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The Greatest U.S. Opens: High Drama at Golf's Most Challenging Championship
In The Greatest U.S. Opens, veteran golf journalist and author David Barrett brings readers inside the ropes at the most dramatic tournaments since the Open's inception in 1895. Renowned as the most challenging of the major championships, the U.S. Open has showcased the country's greatest golf courses, including Pebble Beach, Oakmont, Merion and Shinnecock Hills. And, with notoriously long "Open rough" and super-fast greens, the U.S Open is typically the toughest challenge of the year, providing a forum for the greats of the game to test their mettle and prove their stature by winning multiple times--including Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. The extreme difficulty of a U.S. Open course has also yielded the occasional and unlikely upset, including Francis Oiumet's 1913 thrilling victory over English greats Harry Vardon and Ted Ray or Jack Fleck stealing a shocking win from Hogan in 1955. Barrett also captures the tournament's many classic moments including Arnold Palmer's heroic charge in 1960, Tom Watson's chip-in to take down Nicklaus at Pebble Beach in 1982, and Payne Stewart's putt to clinch a victory at Pinehurst in 1999 just months before his tragic death.
- GenresSports
277 pages, Hardcover
Published October 30, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 15, 2025
I finished this one up on Father's Day, with the final round of the Open starting up at Oakmont. Sam Burns leads at -4, with Adam Scott and JJ Spaun just a shot back.
If I went on to give a hole-by-hole account of each of those players' final rounds, as well as 6-8 other competitors in the field, and then repeated that by 4 rounds -- and then by 20 tournaments, it would approximate the feel of this book. I wanted to read it as something of a historical homework assignment during Open week, and it felt like one as I slogged along.
Part of the issue was that the first 10 or so of the stories are all from pre-1960. I am definitely interested in golf history, and have read up on Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and even Francis Ouimet (the amateur winner in 1913 at Brookline). But there isn't enough biographical information or contemporary color to make those stories very interesting. Frankly, Barrett can be a pretty bland writer.
However, things perked up for me once we got to Arnie, Jack, Lee Trevino, and the rest of the stars of the '60s and '70s. With the Open being at Oakmont this week, I learned that Nicklaus' first Open win in '62 was there, as well as Johnny Miller's famous closing 63 in '73. Honestly, I don't consider Oakmont to be that memorable of a venue personally, but it's certainly got pedigree.
Learning/remembering how dominant Tom Watson was in the late '70s was also fun - he was the player of the year from 1977-80, and when he won the Open at Pebble Beach in '82 with the pitch from the rough on 17 (which we were watching at Boettcher's house in Mayville -- don't ask me why or how I remember that), he was actually holding off a somewhat slumping Jack Nicklaus, who after winning in 1980, had hit a lull in his late career.
There are also the tales of Tiger in 2000 (also at Pebble; won by 15; didn't card a bogey on Sunday) and 2008 (Torrey Pines) -- the latter probably my favorite Open of all-time, though I still feel bad about rooting so strongly *against* Rocco Mediate, one of golf's all-time good guys. What can I say? I've always had a weak spot for Tiger.
The book ends rather tepidly with Jon Rahm winning in 2021 at Torrey Pines, which I surprisingly don't remember too well. But he is the only person to win an Open by birdieing both 17 and 18 on Sunday. So now you know.
I'm glad to have read this book, and I don't mean to denigrate the hard work of Mr. Barrett. But I was reading this at the same time as a couple of books by Roger Kahn, and it's hard to stack up as a sportswriter next to a legend.
If I went on to give a hole-by-hole account of each of those players' final rounds, as well as 6-8 other competitors in the field, and then repeated that by 4 rounds -- and then by 20 tournaments, it would approximate the feel of this book. I wanted to read it as something of a historical homework assignment during Open week, and it felt like one as I slogged along.
Part of the issue was that the first 10 or so of the stories are all from pre-1960. I am definitely interested in golf history, and have read up on Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and even Francis Ouimet (the amateur winner in 1913 at Brookline). But there isn't enough biographical information or contemporary color to make those stories very interesting. Frankly, Barrett can be a pretty bland writer.
However, things perked up for me once we got to Arnie, Jack, Lee Trevino, and the rest of the stars of the '60s and '70s. With the Open being at Oakmont this week, I learned that Nicklaus' first Open win in '62 was there, as well as Johnny Miller's famous closing 63 in '73. Honestly, I don't consider Oakmont to be that memorable of a venue personally, but it's certainly got pedigree.
Learning/remembering how dominant Tom Watson was in the late '70s was also fun - he was the player of the year from 1977-80, and when he won the Open at Pebble Beach in '82 with the pitch from the rough on 17 (which we were watching at Boettcher's house in Mayville -- don't ask me why or how I remember that), he was actually holding off a somewhat slumping Jack Nicklaus, who after winning in 1980, had hit a lull in his late career.
There are also the tales of Tiger in 2000 (also at Pebble; won by 15; didn't card a bogey on Sunday) and 2008 (Torrey Pines) -- the latter probably my favorite Open of all-time, though I still feel bad about rooting so strongly *against* Rocco Mediate, one of golf's all-time good guys. What can I say? I've always had a weak spot for Tiger.
The book ends rather tepidly with Jon Rahm winning in 2021 at Torrey Pines, which I surprisingly don't remember too well. But he is the only person to win an Open by birdieing both 17 and 18 on Sunday. So now you know.
I'm glad to have read this book, and I don't mean to denigrate the hard work of Mr. Barrett. But I was reading this at the same time as a couple of books by Roger Kahn, and it's hard to stack up as a sportswriter next to a legend.
February 28, 2025
The entries kind of read like Associated Press tournament wrap-ups. Good descriptions of who shot what and how they did it but not very compelling narratives.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews