Although American players continued to dominate through the latter part of the 20th century, a more eclectic selection of nations have enjoyed US Open glory in the 21st century as, hopefully, you will have noted in the quiz!