Here's How a 2022 U.S. Open Playoff Would Be Decided at The Country Club

The Country Club has hosted three U.S. Opens before this year — and all were decided in playoffs. But the format has changed since.

BROOKLINE, Mass. — Gone are the days of U.S. Open playoffs requiring competitors to come back on Monday for another 18 holes, or more.

If today's U.S. Open at The Country Club goes to a playoff, the format will be a two-hole aggregate on the 1st and 18th holes, where the total score on the two holes determines the champion. Should players be tied after that, sudden death will be played on the 1st and 18th until a winner is determined. Both holes are par 4s.

The format was changed in 2018 but the U.S. Open hasn't needed it yet; the last U.S. Open playoff was the famous Tiger Woods vs. Rocco Mediate battle in 2008 at Pebble Beach. Woods won in sudden death on the 91st hole of the event after the 18-hole playoff was tied at even par.

The Country Club has had playoffs in all of its three previous U.S. Opens. Curtis Strange defeated Nick Faldo in 1988 in an 18-hole playoff for the first of what would be two consecutive U.S. Open titles.

In 1963, Julius Boros defeated Arnold Palmer and Jacky Cupit in a three-man 18-hole playoff. And 50 years prior to that, in 1913, 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet beat top British pros Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in arguably the most famous golf playoff of all time.

The PGA Championship ended its 11-year playoff drought last month when Justin Thomas defeated Will Zalatoris in a three-hole aggregate. 

The British Open uses a three-hole aggregate playoff, changed in 2019 from the previous four-hole format, though it also has yet to be used. The last British Open playoff was at St. Andrews in 2015, won by Zach Johnson over Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen. This year marks the 150th Open Championship, returning to historic St. Andrews.

Of the four majors, the Masters Tournament is the lone sudden-death playoff holdout.