GOLF
Who was the last player to win the US Open back-to-back?
The 2024 US Open is underway in North Carolina with Scottie Scheffler the leading favourite.
All eyes in the golfing world for the next four days will be glued to the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina where the finest names in the sport in action at the 2024 US Open but with one leading tournament favourite in the shape of Scottie Scheffler.
The world number one Scheffler, fresh off Sunday’s one-shot triumph at the Memorial Tournament, will head out in a high-profile threesome with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele on Day one as Scheffler enters a major that is considered the toughest test in golf riding high as the first player to win five times in a season on the PGA Tour before the U.S. Open since Tom Watson in 1980.
Schauffele, who has six top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open, will be looking to build on his PGA Championship victory last month while Northern Irishman McIlroy, third in the rankings, is aiming to end his 10-year major drought this week.
Major champions Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Brooks Koepka along with Bryson DeChambeau, one of 12 LIV Golf players in the 156-player field this week will also be looking to mount a serious challenge for world number one.
Koepka, last man to make US Open history
Brooks Koepka wrote his name in the US Open golfing history books back in 2018 with his second win at the tournament. His first victory came in 2017 at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, where he finished four shots ahead of Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama. This win marked his first major title, and it was the beginning of a series of successes in golf’s biggest events.
Koepka then successfully defended his US Open crown at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York in 2018, edging out Tommy Fleetwood by a single shot in one of the most challenging tests in recent US Open history. He became the first player to accomplish this feat by achieving back-to-back victories in the US Open since Curtis Strange in 1989.
US Open: all-time back-to-back winners
Only seven times in history has a US Open title been successfully defended
Players who have won back-to-back U.S. Open titles
2017-18: Brooks Koepka
1988-89: Curtis Strange
1950-51: Ben Hogan
1937-38: Ralph Guldahl
1929-30: Bobby Jones
1911-12: John McDermott
1903-05: Willie Anderson
Defending champion Wyndham Clark is also eager to jump-start a season in which he has missed the cut at the first two majors, will be one group behind Scheffler’s threesome and playing with Nick Dunlap and reigning British Open champion Brian Harman.
The last five winners of the US Open were all first-time major champions.