1895 U.S. Open Golf Championship: The First Winner
The 1895 tournament was the inaugural event, the very first U.S. Open golf tournament played.
Winner: Horace Rawlins, 173
Where it was played: Newport Golf Club in Newport, Rhode Island
Tournament dates: October 4, 1895
Leader after first round: Willie Dunn, James Foulis and Willie Campbell, 89
Notable Notes: The golfers played four 9-hole rounds, which were combined into two 18-hole scores. The first U.S. Open champion was Horace Rawlins, who beat nine other golfers. Rawlins shot 82 in the second round (which was the combined scores of his third and fourth trips around the 9-hole course), the lowest score of the tournament.
Fourteen golfers entered the first U.S. Open, but only the 10 whose scores are listed below completed the tournament. The four who entered but did not finish were Charles B. Macdonald, William Norton, Winthrop Rutherford and Lawrence Stoddart. The most-famous of the 14 entrants today is not the winner, Rawlins, but Macdonald, a renowned golf course architect. Macdonald withdrew from the 1895 U.S. Open after winning the U.S. Amateur that was played on the same golf course one day prior.
James Foulis, who tied for third place, won the following year in the 1896 U.S. Open.
Final Scores
| Horace Rawlins | 45-46-41-41—173 |
| Willie Dunn | 43-46-44-42—175 |
| James Foulis | 46-43-44-43—176 |
| a-Andrew Smith | 47-43-44-42—176 |
| William Davis | 45-49-42-42—178 |
| Willie Campbell | 41-48-42-48—179 |
| John Harland | 45-48-43-47—183 |
| John Patrick | 46-48-46-43—183 |
| Samuel Tucker | 49-48-45-43—185 |
| John Reid | 49-51-55-51—206 |
