2019 US Open Preview and Facts

2019 US Open Preview and Facts

2019 U.S. Open Preview and Facts

Dates: June 10-16, 2019
Where: Pebble Beach, California
Course: Pebble Beach Golf Links
Par/Yardage: 35-36–71/7,075 yards
Field size: 156
2018 champion: Brooks Koepka
Purse: $12.5 million ($2,250,000/winner)
FedExCup: 600 points to the winner
Format: 72-hole stroke play

WHAT THE WINNER RECEIVES

Among the benefits enjoyed by the U.S. Open winner are:

  • A U.S. Open exemption for the next 10 years
  • An invitation to the next five Masters Tournaments
  • An invitation to the next five Open Championships, conducted by The R&A
  • An invitation to the next five PGA Championships
  • An invitation to the next five Players Championships
  • Exempt status on the PGA Tour for five years

PAR AND YARDAGE

Pebble Beach Golf Links will be set up at 7,075 yards and will play to a par of 35-36—71. The yardage for each round of the championship will vary due to course setup and conditions.

HOLE BY HOLE

Hole     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total
Par      4 4 4 4 3 5 3 4 4 35
Yards 380 516 404 331 195 523 109 428 526 3,412
Hole    10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Total
Par      4 4 3 4 5 4 4 3 5 36
Yards 495 390 202 445 580 397 403 208 543 3,663

ARCHITECTS

Jack Neville and Douglas S. Grant designed Pebble Beach Golf Links, which opened in 1918.

The USGA and Pebble Beach claim the course opened in 1919. Pebble Beach Golf Links actually opened in 1918.

The 1919 date is a marketing gimmick that allows this to be a US Open on the course’s 100th Anniversary)

USGA CHAMPIONSHIPS AT PEBBLE BEACH

  • 1929 U.S. Amateur: Harrison R. Johnston def. Dr. O.F. Willing, 4 and 3
  • 1940 U.S. Women’s Amateur: Betty Jameson def. Jane S. Cothran, 6 and 5
  • 1947 U.S. Amateur: Robert H. (Skee) Riegel def. John W. Dawson, 2 and 1
  • 1948 U.S. Women’s Amateur: Grace S. Lenczyk def. Helen Sigel, 4 and 3
  • 1961 U.S. Amateur: Jack Nicklaus def. H. Dudley Wysong Jr., 8 and 6
  • 1972 U.S. Open: Jack Nicklaus by three strokes over Bruce Crampton (290-293)
  • 1982 U.S. Open: Tom Watson by two strokes over Jack Nicklaus (282-284)
  • 1992 U.S. Open: Tom Kite by two strokes over Jeff Sluman (285-287) 1999 U.S. Amateur: David Gossett def. Sung Yoon Kim, 9 and 8
  • 2000 U.S. Open: Tiger Woods by 15 strokes over Ernie Els, Miguel Angel Jimenez (272-287) 2010 U.S. Open: Graeme McDowell by one stroke over Gregory Havret (284-285)
  • 2018 U.S. Amateur: Viktor Hovland def. Devon Bling, 6 and 5

Headlines

  • 2019 PGA Championship winner and two-time defending U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka seeks his fifth major title in last 10 major championship
  • Koepka will try to become just second player to win three consecutive U.S. Open titles
  • Tiger Woods returns to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach where in 2000, he won by 15 strokes and beat the field by an average 29.2 strokes, marking the most total strokes gained on record in an official PGA TOUR event since 1983; With his Masters win in April, he’s just one shy of Sam Snead’s all-time PGA TOUR record of 82
  • A five-time winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am including this season, Phil Mickelson looks to complete the Career Grand Slam at an event where he’s finished second a record six time.
  • Following his win on Sunday at the RBC Canadian Open, Rory McIlroy attempts to repeat his 2014 accomplishment; he’s the last player to win on TOUR the week before a major victory (2014 WGC- FedEx St. Jude Invitational; PGA Championship)

2018 Leaderboard (Shinnecock Hills GC/Par-70)

Pos. Name Score
1 Brooks Koepka 75-66-72-68—281 (+1)
2 Tommy Fleetwood 75-66-78-63—282 (+2)
3 Dustin Johnson 69-67-77-70—283 (+3)
4 Patrick Reed 73-72-71-68—284 (+4)
5 Tony Finau 75-72-66-72—285 (+5)

