Back-to-Back Winners of U.S. Senior Open

The U.S. Senior Open, the biggest tournament in men's senior (50-and-over) professional golf, dates to 1980. In all the years since, only three golfers so far have won this trophy in consecutive years.

These are the back-to-back champions in the U.S. Senior Open:

Miller Barber, 1984, 1985

Miller Barber also won in 1982, so he won three out of four years. And through the first 45 years of the tournament's history, Barber remained the only three-time winner of the U.S. Senior Open.

His back-to-back titles were in 1984-85. In the 1984 U.S. Senior Open, Barber closed with a 71 to edge Arnold Palmer, who had a final-round 74, by two strokes. Barber got some help from Palmer who, on the 15th hole of the final round, whiffed on a 1-inch, tap-in putt. And in 1985, Barber beat runner-up Roberto De Vicenzo (winner of the inaugural 1980 USSO) by four strokes.

Gary Player, 1987, 1988

Player hit the Senior Tour full-time in 1986, after Arnold Palmer had declined as a consistent threat to win, but before Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino showed up. In that space, Player claimed his back-to-back trophies in 1987-88.

Player was runner-up in 1986 by one stroke. But in the 1987 U.S. Senior Open, he won by six shots with what was, at the time, a tournament-record 14-under-par score. In the 1988 U.S. Senior Open, Player faced Bob Charles in an 18-hole playoff. Player won by two, 68 to 70.

Allen Doyle, 2005, 2006

In the 2005 U.S. Senior Open, Doyle fired a final-round 63 (tying the tournament's then-record for any one round) to win by one over D.A. Weibring and Loren Roberts. Doyle began that final round nine strokes off Roberts' third-round lead, which remains the largest final-round comeback to win in any U.S. Senior Open.

And Doyle set another record (since broken) in his 2006 U.S. Senior Open victory. At age 57 years, 11 months, 14 days, he was the tournament's oldest winner to that point. His USSO victories where the last two of Doyle's 11 career wins on the Champions Tour.

Related articles:

• Full list of U.S. Senior Open winners
• U.S. Senior Open scoring records
• Golfers who won U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open

Sources:
United States Golf Association. U.S. Senior Open, Tournament Records, https://championships.usga.org/content/championships/ussenioropen/u-s--senior-open-records.html.
United Press International. "The 1984 U.S. Senior Open was decided by two...", July 2, 1984.