1930 U.S. Open Golf Tournament Winner and Scores
The 1930 U.S. Open was the 34th time the tournament was played. For champion Bobby Jones, his victory was the third of four in his Grand Slam year.
Winner: Bobby Jones, 287
Where it was played: Interlachen Club in Edina, Minnesota
Tournament dates: July 10-12, 1930
Leader after first round: Tommy Armour and Macdonald Smith, 70
Leader after second round: Horton Smith, 142
Leader after third round: Bobby Jones, 212
What Happened at the 1930 U.S. Open
Bobby Jones won the "impregnable quadrilateral," the Grand Slam, in 1930, and his victory in the 1930 U.S. Open was the third of the four titles that made up the Slam: The British Amateur, British Open, U.S. Open, and, finally, the U.S. Amateur. Jones won the British Amateur and British Open in the Spring after traveling to Britain as part of the American Walker Cup team.As summer arrived, so did sweltering heat in the Upper Midwest, where the 1930 U.S. Open was played at Interlachen, in Minnesota. Perhaps the first sign that it was going to be another good week for Jones came in the second round on what was dubbed "the lily pad shot." The Bobby Jones Golf Web site (bobbyjones.com) explained what happened:
"During the second round of the tournament, Jones pushed his tee shot to the right on the ninth hole along the bank of a lake. Attempting to go for the green in two, Jones was in the middle of his backswing when two young girls broke from the crowd and ran toward the fairway. Jones, catching a glimpse of them with his peripheral vision, flinched on the shot and topped the ball toward the lake where it struck the water some twenty yards short of the far bank. Amazingly, the ball skipped like a flat stone on the water and came out on the other side just thirty yards short of the green. Jones would chip to within two feet and finish the hole with an unlikely birdie. Although Jones would later refute the notion, spectators swore the ball had struck a lily pad floating in the lake. Forever dubbed the 'lily pad shot,' this strange event merely added to the already larger-than-life legend of Bobby Jones."A third-round 68 gave Jones a 5-stroke lead heading into the final round. But Jones made it interesting in that final round when his tee ball on the 17th hole, a 263-yard par-3, couldn't be found. It was finally determined the ball must have wound up in a water hazard, even though nobody actually saw that happen. Jones dropped and made double-bogey, cutting his lead over Macdonald Smith to one stroke.
But on the final hole, Jones rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt to win by two. Jones completed the Grand Slam by winning the U.S. Amateur shortly after at Merion. He then retired from competitive golf. The win was Jones' fourth in the U.S. Open, matching Willie Anderson's tournament record. Horton Smith — who won the first playing of the tournament Jones would later found, The Masters — finished third.
Ralph Guldahl, who won the U.S. Opens of 1937 and 1938, played in his first major championship here and tied for 39th.
An interesting side note: After watching Jones at the beginning of the year, Bobby Cruickshank — who lost a playoff to Jones at the 1923 U.S. Open — placed a $50 bet on Jones to win all three of the British Amateur, British Open and U.S. Open. When Jones did exactly that, finishing off the trio in the U.S. Open, Cruickshank's successful bet paid of the equivalent (adjusted for inflation) of nearly $200,000.
1930 U.S. Open Final Scores
| a-Bobby Jones | 71-73-68-75—287 |
| Macdonald Smith | 70-75-74-70—289 |
| Horton Smith | 72-70-76-74—292 |
| Harry Cooper | 72-72-73-76—293 |
| Johnny Golden | 74-73-71-76—294 |
| Tommy Armour | 70-76-75-76—297 |
| Charles Lacey | 74-70-77-77—298 |
| Johnny Farrell | 74-72-73-80—299 |
| Bill Mehlhorn | 76-74-75-75—300 |
| Craig Wood | 73-75-72-80—300 |
| Leo Diegel | 75-75-76-75—301 |
| a-Johnny Goodman | 74-80-72-75—301 |
| Al Heron | 76-78-74-73—301 |
| Peter O'Hara | 75-77-73-76—301 |
| George Smith | 72-81-74-74—301 |
| a-George Von Elm | 80-74-73-74—301 |
| Ed Dudley | 74-75-78-76—303 |
| Mortie Dutra | 76-80-69-78—303 |
| Charles Guest | 76-73-77-77—303 |
| Walter Hagen | 72-75-76-80—303 |
| Willie Hunter Jr. | 76-76-78-73—303 |
| Bob Shave | 76-72-78-77—303 |
| Joe Turnesa | 73-78-78-74—303 |
| Al Watrous | 79-73-73-78—303 |
| Olin Dutra | 73-79-78-75—305 |
| Francis Gallett | 76-75-74-80—305 |
| Denny Shute | 76-78-77-74—305 |
| Herman Barron | 77-78-74-77—306 |
| Billy Burke | 76-72-82-76—306 |
| Jack Forrester | 73-75-80-78—306 |
| Charles Hilgendorf | 74-81-76-75—306 |
| Walter Kozak | 74-76-78-78—306 |
| Gene Sarazen | 76-78-77-75—306 |
| Frank Walsh | 75-78-77-76—306 |
| Wiffy Cox | 71-75-77-84—307 |
| Al Espinosa | 76-78-77-76—307 |
| Johnny Rogers | 72-79-80-76—307 |
| Eddie Williams | 73-76-78-80—307 |
| James Barnes | 74-76-79-79—308 |
| Ralph Guldahl | 80-75-80-73—308 |
| Emerick Kocsis | 77-75-80-76—308 |
| Sonny Rouse | 77-77-80-74—308 |
| Willie Klein | 75-77-77-80—309 |
| Willie Macfarlane | 74-77-82-76—309 |
| a-Philip Perkins | 76-74-76-83—309 |
| Jim Foulis | 78-78-77-77—310 |
| Tom Creavy | 81-74-79-77—311 |
| George Christ | 75-78-79-80—312 |
| Arthur Ham | 77-79-76-80—312 |
| Bob Crowley | 75-78-84-76—313 |
| Fred Morrison | 78-76-80-79—313 |
| Eddie Schultz | 76-80-79-78—313 |
| a-Lester Bolstad | 79-75-79-81—314 |
| a-Chick Evans | 81-75-81-78—315 |
| Ted Luther | 76-78-82-79—315 |
| George Voigt | 76-79-79-81—315 |
| Tom Raklets | 77-77-81-81—316 |
| Jack Burke Sr. | 74-80-82-81—317 |
| Jock Hendry | 77-78-79-83—317 |
| a-Donald Moe | 75-81-79-82—317 |
| Francis Scheider | 76-77-83-81—317 |
| Walter Bemish | 80-75-82-81—318 |
| a-Gus Novotny | 77-78-85-79—319 |
| Bill Tinder | 79-77-82-81—319 |
| T.J. Gibraski | 79-76-85-81—321 |
| a-Richard Martin | 78-78-82-83—321 |
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