1919 U.S. Open Winner and Scores
Winner: Walter Hagen, 301
Where it was played: Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Massachussetts
Tournament dates: June 9-12, 1919
Leader after first round: Charles Hoffner, 72
Leader after second round: Mike Brady, 148
Leader after third round: Mike Brady, 221
What Happened in the 1919 U.S. Open
The 1919 U.S. Open was the first one played following the conclusion of World War I, which canceled the 1917 and 1918 tournaments. And that made amateur Chick Evans, the 1916 winner, the defending champion. Evans fared well here, but didn't repeat as winner, finishing 10th.The winner was Walter Hagen, who defeated Mike Brady by one stroke in an 18-hole playoff.
Brady had the midway lead, and extended his lead to five strokes after the third round. But in the final round, Brady ballooned to an 80, allowing Hagen to catch him with a 75. After Hagen lipped out a 10-foot putt on the 72nd hole that would have won the title for him, Hagen and Brady both finished at 301 to force the extra 18 holes.
In Mark Frost's book The Grand Slam (affiliate link), the author relates how Hagen prepared for the playoff: By partying all night long with entertainer Al Jolson. Hagen, Frost related, stayed out all night with Jolson, enjoying "champagne, pretty girls, jokes and laughter." When morning arrived, Hagen stopped at his hotel only long enough to shower and change clothes, then headed to the golf course to face Brady in the playoff.
The carousing — and the fact that Hagen won the playoff anyway, 77 to 78 — helped cement Hagen as a larger-than-life character, and, ultimately, a legend of the game. The fact that it was his second U.S. Open victory, and that he went on to win 11 majors total, didn't hurt either. But Hagen never won another U.S. Open. He won the 1914 U.S. Open for his first major, and this one — two majors in the 1910s. Then he won another nine majors in the 1920s, but no more U.S. Opens.
This was the second of two runner-up finishes for Brady in the U.S. Open; he also placed second to Johnny McDermott in the 1911 U.S. Open. Brady never won a major, but had 11 Top 10 finishes in the U.S. Open.
This was the first U.S. Open played over three days rather than two. Rounds 1 and 2 were played the first two days, with Rounds 3 and 4 played on the third and final day.
In the second round, a golfer named Willie Chisholm came up short on the par-3 eighth hole, his ball settling down in a gulley amidst pebbles, rocks and boulders. He began whacking at it, sometimes hitting a rock and missing the ball entirely, other times catching ball which then richocheted around. When he finally got onto the green and into the hole, Chisholm asked his playing partner, Jim Barnes, what his score was. "Willie, you took 18 for the hole," Barnes replied. Said Chisholm: "Jim, that cannot be so. You must have counted the echoes." But it was so, and that score has been "bettered" only once (in the 1938 U.S. Open) for the highest single-hole score in U.S. Open history. And it remains one of the highest scores ever for one hole in an official PGA Tour event.
1919 U.S. Open Final Scores
| Walter Hagen | 78-73-75-75—301 |
| Mike Brady | 74-74-73-80—301 |
| Jock Hutchison | 78-76-76-76—306 |
| Tom McNamara | 80-73-79-74—306 |
| George McLean | 81-75-76-76—308 |
| Louis Tellier | 73-78-82-75—308 |
| John Cowan | 79-74-75-81—309 |
| Fred McLeod | 78-77-79-78—312 |
| George Bowden | 73-78-75-86—312 |
| a-Chick Evans | 77-76-82-78—313 |
| Jim Barnes | 77-78-79-81—315 |
| Harry Hampton | 79-81-77-78—315 |
| Clarence Hackney | 83-78-81-74—316 |
| Charles Hoffner | 72-78-77-89—316 |
| Isaac Mackie | 82-75-78-81—316 |
| Gilbert Nicholls | 81-78-82-77—318 |
| Alex Ross | 77-78-77-86—318 |
| Pat Doyle | 78-82-76-83—319 |
| a-Francis Ouimet | 76-79-79-85—319 |
| James West | 79-82-80-78—319 |
| Alex Cunningham | 79-81-79-81—320 |
| J.D. Edgar | 80-78-82-80—320 |
| Wilfred Reid | 82-78-80-80—320 |
| a-Jesse Guilford | 79-78-84-80—321 |
| Archibald Sanderson | 85-79-83-74—321 |
| Otto Hackbarth | 77-79-82-84—322 |
| Tom Kerrigan | 80-79-82-81—322 |
| Herbert Lagerblade | 79-80-82-81—322 |
| George Fotheringham | 81-82-79-81—323 |
| Bob MacDonald | 81-78-80-84—323 |
| George Sargent | 84-79-82-78—323 |
| a-John G. Anderson | 80-77-84-83—324 |
| William Robinson | 81-78-85-80—324 |
| a-John Bredemus | 83-79-86-77—325 |
| Emmet French | 78-79-81-87—325 |
| William Sherwood | 80-79-83-83—325 |
| William Hoare | 82-83-82-79—326 |
| James Macgregor | 83-78-82-83—326 |
| Tom Mulgrew | 77-83-84-82—326 |
| Arthur Reid | 84-80-81-81—326 |
| George Low | 81-81-84-81—327 |
| Willie Ogg | 82-79-81-85—327 |
| a-Fred Wright Jr. | 82-83-81-81—327 |
| George Gordon | 83-83-80-83—329 |
| a-Ned Sawyer | 82-84-81-82—329 |
| Wilbur Oaks | 84-85-79-82—330 |
| James Crossan | 81-88-83-79—331 |
| Matt Campbell | 81-85-88-78—332 |
| Harry Cowie | 85-85-80-84—334 |
| a-L.B. Patton | 86-79-87-83—335 |
| a-R.D. Pierce | 83-82-89-84—338 |
| Fred Canausa | 81-82-90-87—340 |
| Alex Gerard | 83-84-83-90—340 |
| Scotty Robson | 83-81-92-84—340 |
| John Shea | 83-84-84-89—340 |
| Eugene McCarthy | 82-85-90-83—340 |
| a-Ralph Wales | 84-84-91-90—349 |
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