A look back at key anniversaries going into the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills:
125 years ago (1901)
Course: Myopia Hunt
Winner: Willie Anderson
Score: 84-83-83-81–331
Margin: Playoff (85-86)
Prize: $200
Runner-up: Alex Smith
Summary: Smith had a five-shot lead with five holes to play when he went bogey-double bogey-bogey. His lead was down to one on the final hole. Anderson hit a cleek to 45 feet. Smith missed the green to the right, chipped through the green and pitched up to 3 feet. Anderson two-putted for par and 85. Smith missed his bogey putt and shot 86. Anderson won the first of four U.S. Open titles.
Notable: Anderson and Smith finished at 331, the highest score in U.S. Open history leading to the first playoff. … Regulation play ended on Saturday. The playoff was not held until Monday because the course was reserved for members on Sunday.
AP Story: Willie Anderson of Pittsfield, Mass., won the open golf championship of the United States out on the Myopia course here this afternoon, playing against Alex Smith, of Scotland. Anderson beat Smith by one stroke in the 18 holes, the total being 85 to 86. The match was very exciting except at the middle holes, when Smith had a lead of five strokes. Anderson’s recovery was remarkable, but he did not catch his man until the very last green, when he ran down a beautiful 5-foot putt for 4, while Smith missed a 3-foot putt, which would have tied the score.
100 years ago (1926)
Course: Scioto Country Club
Winner: Bobby Jones
Score: 70-79-71-73–293
Margin: 1 shot
Prize: $500 awarded to the runner-up. Jones was an amateur
Runner-up: Joe Turnesa.
Summary: Jones was four shots behind with seven holes to play when Turnesa fell apart with five bogeys on his next six holes. Turnesa birdied the 18th. Jones needed a par on the final hole to force a playoff. He hammered a 300-yard drive on the par-5 closing hole, hit his second shot to 15 feet and two-putted for birdie and a 73 to win by one shot.
Notable: Jones became the first player to win the U.S. Open and British Open in the same year. The British Open was held two weeks earlier.
AP Story: Bobby Jones of Atlanta tonight is possessor of every supreme golf title in the world, an honor never before mantled on any golfer, by winning the national open championship at Scioto club with a score of 293. He annexed his latest title before a record crowd of 6,500, most of whom followed the study southerner through his final 36 holes. Good as Jones was for the grueling Scioto links, he was only one stroke ahead of Joe Turnesa of New York, who had finished ahead of Jones at 294. To overcome this score, Jones shot 1-under par on the last nine, finishing amidst a din of applause with a birdie 4 on the 480-yard home hole.
75 years ago (1951)
Course: Oakland Hills
Winner: Ben Hogan
Score: 76-73-71-67–287
Margin: 2 shots
Prize: $4,000
Runner-up: Clayton Heafner
Summary: Hogan overcame a two-shot deficit in the final round with a 3-under 67, finishing with a 14-foot birdie and a two-shot victory. It was Hogan’s third U.S. Open title, and his fifth major out of the last six he played. He famously said, “I’m glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees.”
Notable: Hogan considered his 67 in the final round the best round of his career. It was the lowest round of the championship.
AP Story: Golf’s mighty little “Comeback Man,” Ben Hogan, staged another of his incredible finishes Saturday to win his third National Open championship in as many tries with a 72-hole score of 287. Five strokes back of South Africa’s Bobby Locke going into the final day, the wiry shot master from Fort Worth, Texas, climaxed his victory the a 3-under-par 67, sinking a birdie 14-foot putt on the final green.
50 years ago (1976)
Course: Atlanta Athletic Club
Winner: Jerry Pate
Score: 71-69-69-68–277
Margin: 2 shots
Prize: $20,000
Runner-up: Al Geiberger and Tom Weiskopf
Summary: Pate was one shot ahead of John Mahaffey on the 18th. Mahaffey hit out of the rough into the water. Pate hit 5-iron out of the rough to 3 feet for birdie to capture his only major.
Notable: Jack Nicklaus tied for 11th, ending his streak of 13 consecutive top 10s in the majors. … This was the first U.S. Open players were allowed to use their regular caddies.