Brooks Koepka

  • Has won four of the last nine major championships
  • Looks to become the first player since Willie Anderson (1903-05) to win three straight U.S. Opens
  • Became the first player in history to successfully defend a U.S. Open (2017-18) and PGA Championship title (2018-19)
  • Only player on the PGA TOUR under the age of 30 with four major championship titles; could become the fourth player to win five or more majors before the age of 30 (Tiger Woods/10, Jack Nicklaus/7, Bobby Jones/7)
  • Could join Tiger Woods as the only other player to win multiple majors in consecutive seasons (Tiger Woods – 2005 Masters, 2005 The Open Championship, 2006 The Open Championship, 2006 PGA Championship)
  • Should Koepka win this week and Matt Kuchar finish lower than solo-second, Koepka would earn the No. 1 spot in the FedExCup standings for the first time in his career
  • Six-time PGA TOUR winner, including two in 2018-19: THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES and PGA Championship
  • Among five top-five finishes on the PGA TOUR this season are T2s at The Masters and The Honda Classic

Notes On The Field

Tiger Woods (#20 FedExCup/#5 Official World Golf Ranking)

  • Will make 21st U.S. Open start
  • Among eight top-10 finishes in the U.S. Open are wins in 2000, 2002 and 2008
  • With a win, would join Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Willie Anderson as a winner of most U.S. Open titles (4)
  • The last winner of the U.S. Open over the age of 40 was Payne Stewart (42) in 1999
  • Finished T4 at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010 (74-72-66-75—287/+3)
  • Among seven starts in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was a 2000 victory and T2 in 1997; has not competed in the event since 2012
  • En route to T2 finish in 1997 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, set his record-low weekend score (63- 64), which he later tied at the 1999 Farmers Insurance Open
  • Is making his ninth start of the 2018-19 PGA TOUR Season (Top-10 finishes: Masters/1st, World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play/T5, WGC-Mexico Championship/T10 and T9/the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide); lone missed cut came at PGA Championship

Dustin Johnson (#5 FedExCup/#2 Official World Golf Ranking)

  • Making 12th U.S. Open start, with a win (2016), T2 (2015) and 3rd (2018) among previous 11 finishes
  • Finished T8 at U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010
  • Has finished second in season’s first two major championships; T2/Masters, 2nd/PGA Championship
  • Has collected 17 top-10 finishes in 40 major championship starts
  • In 12 starts at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, won in 2009-10, finished second in 2014, 2018 and third in 2017
  • Making 13th start of 2018-19 PGA TOUR Season, with 20th career win coming at WGC-Mexico Championship
  • Comes off a T20 finish at last week’s RBC Canadian Open

Justin Rose (#10 FedExCup/#4 Official World Golf Ranking)

  • 2013 U.S. Open winner (Merion Golf Club) to make his 14th start in the event
  • Comes off a T10 in the 2018 U.S. Open. Also finished top 10 in 2003/T5 and 2007/T10
  • Did not compete in the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach
  • Has amassed 15 top-10 finishes in 61 major championship starts
  • In addition to his 10th career PGA TOUR win at this season’s Farmers Insurance Open, also finished in the top 10 at the WGC-HSBC Champions/3rd, Wells Fargo Championship/3rd, THE PLAYERS Championship/T8 and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play/T9

Rory McIlroy (#2 FedExCup/#3 Official World Golf Ranking)

  • 2011 U.S. Open winner (Congressional Country Club) scheduled to make 11th start in the event
  • Other top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open; 2009/T10, 2015/T9
  • Missed the cut in the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach
  • Other major championship victories: 2012, 2014 PGA Championship, 2014 Open Championship
  • Collected his 16th career win on the PGA TOUR at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open with a tournament- record score of 258, matching the lowest 72-hole total on TOUR this season
  • With the victory in Canada, became the sixth player in TOUR history to win the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the RBC Canadian Open (Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tiger Woods)
  • Has amassed ten top-10 finishes in 13 starts for most on TOUR this season

Phil Mickelson (#25 FedExCup/#24 Official World Golf Ranking)

  • Turns 49 on Sunday (June 16)
  • Will make 28th U.S. Open start, the most by any player in event history
  • Six runner-up finishes (U.S. Open record); 1999 (2), 2002 (2), 2004 (2), 2006 (T2), 2009 (T2), 2013 (T2)
  • Previous finishes at U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach: 1992 (MC), 2000 (T16), 2010 (T4)
  • Claimed his 44th career PGA TOUR title in February at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
  • Has collected five wins at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (1998, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2019) in 23 starts, totally 11 top-10s

Tournament/Course Notes

  • Previous U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach (5): 1972 (Jack Nicklaus), 1982 (Tom Watson), 1992 (Tom Kite), 2000 (Tiger Woods), 2010 (Graeme McDowell)
  • At the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010, the field hit 48 percent of the greens. There has been no lower percentage on the PGA TOUR since
  • Only six players have won the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year: Craig Wood (1941), Ben Hogan (1951, 1953), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tiger Woods (2002) and Jordan Spieth (2015)
  • Youngest winner of the U.S. Open: John McDermott/1911/19 years old
  • Oldest winner of the U.S. Open: Hale Irwin/1990/45 years old

VIA PGA TOUR AND USGA

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