The Greatest U.S. Opens: High Drama at Golf’s Most Challenging Championship

In The Greatest U.S. Opens, veteran golf journalist and author David Barrett brings readers inside the ropes at the most dramatic tournaments since the Open’s inception in 1895. Renowned as the most challenging of the major championships, the U.S. Open has showcased the country’s greatest golf courses, including Pebble Beach, Oakmont, Merion and Shinnecock Hills. And, with notoriously long ＂Open rough＂ and super-fast greens, the U.S Open is typically the toughest challenge of the year, providing a forum for the greats of the game to test their mettle and prove their stature by winning multiple times--including Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. The extreme difficulty of a U.S. Open course has also yielded the occasional and unlikely upset, including Francis Oiumet’s 1913 thrilling victory over English greats Harry Vardon and Ted Ray or Jack Fleck stealing a shocking win from Hogan in 1955. Barrett also captures the tournament’s many classic moments including Arnold Palmer’s heroic charge in 1960, Tom Watson’s chip-in to take down Nicklaus at Pebble Beach in 1982, and Payne Stewart’s putt to clinch a victory at Pinehurst in 1999 just months before his tragic death.

David Barrett has been a professional golf writer for over three decades, including serving as a senior editor at Golf Magazine. He graduated from Haverford College, and has covered the major golf championships, including more than 20 U.S. Opens. He is the author of seven previous books, including Miracle at Merion, winner of the USGA’s 2010 Herbert Warren Wind Award for the best golf book of the year, and The Story of the Masters, which was shortlisted for the same award in 2021.