1989 U.S. Open Tournament Winner and Scores
The 1989 U.S. Open was the 89th time the tournament was played. For the first time since the 1950s, a golfer won this major championship a second consecutive year.
Winner: Curtis Strange, 278
Where it was played: Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York
Tournament dates: June 15-18, 1989
Leader after first round: Payne Stewart, Bernhard Langer and Jay Don Blake, 66
Leader after second round: Curtis Strange, 135
Leader after third round: Tom Kite, 205
What Happened in the 1989 U.S. Open
At a U.S. Open, the saying goes, par is your friend. Curtis Strange began his final round at the 1989 U.S. Open with 15 consecutive pars, and that solid, steady golf was good enough for Strange to walk away with his second straight win in this championship.Strange was the 36-hole leader after a blistering 64 in the second round, but he managed only a 73 in the third round and fell three strokes behind Tom Kite. Scott Simpson was in second, two ahead of Strange.
But Kite stumbled early in the final round and never recovered, finishing in ninth place after carding a 78. Simpson shot 75. And that opened the door for Strange, whose first birdie of the final round happened on the 16th hole.
With the win, Strange became the sixth back-to-back U.S. Open winner, but the tournament's first since Ben Hogan in 1950-51.
Strange was 34 years old at the time, one of the top three or four players in the game, and it seemed as if he would win many more times. He made a run at a third consecutive U.S. Open trophy in 1990, but fell short. And he never won again — his 1989 U.S. Open victory was his 17th and final title on the PGA Tour.
This tournament was Gary Player's final appearance in a U.S. Open. He posted a second-round 69, but a first-round 78 prevented Player from making the cut.
1989 U.S. Open Final Scores
Curtis Strange | 71-64-73-70—278 |
Chip Beck | 71-69-71-68—279 |
Mark McCumber | 70-68-72-69—279 |
Ian Woosnam | 70-68-73-68—279 |
Brian Claar | 71-72-68-69—280 |
Jumbo Ozaki | 70-71-68-72—281 |
Scott Simpson | 67-70-69-75—281 |
Peter Jacobsen | 71-70-71-70—282 |
Jose Maria Olazabal | 69-72-70-72—283 |
Paul Azinger | 71-72-70-70—283 |
Hubert Green | 69-72-74-68—283 |
Tom Kite | 67-69-69-78—283 |
Scott Hoch | 70-72-70-72—284 |
Mark Lye | 71-69-72-72—284 |
Payne Stewart | 66-75-72-71—284 |
Tom Pernice Jr. | 67-75-68-74—284 |
Larry Nelson | 68-73-68-75—284 |
Nick Faldo | 68-72-73-72—285 |
David Frost | 73-72-70-70—285 |
Jay Don Blake | 66-71-72-76—285 |
Bill Glasson | 73-70-70-73—286 |
D.A. Weibring | 70-74-73-69—286 |
Fred Couples | 74-71-67-74—286 |
Nolan Henke | 75-69-72-70—286 |
Steve Elkington | 70-70-78-68—286 |
Raymond Floyd | 68-74-74-71—287 |
Don Pooley | 74-69-71-73—287 |
Robert Wrenn | 74-71-73-69—287 |
Emlyn Aubrey | 69-73-73-73—288 |
Dan Pohl | 71-71-73-73—288 |
Hal Sutton | 69-75-72-72—288 |
Scott Taylor | 69-71-76-72—288 |
Davis Love III | 71-74-73-71—289 |
Larry Mize | 72-72-71-74—289 |
Isao Aoki | 70-70-75-74—289 |
Brad Faxon | 73-70-75-71—289 |
Eddie Kirby | 70-70-73-76—289 |
Dan Forsman | 70-70-76-73—289 |
Greg Norman | 72-68-73-76—289 |
Billy Mayfair | 72-69-76-72—289 |
Joey Sindelar | 67-77-74-71—289 |
Mark Wiebe | 69-71-72-77—289 |
Clark Dennis | 72-72-72-74—290 |
Jack Nicklaus | 67-74-74-75—290 |
Seve Ballesteros | 75-70-76-69—290 |
Ken Green | 73-72-71-75—291 |
Richard Zokol | 71-69-76-75—291 |
Tom Watson | 76-69-73-73—291 |
Steve Jones | 69-75-77-70—291 |
John Mahaffey | 77-68-74-72—291 |
Jodie Mudd | 73-71-74-74—292 |
Tom Sieckmann | 73-71-74-74—292 |
Steve Pate | 74-69-73-76—292 |
David Ogrin | 73-72-73-75—293 |
Ronnie Black | 71-74-76-72—293 |
Webb Heintzelman | 72-70-75-76—293 |
Chris Perry | 76-67-72-78—293 |
Hale Irwin | 74-70-79-70—293 |
Clarence Rose | 70-75-73-76—294 |
Bernhard Langer | 66-78-77-73—294 |
David Graham | 73-72-77-73—295 |
Mark Calcavecchia | 74-70-74-77—295 |
a-Greg Lesher | 70-72-76-78—296 |
Dan Halldorson | 72-70-76-78—296 |
Tony Sills | 72-72-71-81—296 |
Bobby Wadkins | 73-72-75-77—297 |
Ed Humenik | 73-72-76-77—298 |
Dillard Pruitt | 68-74-81-75—298 |
Doug Weaver | 72-73-80-75—300 |
John Daly | 74-67-80-79—300 |
Kurt Beck | 68-73-83-77—301 |
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