Who Is the Oldest Winner of the U.S. Senior Open?
Allen Doyle won the 2006 U.S. Senior Open at age 57 years, 11 months and 14 days old, just a couple weeks shy of his 58th birthday.
Doyle had been a lifelong amateur and won more than 20 regional tournaments, many of them in his native Georgia or other southern states. He didn't turn pro until his late 40s, when he decided to start prepping for a possible career on the Champions Tour. Good decicion! After turning 50, Doyle won 11 times on the senior circuit, including four senior majors.
His win in the 2006 U.S. Senior Open was his second in a row in that tournament. It was also Doyle's last Champions Tour victory.
Doyle earned that win — and the record as the tournament's oldest champion — by coming from two strokes behind third-round leader Tom Watson to win by two. He shot four sub-70s rounds that week, the only golfer to do so.
Whose record did Doyle beat? In the very first U.S. Senior Open in 1980, the winner was Roberto De Vicenzo. In that first tournament, the USGA set the minimum age at 55 (it was lowered to 50 beginning in 1981). De Vicenzo was 57 years, 2 months and 15 days old on the day of his victory. And nobody older won the tournament until Doyle, 26 years later.
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