THE GREATEST U.S. OPENS

One hundred years of key U.S. Opens, dramatically captured.

Award-winning golf writer Barrett recounts in crisp, polished prose the stories of 20 U.S. Opens played at America’s toughest courses under the most difficult conditions. He begins in 1913 with amateur Francis Ouimet’s takedown playoff with England’s two finest professionals at The Country Club outside Boston. Barrett describes their play up close, with details that all golfers will enjoy. It was all amateur Bobby Jones in 1923 taking down the likes of Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen to win his first U.S. Open in a playoff against Scotland’s Bobby Cruickshank before a crowd of 10,000. Throughout, Barrett provides excellent profiles of many players, like Cruickshank, whom readers might not be familiar with. In 1930, amateur Jones won his fourth U.S. Open, then retired at age 28. Two years later, Cruickshank would again contend but lose to Sarazen, who won his second Open by three strokes. Barrett neatly covers Ben Hogan’s miraculous comeback at Merion and the long-shot win by Jack Fleck at the fearsome Oakland Hills before reaching The King: Against a crowded, talented field, Arnold Palmer won his only Open in 1960 at Cherry Hills. At Oakmont the following year, he was beaten in a playoff by a young Jack Nicklaus. In 1973, Johnny Miller captured his Open by shooting a historic final-round 63. Tom Watson finally outlasted Nicklaus at Pebble Beach in 1982. Barrett closes his comprehensive book not with Brooks Koepka’s or Bryson DeChambeau’s multiple wins but with Jon Rahm, whose birdies at Torrey Pines’ last two holes brought victory.

Fans of golf’s history will savor this captivating book.