US Open

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The other majors are The Masters, The (British) Open Championship and the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Championship.

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The U.S. Open is scheduled so that the final round of four is played on the third Sunday of June. It is staged at a variety of courses that the United States Golf Association (USGA), which sponsors the tournament, sets up so that low scoring is difficult. The 2007 tournament will be held at Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, PA.

The first U.S. Open was played in October of 1895. The tournament was dominated by British players until 1911 when John J. McDermott became the first American-born winner.

In recent competition, the championship has been won almost exclusively by players from the United States. Players from only four nations other than the United States have won the crown since 1950.

The last three winners, however, have been non-Americans. Retief Goosen, South Africa, won in 2004, Mickael Campebll, New Zealand, won in 2005 and Geoff Ogilvy, Australia, won in 2006. A European player has not won since Tony Jacklin of England in 1970.

The last American to win the U.S. Open was Jim Furyk in 2003. Other recent winners include: Tiger Woods, U.S., 2002; Goosen, 2001; Woods, 2000; Payne Stewart, U.S., 1999; Lee Janzen, U.S., 1998; Ernie Els, South Africa, 1997; and Steve Jones and Corey Pavin, both U.S., 1996 and 1995, respectively.

Four players have won the Open championship four times. They are: Willie Anderson, Scotland, and Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus, all of the U.S. American Hale Irwin has three Open crowns.

Any professional golfer or any amateur with an USGA handicap index not exceeding 1.4 can play in the U.S. Open. Players can get into the 156-player field by being fully exempt or by successfully competing in qualifying tournaments.

About half of the field is fully exempt. Others must enter the two-stage qualifying process. The first is local qualifying which is played over 18 holes on about 100 courses throughout the U.S. The second stage is sectional qualifying over 36 holes at several U.S. sites and one each in Europe and Japan.

The 2006 U.S. Open purse was $6.8 million with the winner’s share $1,225,000.

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