Jack Nicklaus' Wins in USGA Championships

The United States Golf Association stages many national championship tournaments throughout each year for each stage of golfer: juniors, amateurs, professionals and seniors. And Jack Nicklaus won a few of those big events during his career. But how many? Let's run down the list of USGA championships won by Nicklaus.

We'll start by answering the question already posed: How many USGA championships did Nicklaus win? The answer is eight. Nicklaus won two U.S. Amateur titles, four U.S. Opens, and two U.S. Senior Opens. He had two wins in USGA amateur championships, six wins in USGA professional championships. And Nicklaus' four victories in the U.S. Open is tied for most wins by one golfer in that major.

Where does Nicklaus rank on the list of golfers with the most USGA championship wins? His eight victories tie Nicklaus for third place. Only Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods, with nine each, won more USGA championships than Nicklaus.

The List: USGA Championships Won By Jack Nicklaus

• 1959 U.S. Amateur: Nicklaus's road to the final included wins over Robert Trent Jones III (the future famous architect) in the first round, and Don Massengale in the fourth round. In the championship match, Nicklaus beat Charles Coe, the defending champ, 1-up.
• 1961 U.S. Amateur: Won his semifinal match 9 and 8, then beat Dudley Wysong in the championship match by an 8-and-6 margin.
• 1962 U.S. Open: Shot 69 in the final round to tie Arnold Palmer at 283, then defeated Palmer in the 18-hole playoff, 71 to 74. It was also Nicklaus' very first PGA Tour victory.
• 1967 U.S. Open: Closed with a 65 to win with a new U.S. Open record of 275, four better than runner-up Palmer.
• 1972 U.S. Open: Won by three strokes over runner-up Bruce Crampton.
• 1980 U.S. Open: Scored 68 in the final round to beat runner-up Isao Aoki by two. Nicklaus' winning 272 was again a new U.S. Open scoring record, one not bettered until 2011.
• 1991 U.S. Senior Open: Tied Chi Chi Rodriguez at 282, then won the 18-hole playoff, 65 to 69.
• 1993 U.S. Senior Open: Won by one stroke over second place Tom Weiskopf with a 278 score.

Nicklaus was 19 years old at the time of his first USGA championship in 1959, and 53 years old for his last in 1993. Nicklaus is one of just two golfers so far to win all three of the U.S. Amateur, Open and Senior Open.

The win in the 1972 U.S. Open was Nicklaus' 11th victory in a professional major, which tied Walter Hagen's then-record. If one includes Nicklaus' two U.S. Amateurs as majors (which was commonly done into the 1970s), then it was his 13th overall major championship win (two amateur plus 11 pro), tying Bobby Jones' then-record. Of course, Nicklaus soon had both those records to himself, and still does today.

The one USGA championship Nicklaus played several times without winning was the U.S. Junior Amateur.

Related articles:

• Tiger Woods' USGA championship wins
• Jack Nicklaus' largest margins of victory
• Nicklaus' holes-in-one: total, first, PGA Tour and more

Sources:
Brenner, Morgan. The Majors of Golf (affiliate link), Volume 3, 2009, McFarland and Company.
United States Golf Association. Official USGA Record Book, 1895-1990 (affiliate link), Triumph Books, 1992.