Top 10 US Opens

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

9. Armour's Battling Win (1927)

Tommy Armour shakes the hand of Harry "Lighthorse" Cooper following his triumph in 1927Oakmont in 1927 was brutal; the first example of what we would today call a classic US Open course. It had it all: the slick greens, the 300 bunkers, and especially the nightmarish rough. The course gave up only a single round under par over the five days of play when Tommy Armour scored a stunning 71 in the second round. Only one man had seemingly held himself together consistently, Harry “Lighthorse” Cooper who had finished with a total of 301. Out on the course, coming off a double bogey at the longest hole in US Open history at the time, the interminable 621 yard twelfth (still the sixth longest ever), Armour stood on the thirteenth tee knowing he needed to play the last six holes in one under to match Cooper. He also knew that the previous day, reigning US Open champion Bobby Jones had stood on the same tee with a share of the lead and then played the next four holes in seven-over par to watch his title slip away.

Armour started grinding, scoring par after par for the next five holes, until he stood on the eighteenth needing a birdie to tie. Unbelievably, he hit his drive 250 yards down the middle (which was enormous for the time), and then knocked in a three-iron to eleven feet. With the boisterous crowd willing him on, he stroked in the birdie to force an eighteen-hole play-off. For some reason the huge crowd had taken a dislike to Cooper. It was felt that the locals appreciated Armour’s humility, whereas Cooper was seen as brash and was nicknamed, “Cocksure Cooper” and “Chesty Harry”, whereas Armour was a deliberate player. In the event the Tortoise and Hare tale played out perfectly, with Cooper racing to a two-shot lead after eleven holes, only to take twenty-seven shots on the final six holes as Armour again played brilliantly to play the same stretch in twenty-two strokes and win by three, holing enormous putts along the way. Oakmont had served up another classic!

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