From a Phil Collapse to Nicklaus and Hogan Triumphs, Ranking the Best Northeast U.S. Opens
Some of the greatest United States Opens have been played in the Northeast.
But only some of them. Pebble Beach, Cherry Hills, Interlachen, Oakmont, Scioto and even Torrey Pines have also had blazing moments (oops — almost typed saddles!).
The U.S. Open goes back to The Country Club this week in Brookline, Massachusetts. So we’ll be forced to hear about the Celtics (suddenly as scrappy as Havlicek and Bird); how Tom Brady is the GOAT (yeah, at under-inflating footballs); how Paul Revere invented flatware and Ted Williams’ midnight ride to alert locals that the British were coming, or something like that. Oh, and joyless football coach Bill Belichick.
The Northeast is also home to old-school, classic golf tracks. The Country Club is one of them. You can tell by the generic name. Just ... The Country Club? What were the second and third choices for names? A Country Club? This Here Country Club?
Well, it doesn’t matter. What follows is The Ranking of the Best U.S. Opens Ever Played in the Northeast. Sure, the choices were “wicked hahd” to make but The Ranking stands behind them … at least until an out-of-court settlement can be reached.
10. The Real First Tee, 1895
If you invent the U.S. Open, you make the list. Even though the inaugural outing barely qualifies as an outing. Only eight players teed it up for a one-day tournament on Oct. 4 at Newport Golf Club in Rhode Island, the day after the big-deal U.S. Amateur finished. Horace Rawlins, an Englishman born in Shanklin (a better name than Whiffville) on the Isle of Wight (no relation to Fore, Wight!), fired a pair of astonishing 41s on the closing loops to edge Scotland’s Willie Dunn. Quite the thrill ride.
9. Phil’s Most Epic Phail, 2006
This Winged Foot Open is the modern gold standard for How Not to Finish. There were bad shots under pressure and Phil Mickelson immortalized his collapse by saying, “I am such an idiot.” No argument. Mickelson needed par on the 72nd hole to win but blocked his drive off a hospitality tent in the left trees of a Canadian forest and after some ill-advised shots made a double bogey that cost him a spot in a playoff with winner Geoff Ogilvy. Colin Montgomerie had a short iron into the final green, needing a par to win, and missed the green, chipped terribly and three-putted for double bogey. You can’t make this up. Jim Furyk and Padraig Harrington also fumbled opportunities with closing mistakes. Thus was the start of The Ogilvy Era … no, wait, that was his only major title and he was out of golf a dozen years later. This Open was the car wreck we couldn’t look away from.
8. The Foot Trips Jones, 1929
Sometimes, heroes stumble. Legendary amateur Bobby Jones was cruising at Winged Foot, holding a five-shot lead at the 15th tee. Then he nearly did a Jean Van de Velde 70 years before Van de Velde’s invention. Our Bobby triple-bogeyed the 15th and bogeyed 16. Al Espinosa — yes, The Al Espinosa but not the one ESPN is named for — birdied 16 and 17. Suddenly Jones stared at a 12-foot par putt just to get in a playoff. Of course, he used Calamity Jane to help (his putter) and poured it in. That’s what legends do. The 36-hole playoff was overkill. Jones won by 23. But this Open win was huge. If Jones blows this one, what if he decides to retire to practice law and gives up golf BEFORE he completes the Grand Slam in 1930?
7. The Snake Plissken Open, 1971
The most famous snake behind Cleopatra’s asp (hey, nice asp!) and Kurt Russell’s eye-patched Plissken role of “Escape From New York” (how did the Oscars overlook this?) may be the rubber snake Lee Trevino pulled out of his bag and playfully tossed at Jack Nicklaus on the first tee before their 18-hole playoff at Merion. It’s a myth that the snake rattled Nicklaus. He was in on the gag and went along with it to amuse fans. You want Opens with classic showdowns? Nicklaus versus Trevino is as good as it gets. Trevino shot 68 while Nicklaus beat himself, twice leaving bunker shots in the bunker and once laying the sod over a pitch shot. Trevino won six times in ’71, becoming the first to win a British, Canadian and U.S. Open in a year, and relaunched his Hall of Fame trajectory.
6. The Muny That Roared, 2002
The Open went to Bethpage State Park’s Black Course on Long Island, the first municipal course to host what was known as "The People’s Open." And the people almost got what they always wanted — Tiger versus Phil. Predictably, this Open may rank as the loudest in history. New York fans were vocal and because of stories about Mickelson still being oh-for-everything in major championships, adopted him as their sentimental favorite while also being in the throes of severe Tiger-mania.
