Most Wins in U.S. Amateur Championship
Those four golfers are the only ones in the long history of the U.S. Amateur — which dates to 1895 — who recorded three or more victories. In addition to Jones, the other 3+ champions are Jerome Travers, Walter Travis and Tiger Woods.
5 wins: Bobby Jones
The score of the championship match in each of Jones' five wins:
1924 — George Von Elm, 9 and 8
1925 — Watts Gunn, 8 and 7
1927 — Chick Evans, 8 and 7
1928 — Philip Perkins, 10 and 9
1930 — Gene Homans, 8 and 7
Jones didn't just win five times, he won big five times, with 8-and-7 the closest score in any of his five championship finals. Jones' 10-and-9 victory over Phil Perkins in 1928 is still today the fourth-largest margin of victory in any U.S. Amateur title match. (Not the worst thing that happened to Perkins: He was once taken hostage and shot during a botched robbery.) That same year, in the third round, Jones beat John B. Beck by a 14-and-13 score, which remains tied for largest winning margin in any U.S. Amateur match.
Jones also reached the championship match but lost in 1919 (to Davidson Herron) and 1926 (to George Von Elm). And he was the stroke-play qualifying medalist in two of his winning years, 1926 and 1927.
Jones' 1930 U.S. Amateur victory didn't just cap his year, but his career. It was win No. 4 in his single-season Grand Slam, and Jones retired from competitive golf at the end of the year.
4 wins: Jerome Travers
The score of the championship match in each of Travers' four wins:
1907 — def. Archibald Graham, 6 and 5
1908 — def. Max Behr, 8 and 7
1912 — def. Chick Evans, 7 and 6
1913 — def. John Anderson, 5 and 4
Travers won all his titles by healthy margins, too. Travers reached the championship again in 1914, going for three in a row, but lost to Francis Ouimet.
3 wins: Walter Travis
The score of the championship match in each of Travis' three wins:
1900 — def. Findlay Douglas, 2-up
1901 — def. Walter Egan, 5 and 4
1903 — def. Eben Byers, 5 and 4
Already known as "the old man of golf" when he won his first title at age 38 in 1900, Travis was also the stroke-play qualifying medalist in his victories of 1900 and 1901. (Definitely do not read more about one of his vanquished championship match opponents, Eben Byers, unless you want to hear about the horrific way in which he died.)
3 wins: Tiger Woods
The score of the championship match in each of Woods' three wins:
1994 — def. Trip Kuehne, 2-up
1995 — def. Buddy Marucci Jr., 2-up
1996 — def. Steve Scott, 1-up (38 holes)
All four of the golfers above also make the list of back-to-back champions, Jones two different times. But Woods is the only U.S. Amateur champ to win back-to-back-to-back. He was also the stroke-play qualifying medalist during the 1996 U.S. Amateur that he won.
Related articles:
- List of all U.S. Amateur champions
- Youngest and oldest winners of U.S. Amateur
- Golfers who won both U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open
USGA. United States Amateur Championship, U.S. Amateur Champions, https://championships.usga.org/usamateur/u-s--amateur-champions.html.
USGA. United States Amateur Championship, U.S. Amateur Records, https://championships.usga.org/usamateur/u-s--amateur-records.html.