1919 U.S. Open Winner and Scores

The 1919 U.S. Open was the 23rd time the tournament was played, and Walter Hagen won it in a playoff. It was Hagen's second (and last) win in this major.

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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