Author Description

When the United States Golf Association held the first national championships in October of 1895, at Newport Golf Club, the main event was the US Amateur, won by Charles B. Macdonald, a founder of the USGA. The Open was held the next day. It consisted of thirty-six holes--four times around Newport's nine-hole course. Eleven players entered, and the winner, Horace Rawlins, won $150 and a gold medal. From these modest beginnings the Open has become one of the great sporting events in the world, and the ultimate challenge in golf.In this new edition of The U.S. Open: Golf's Ultimate Challenge, veteran golf writer Robert Sommers provides the definitive history of this glorious event. Sommers follows the Open year by year--and often recounts historic rounds hole by hole--as he captures the drama of golf's greatest championship. Sommers provides memorable portraits of all the great players who have competed. We meet Willie Anderson, who dominated the Open at the turn of the century, winning four times in five years, and Francis Ouimet, the young American amateur who shocked the sports world by defeating the greatest player of the time, Harry Vardon, in a playoff for the 1913 Open. Sommers recounts how Walter Hagen, who had faded in the final round in 1913, almost quit golf for baseball, until a friend paid his way to the 1914 Open, which Hagen won. He describes Bobby Jones's close victory in the 1930 Open (helped by a controversial decision by referee Prescott Bush), the third leg of the famous Grand Slam, and he shows how Ben Hogan--still in pain from a terrible car accident almost 18 months earlier--survived a grueling Open at Merion, with both legs wrapped in bandages, to win in a playoff. Readers will also find vivid accounts of Arnold Palmer's stirring charge from behind at Cherry Hills (as well as his stunning debacle on the final nine at Olympic), Ken Venturi's moving victory at Congressional while fighting heat and severe dehydration, and Jack Nicklaus's face-to-face duel with Isao Aoki at Baltusrol. The new edition brings the book completely up to date, now covering the years 1987 through 1995, including Curtis Strange's triumphs in 1988 and 1989; Tom Kite's blunders at Oak Hill, where he lost a three-stroke lead on one hole, and his scrambling victory at Pebble Beach; and Corey Pavin's gritty performance at Shinnecock Hills. The book also features up-to-date statistics on the Open and a year-by-year summary of the event.Here then is a vivid look at the ultimate golfing event, as Robert Sommers takes us inside the ropes and lets us watch, shot by shot, some of the greatest rounds in Open history. Equally important, he paints insightful portraits of the players themselves--whether Bobby Jones, or Gene Sarazen, or Ben Hogan, or Tom Watson--showing us what they had to overcome to win, both on and off the course, giving us a better sense of what makes a true champion.