Who is the youngest golfer to win the US Open?
With 13-year-old Jaden Soong not making the cut, the US Open’s youngest competitor is still Andy Zhang. But to find the youngest winner, you have to look further back.
The golf world was all aflutter with the possibility of a seventh grader playing the US Open. 13-year-old Jaden Soong from Los Feliz, Ca. had a great run in the chase for one of the at-large qualifying spots for the US Open, in the end just missing the cut.
While Soong is the youngest player to ever reach the final round of US Open qualifying, his miss means that the record for the youngest player to compete in the US Open stays in the hands of Andy Zhang, who played at the tender age of 14 years old.
One of the biggest stories of final U.S. Open qualifying today is 13 year old old 7th grader Jaden Soong, who began the day 36 holes away from making history, and becoming a national celebrity.
— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) June 5, 2023
Here was his opening tee shot, as well as him on the practice range.#golfslongestday pic.twitter.com/Yf0kFj4AOU
But if you want to find the youngest player to ever win the US Open, you have to cast your gaze a little further back in time. All the way back, in fact, to 1911 when the US Open was won by Johnny McDermott at only 19 years, 9 months, and 14 days old.
McDermott was also the first American to win the tournament, with the event’s first 16 champions either English or Scottish. Since McDermott’s win, the Americans have dominated the event.
The closest that any champion has come in recent years to approaching young McDermott’s youth was in 2015 when the US Open was won by a then-21-year-old Jordan Spieth, making him the youngest winner in the Post-WWII era.
Here are the youngest US Open Champions:
- Johnny McDermott: 19 years, 9 months, 14 days when he won the 1911 U.S. Open
- Francis Ouimet: 20 years, 4 months, 12 days when he won the 1913 U.S. Open
- Gene Sarazen: 20 years, 4 months, 18 days when he won the 1922 U.S. Open
- Johnny McDermott: 20 years, 11 months, 21 days when he won the 1912 U.S. Open
- Horace Rawlins: 21 years, 1 month, 30 days when he won the 1895 U.S. Open
- Bobby Jones: 21 years, 4 months, 12 days when he won the 1923 U.S. Open
- Walter Hagen: 21 years, 8 months, 0 days when he won the 1914 U.S. Open
- Willie Anderson: 21 years, 8 months, 25 days when he won the 1901 U.S. Open
- Jordan Spieth: 21 years, 10 months, 25 days when he won the 2015 U.S. Open
Jordan Spieth's most Feet of Putts Made in a 4-round event:
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2019
2019 @CSChallengeFW*: 434 feet, 4 inches (?)
2015 @PlayoffFinale: 432 feet, 5 inches (🏆)
2016 @CSChallengeFW: 431 feet, 6 inches (🏆)
2015 @ValeroTXOpen: 410 feet, 10 inches (2nd)
*Thru 54 holes 😳#MustSeeMoments pic.twitter.com/SMRCZpCdx0