Top 10 US Opens

Golf list compiler extraordinaire Mak Lok-lin selects the most memorable editions of America's national championship

8. Ouimet's Amateur Hour (1913)

Ouimet is carried by the Brookline galleries following his win in 1913This was the Open which captured the US public’s imagination, the plucky young American Francis Ouimet against Britain’s best. The sad part was that three years previously, America had found her superstar, a prodigy called Johnny McDermott. He finished second in 1910, aged just eighteen, before winning a year later. He remains the youngest ever winner of the US Open, and was the first American to do so. However, he wasn’t an amateur and it seems that it was this which made Ouimet's 1913 Open victory so special. Ted Ray and Harry Vardon had been on an exhibition tour of the US beating all comers (although McDermott routed them in the final event before the Open) and it was felt that the championship was theirs for the taking. Ouimet was a twenty-year-old local champion when the US Open came to his local course at Brookline, having won the Massachusetts Amateur earlier in the year. What made the championship memorable wasn’t just that he matched the legendary pros over the four rounds, it was that despite being a massive underdog for the play-off, he played brilliantly to defeat them mano-a-mano. Also helping the narrative along was the extraordinary presence of ten-year-old Eddie Lowery, Ouimet’s caddie. Ouimet never turned pro and had a superb amateur career, albeit slightly interrupted by the outrageous decision to strip him of his amateur status in 1916 because he was working in a sporting goods store. This caused a huge uproar at the time, which the USGA chose to ignore. After the war his status was quietly reinstated. In any era without Bobby Jones he would have been feted as the best amateur in the world. As it was, he went on to mentor players such as Gene Sarazen, and also became the first American to become Captain of the R&A.

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