U.S. Open Champs Who Didn't Return to Defend the Trophy

When a golfer wins a tournament — any tournament, but especially a major championship — returning the following year to defend that title is a big deal. Not many golfers win the same trophy in consecutive years, and being the defending champion is accompanied by lots of great attention. But not all defending champs in the U.S. Open have returned. Sometimes that's been by choice, sometimes due to injury, and even, in one case, because the U.S. Open winner died before the next year's tournament.

These are the U.S. Open winners who did not play the following year's tournament:

• Harry Vardon: Won the 1900 U.S. Open, did not return to defend in 1901. It was very rare for golfers to travel overseas at this time to play a tournament. Travel by sea required making it a weeks-long trip. Vardon made it a months-long trip in 1900, touring the U.S. by train and playing dozens and dozens of exhibition matches. He chose not to make that effort in 1901. The 1900 U.S. Open was the first one Vardon played, and he returned only twice more, in 1913 and 1920.

• Alex Smith: Won the 1906 U.S. Open, did not return to defend in 1907. In 1906, Alex Smith, a Scotsman who lived and worked in America, won the first of his two U.S. Open titles. In 1907, however, the U.S. Open and British Open were played on the exact same dates, June 20-21. (But due to travel times in the era, had they even been just close in dates it would have been very difficult to play both.) Smith choose to play the 1907 British Open, in which he tied for 25th.

• Jerome Travers: Won the 1915 U.S. Open, did not return to defend in 1916. Jerry Travers is the first of two amateurs on this list, and the first of two U.S. Open champs who did not defend because they retired from competitive golf. Travers had a thriving business career and felt that, after reaching the pinnacle of a U.S. Open win (he also won the U.S. Amateur four times), he needed to focus on earning a livelihood.

• Ted Ray: Won the 1920 U.S. Open, did not return to defend in 1921. At age 43, Ray became the oldest U.S. Open winner yet in 1920. That was the second time Ray played the U.S. Open, after 1913, and he played only once more, in 1927. An Englishman living in the U.K., Ray, like Vardon, was constricted by the travel requirements of the era.

• Bobby Jones: Won the 1930 U.S. Open, did not return to defend in 1931. Like Travers, an amateur, and, like Travers, Jones retired from competitive golf after winning a U.S. Open. In 1930, Jones won the "impregnable quadrilateral," as it was called at the time: the U.S. and British opens, the U.S. and British amateurs. After that, Jones focused on his law practice and on a little golf course and little tournament he co-founded: Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters.

• Ben Hogan: Won the 1948 U.S. Open, did not return to defend in 1949. Early in 1949, driving from California back home to Texas, and in thick fog, Hogan swerved to miss an oncoming bus. But his vehicle and the bus didn't miss. Hogan was severely injured, spents months in the hospital, and had issues with his legs for the rest of his life. He was still about six months away from a return when the 1949 U.S. Open was played without him. Hogan was able to play the 1950 U.S. Open, though, and won it.

• Payne Stewart: Won the 1999 U.S. Open, did not return to defend in 2000. His victory in 1999 was Stewart's second U.S. Open win. It was also the last tournament he ever won: He was killed in a plane crash a few months later. Stewart was flying on a private plane from Florida to Texas for the 1999 Tour Championship. Not too long after takeoff, all aboard were incapacited by a lack of oxygen after the plane failed to pressurize. The plane continued on autopilot until crashing in South Dakota after running out of fuel.

Related articles:

• Golfers who went the longest between U.S. Open wins
• Golfers who were low amateurs in the U.S. Open and later won it
• Biggest final-round comebacks to win the U.S. Open

Sources:
United States Golf Association. USOpen.com, U.S. Open Records, https://victory.usopen.com/history-landing/scoring-and-stats/records.html.
United States Golf Association. U.S. Open History, Champions, https://victory.usopen.com/history-landing/scoring-and-stats/champions.html.