Who Is the Oldest Winner of the U.S. Senior Open?
Langer became the oldest U.S. Senior Open champion when he won the tournament in 2023 at the age of 65. It was Langer's 12th overall win in a senior major, which is the all-time record. And it was his 46th career win on the Champions Tour, also the all-time record.
Langer had a pair of 68s in the second and third rounds of the 2023 U.S. Senior Open. He led by as many as seven strokes on the back nine during the final round. He bogeyed the last three holes, but that big lead made it moot. Langer had a 70 in that final round to finish at 277 and win by two strokes. And to become, at age 65, the oldest U.S. Senior Open winner.
U.S. Senior Open's Oldest Champions
- 65 years, 10 months, 5 days — Bernhard Langer, 2023
- 57 years, 11 months, 14 days — Allen Doyle, 2006
- 57 years, 2 months, 15 days — Roberto De Vicenzo, 1980
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.
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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