The finish wasn’t exactly a Turnberry-like Duel In the Sun. Woods and Mickelson weren’t paired together and Woods took a four-shot lead into the final round, three-putted for bogeys on the first two holes but then shifted into grind mode and wasn’t truly challenged. Woods was the only player under par for 72 holes. Mickelson finished three strokes back as runner-up … again. This Open gave Woods eight major titles by age 26, a first. Also, any “Best of” golf list has to include Tiger. It’s a rule.
5. Willie or Won't He?, 1905
There’s no need to belabor the details of this duel at famed Myopia Hunt Club, just northeast of Boston, as we all remember it so well. Scottish immigrant Willie Anderson, coming off U.S. Open wins in 1903 and ’04, was going for a three-peat. Anderson was five shots off the lead after 36 holes but his closing 76-77 lifted him to a two-shot win over Alex Smith, a fellow Scot who would go on to capture the Open in ’06 and ’10. What puts Willie’s week on this list is that only Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Bobby Jones equaled his four career Open victories and his three straight Open championships remains a feat unmatched. Anderson died five years later at 31, either from epilepsy or heavy drinking, depending upon whether you believe the Encyclopedia Britannica or Yelp.
4. The Greatest Open That Wasn’t, 2004
The Associated Press wrapped it up best: “Retief Goosen didn’t get the cheers, just the U.S. Open trophy.” The final round of this Open at Shinnecock Hills was a mix of chaos, horror and thrills. The chaos and horror came from a final-round setup controversy in which Shinnecock’s greens were suddenly super-firm and un-puttably fast as early starters sent putts rolling off the greens. Some greens were watered mid-round to alleviate the issue. Phil Mickelson, a fan favorite in New York, made a back-nine surge with three birdies in four holes to take the lead.
This was going to be Arnold Palmer charging at Cherry Hills, except Goosen was unflappable with a display of clutch putting and remarkable saves. At the par-3 17th hole and tied for the lead, Mickelson found a greenside bunker, splashed out past the hole then raced his par putt past the cup and missed the return. He made double bogey and dropped two shots behind. That was it, Goosen parred the final hole and the fans, disappointed and still stunned by Mickelson’s disaster, filed out quietly as if leaving a funeral. Goosen, who’d won the 2001 Open in a playoff, had been best known for surviving a lightning strike when he was young. Now, he was the official buzzkill net of the 2004 Open.
3. A Jack and a King of Clubs, 1980
The Open at Baltusrol didn’t finish like a golf tournament. “More like the ending of a World Series or a Super Bowl,” Jack Nicklaus said later. The galleries broke through the ropes and surged toward the final green to see Nicklaus make history again and prove that at 40, he wasn’t washed up after going winless in ‘79. Nicklaus opened with a 63 and set an Open scoring record for every round, breaking his own record (also set at Baltusrol).”The first round was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me,” he said after collecting his fourth (and final) Open title. Including his U.S. Amateur win, this victory meant Nicklaus won major golf titles in four different decades, 1950s through 1980s. At the trophy ceremony, Nicklaus feted the Baltusrol fans’ enthusiasm. They responded by chanting, “Jack is back! Jack is back! Jack is back! ...”
2. Merion Becomes a Has-Ben, 1950
Car meets bus. Car loses. The car driver is golfing great Ben Hogan, who suffers a shattered pelvis, collarbone and more. Forget golf, would he ever walk again? Sixteen months after the accident, Hogan stunned America by leading the U.S. Open at Merion with four holes to play. He three-putted the 15th, bogeyed the 17th and needed par from the 18th fairway to get in a playoff. All Hogan did then was pure the most famous 1-iron shot in history — and create golf’s most famous photograph, courtesy of photographer Hy Peskin — and make his par. Doubters thought Hogan couldn’t walk 72 holes. He didn’t, he walked 90 holes, including the playoff, in which he shot 69 and dusted Lloyd Mangrum by four and George Fazio by six. It was the Miracle at Merion.
1. When Harry Ouimet Sally Francis, 1913
You couldn’t sell this script in Hollywood because it would be too hokey, if not unbelievable. A 20-year-old American amateur beats the two greatest golfers in the world at the course he grew up caddying on and lived across the street from. And, oh yeah, golf was still relatively new in the U.S. and only an elite few played it and an even fewer number knew anything about it. Meanwhile, golf was being played in its third different century in the United Kingdom, where the sport was invented. Wait, did I say “too hokey?” Sounds perfect for a sappy Disney movie in which they changed the facts and the actual scores — and that’s just what happened. But forget the movie version. When Francis Ouimet dunked on British golfing icons Harry Vardon and Ted Ray more than a century ago at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, it was such big international news that Americans couldn’t help but take notice. Golf was thus what, Mr. Springsteen? Correct — born in the U.S.A.
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