AP Story: Young Jerry Pate looked at his ball nestling on a clump of Bermuda rough and measured his target, a flagstick sitting treacherously close to the front of a finger-thin green guarded by an expanse of water. Pate took a 5-iron from his bag. While thousands watched from the rain-drenched wings of the Atlanta Athletic Club — the club Bob Jones once belonged to — Pate swung gracefully and the ball arched toward the flag as if drawn by an invisible magnet and rested 2 feet from the cup. The dramatic shot, which will go down in golf annals as one of the greatest executed under extreme pressure, gave the rookie pro from Pensacola, Fla., a birdie finish for a final 68 and a two-stroke victory with 277.
25 years ago (2001)
Course: Southern Hills
Winner: Retief Goosen
Score: 66-70-69-71–276
Margin: Playoff (70-72)
Prize: $900,000.
Runner-up: Mark Brooks
Summary: Goosen had this won in regulation until he three-putted from 12 feet for bogey on the last hole to fall into a playoff. Stewart Cink missed a 15-foot par putt for what he thought was his last chance at a playoff, then went to brush in the 18-inch bogey putt and missed. It wound up costing him a spot in the playoff.
Notable: Tiger Woods tied for 12th, ending his streak of winning four straight majors.
AP Story: Retief Goosen can laugh now about one of the greatest gaffes in golf history. He is the U.S. Open champion. The soft-spoken South African redeemed himself with rock-solid play to take a lead so commanding he could afford another three-putt on the 18th green to win the 18-hole playoff against Mark Brooks. But Goosen eliminated any suspense by rolling in a 6-footer for bogey that gave him an even-par 70 and a two-stroke victory at Southern Hills. Haunted by a three-putt from 12 feet that cost him the championship in regulation, a determined Goosen was golden to the end.
20 years ago (2006)
Course: Winged Foot
Winner: Geoff Ogilvy
Score: 71-70-72-7–285
Margin: 1 shot
Prize: $1,225,000
Runner-up: Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie, Phil Mickelson
Summary: Ogilvy made a superb up-and-down for what he thought was second place. Mickelson had a one-shot lead on the 18th when from the left rough, he tried to hit 3-iron over a tree. He hit the tree, his third shot plugged in a bunker, he blasted out through the green and took two putts for double bogey.
Notable: Tiger Woods, in his first major since the death of his father, missed the cut for the first time in a major.
AP Story: Phil Mickelson was poised to take his place with Tiger Woods in the record books. Instead, he joined Jean Van de Velde in the sad chapter of major championship collapses. All in a New York minute. The transformation was shocking and sudden late Sunday afternoon in the U.S. Open, when the new Phil who was going for his third straight major turned into the old Phil with a stubborn, reckless attempt to get himself out of another jam. He went for a par that would have won at Winged Foot. He wound up with a double bogey that made Geoff Ogilvy the first Australian to win this title in 25 years. The winning stroke in the toughest U.S. Open in 32 years was a 6-foot par putt that Ogilvy made on the 18th hole, which appeared to be good enough for second place.
10 years ago (2016)
Course: Oakmont
Winner: Dustin Johnson
Score: 67-69-71-69–276
Margin: 3 shots
Prize: $1,800,000
Runner-up: Jim Furyk, Scott Piercy, Shane Lowry
Summary: Johnson took over when Lowry lost a four-shot lead on the front nine. His ball slightly moved on the fifth green, and officials wanted a closer look. They told him on the 12th tee he might be penalized, meaning Johnson played the rest of the way not knowing his score. The USGA gave him a one-shot penalty when it was over.
Notable: Johnson became the fourth player since World War II to win the U.S. Open after being runner-up the year before. The others were Tiger Woods, Payne Stewart and Jack Nicklaus.
AP Story: Dustin Johnson settled the score Sunday in the U.S. Open. Johnson atoned for his past mishaps in the majors by showing he had the smarts to handle the toughest test in golf, even while playing the final two hours without knowing where he stood when the USGA questioned whether he should be penalized one stroke for his ball moving on the fifth green. Johnson said it didn’t. The USGA said it would wait until after the round to decide. America’s most powerful golfer took matters into his own hands at Oakmont, capping off a chaotic and confusing final round by stuffing his approach into 5 feet for a birdie that made the penalty a moot point.
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