1927 U.S. Open Winner and Scores
The 1927 U.S. Open was the 31st time the tournament was played, and it ended in a playoff. This was the first U.S. Open played at Oakmont Country Club.
Winner: Tommy Armour, 301
Where it was played: Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Tournament dates: June 14-17, 1927
Leader after first round: Harry Hampton and Jimmy Johnson, 73
Leader after second round: Jimmy Johnston, 147
Leader after third round: Harry Cooper, 224
What Happened at the 1927 U.S. Open
The "Silver Scot," Tommy Armour, claimed the first of his three career wins in majors here at the 1927 U.S. Open, beating "Lighthorse Harry" Cooper in an 18-hole playoff to do it.While Armour made his debut as a major champion, there was another significant debut: For the first time, Oakmont Country Club was the site of a U.S. Open.
And Oakmont proved a daunting challenge for the assembled golfers. Armour's 72-hole total of 301 represents the highest winning score in this tournament since 1919, and it's the last time the winning score was 300 strokes or higher. The 69 that Al Espinosa scored in the final round was the only sub-70 score of the tournament.
Oakmont wasn't kind to Bobby Jones, who finished tied for 11th — his worst finish in any U.S. Open. Jones tied for eighth in his tournament debut in 1920, but finished inside the Top 5 in every other U.S. Open he played ... except this one.
Jones' two great rivals, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, both finished ahead of him. This tournament is the only U.S. Open where that happened. In fact, Hagen and Sarazen finished ahead of Jones in a U.S. Open only twice each. Hagen also did it at the 1921 U.S. Open, and Sarazen did it at the 1922 U.S. Open (which Sarazen won, with Jones tying for second).
British golfer Ted Ray played the U.S. Open only three times. In 1913, he (along with Harry Vardon) lost in a playoff to Francis Ouimet. In 1920, Ray won. And in his last appearance, here at the 1927 U.S. Open, Ray, at age 50, tied for 27th.
Armour sank a 10-foot putt on the 72nd hole to tie Cooper and force the playoff, shooting 76 to Cooper's 77 in the final round.
The playoff was tied through nine holes, then Armour fell two behind with bogeys on holes 10 and 11. But Cooper, who never won a major despite winning nearly 30 PGA Tour titles, played the final six holes in 5-over, including a double-bogey on the 16th hole. Armour won the playoff with a 76 to Cooper's 79.
Armour shot 78 in the first round, tied with Hagen in 1919 as the highest first-round score by the eventual winner in the post-World War I era. Armour, born in Scotland, was the last foreign-born golfer to win this major until Gary Player at the 1965 U.S. Open.
Less than a week after becoming a U.S. Open champ, an exhausted Armour posted big scores and finished well down the scoreboard at the Shawnee Open. According to legend, Armour suffered a single-hole score of 23 during that Shawnee Open (spoiler alert: no, he didn't).
1927 U.S. Open Final Scores
| Tommy Armour | 78-71-76-76—301 (76) |
| Harry Cooper | 74-76-74-77—301 (79) |
| Gene Sarazen | 74-74-80-74—302 |
| Emmet French | 75-79-77-73—304 |
| Bill Mehlhorn | 75-77-80-73—305 |
| Walter Hagen | 77-73-76-81—307 |
| Archie Compston | 79-74-76-79—308 |
| Johnny Farrell | 81-73-78-76—308 |
| Johnny Golden | 83-77-75-73—308 |
| Harry Hampton | 73-78-80-77—308 |
| Bobby Cruickshank | 77-78-76-78—309 |
| Leo Diegel | 78-74-80-77—309 |
| a-Bobby Jones | 76-77-79-77—309 |
| Eddie Jones Jr. | 76-77-79-77—309 |
| Fred Loos | 78-75-79-77—309 |
| Fred Baroni | 80-72-79-79—310 |
| Perry Del Vecchio | 79-79-76-76—310 |
| Arthur Havers | 79-77-74-80—310 |
| Al Espinosa | 83-80-79-69—311 |
| a-Jimmy Johnston | 73-74-87-77—311 |
| Willie Macfarlane | 82-76-80-73—311 |
| Macdonald Smith | 78-76-81-76—311 |
| Al Watrous | 82-74-78-77—311 |
| Jock Hutchison | 80-77-77-78—312 |
| Jim Barnes | 78-75-81-79—313 |
| P.O. Hart | 77-77-86-73—313 |
| Larry Nabholtz | 75-81-78-79—313 |
| Ted Ray | 76-83-77-78—314 |
| Joe Turnesa | 81-79-78-76—314 |
| Thomas Harmon | 79-77-80-79—315 |
| Bob MacDonald | 77-83-78-77—315 |
| Aubrey Boomer | 83-79-80-74—316 |
| Jim Foulis | 78-84-81-73—316 |
| Charles Guest | 78-78-81-79—316 |
| a-Eddie Held | 83-79-78-77—317 |
| Willie Klein | 79-78-84-76—317 |
| Dave Sutherland | 78-81-78-80—317 |
| Leonard Schmutte | 79-80-78-81—318 |
| Laurie Ayton | 80-83-80-76—319 |
| Jack Forrester | 80-81-76-82—319 |
| Harold Long | 83-78-79-79—319 |
| a-Watts Gunn | 78-83-81-78—320 |
| Neil Christian | 81-81-81-78—321 |
| Herbert Jolly | 84-78-75-84—321 |
| Willie Hunter Jr. | 80-79-81-82—322 |
| George Sargent | 80-79-80-83—322 |
| Horton Smith | 83-75-81-83—322 |
| Charles Hoffner | 80-81-82-80—323 |
| Johnny Jones | 80-82-81-82—325 |
| Ernest Penfold | 79-80-82-84—325 |
| Wilfred Reid | 80-79-86-80—325 |
| Dave Robertson | 74-85-77-89—325 |
| a-Denny Shute | 81-81-80-83—325 |
| Clarence Gamber | 81-82-79-86—328 |
| Louis Chiapetta | 84-79-85-81—329 |
| George Christ | 84-78-89-81—332 |
| Ted Longworth | 79-84-83-86—332 |
| George Stark | 80-79-84-89—332 |
| Waldo Crowder | 78-83-89-83—333 |
Previous and next:
1926 U.S. Open - 1928 U.S. Open