The United States Open Golf Championship concludes this Sunday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Of course, should the 72-hole, par-saving marathon end with multiple golfers tied atop the leaderboard, then they”ll go back out again Monday morning to play another 18 holes to ultimately determine the winner. Should the playoff participants remain tied after 18 holes, they will then proceed to a sudden-death playoff, a familiar scenario that last occurred in 2008 at Torrey Pines, where Tiger Woods outlasted Rocco Mediate over 91 holes.
The Masters has a one-hole sudden-death playoff while the PGA Championship has a three-hole playoff. The British Open figures it out over four holes. The blue coats at the United States Golf Association continue to hold an 18-hole Monday playoff in deference to history and tradition.
Yet in its 111-year-old history, the United States Open has had its share of changes and tweaks. Originally the U.S. Open was a one-day, 36-hole tournament. That”s the way they played the National Open until 1898 when the event was lengthened to 72 holes. Yet the 72-hole configuration was nonetheless unique to the game. The entire field played 18 holes Thursday and another 18 holes Friday. At the conclusion of Friday”s play, a 36-hole cut was put into play and the low 70 golfers teed it up on Saturday for a 36-hole finale. Only the top 20 received cash winnings for their efforts.
In 1901, Willie Anderson and Alex Smith completed 72 holes at the Myopia Hunt Club outside Boston with identical scores of 49-over-par 331. Don”t be alarmed by the numbers, because in those days of featherie golf balls and mashie niblicks, shooting in the low 80s was good enough to win a major title. Anyways, the USGA had a playoff to hold in 1901, and Anderson and Smith returned the following day to settle the tournament over 18 holes of play. Anderson”s 85 beat out Smith”s 86 to win his first of four U.S. Open titles. The 18-hole playoff format continued for close to 30 years, and the 18-hole playoff of 1913, regarded as arguably the greatest of all time, saw country club caddie Francis Ouimet defeat the game”s top linksters, Harry Vardon and Ted Ray.
For reasons I”m not entirely sure of, the playoff format for the National Open changed n the late 1920s. In 1923, amateur great Bobby Jones defeated Bobby Cruickshank in an 18-hole playoff at Inverness. In 1925, Willie Macfarlane and Jones were tied at the end of regulation play and then they were tied at the conclusion of the 18-hole playoff. Jones and Macfarlane went out and played another 18-hole round. Finally, Macfarlane prevailed over the amateur great.
Two years later, Tommy Armour beat Harry Cooper in a playoff at the 1927 Open. In 1928, the USGA changed the playoff format to 36 holes for reasons that remain unclear. Maybe they thought of a 36-hole playoff meant more people would buy afternoon round tickets and assist the USGA in generating enough money for a purse. Maybe people just wanted to see Bobby Jones play more golf. For whatever reason, the Sunday playoff was up to 36 holes. Quaker Ridge head professional Johnny Farrell ended up tied with Jones and shot playoff rounds of 70 and 73 for a 143 total to beat the amateur great by one stroke. Jones shot 73 and 71.
The story remained the same in 1929, this time with Al Espinoza concluding play tied with Jones. The 36-hole playoff at Winged Foot was very anticlimactic as Jones shot solid rounds of 72 and 69 for a 3-under-par total of 141, destroying Espinoza (84-80) by 23 strokes.
It all went south two years later. Following his sweep of the four acknowledged majors of that era ? British Open, British Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur ? Bobby Jones retired from competitive golf. He was at the top of his game but he was also fractured mentally from self-imposed stress of playing major championship golf. Jones was the poster boy for championship golf. Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen were aging, and the game took on the look of the modern era, which has suffered from the demise of Tiger Woods. In other words, championship-level golf in the 1930s was wide open with no apparent favorites.
As can be imagined, the 1931 U.S. Open finished 72 holes of regulation play with a two-way tie atop the leaderboard. Two journeyman golfers in the prime of their careers, Billy Burke and George Von Elm, shot aggregate scores of 8-over-par 292 at Inverness in Toledo to set up a 36-hole playoff on Sunday, July 5.
Burke and Von Elm had played 18 holes on Thursday, another 18 on Friday, and 36 holes on Saturday. They teed it up Sunday morning under clear skies and 90-degree heat and played another 36 holes to determine the National Open champion. Burke shot rounds of 73 and 76 (149) while Von Elm made up a two-shot deficit in the afternoon and returned scores of 75-74 (149). They had remained tied through 108 holes. Instead of resorting to some form of sudden-death playoff or ultimate conclusion, they returned to the course on Monday for a second 36-hole playoff.
In the end, it took 144 holes over five days under difficult heat conditions to determine the 1931 United States Open champion. Burke shot 148 (71-77) while Von Elm carded a 149 (76-73), taking the title by a 589-590 score. For his efforts, Burke took home the first-place check of $1,000. Von Elm pocketed $750. Perhaps the best example of pro-rated golf went to third-place finisher Leo Diegel, who made $650 and didn”t have to stay in Toledo for two extra days to play 72 extra holes. By the way, this week”s U.S. Open champ will receive a winner”s share of $1.35 million out of a total purse of $7.5 million.
Staying in contention throughout four or possibly five rounds of golf to win a National Open title is a strain and a drain on the body and the psyche. Yet, however difficult it will be for someone to prevail this weekend at Congressional, they won”t come close to having it as tough as Billy Burke and George Von Elm had it 80 years ago at the 1931 U.S. Open.
