US Open Tickets
The first US Open Golf Men's Championship was played on October 4, 1895 on a nine-hole course in Newport, Rhode Island. It was a thirty six hole competition and was played in a single day. Ten professionals and one amateur entered. The winner was a 21-year-old Englishman called Horace Rawlins who had arrived in the U.S. in January that year to take up a position at the host club. He received $150 dollars out of a cash prize fund of $325 plus a $50 dollar gold medal and for his club, the Open Championship Cup, which was presented by the USGA.
In the beginning, the US Open Golf tournament was dominated by experienced British players until 1911 when John J. McDermott became the first native-born American winner. Very quickly American golfers began to win and the tournament evolved to become one of the four majors.
The US Open Golf tournament is open to any professional, or to any amateur with an up-to-date USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 1.4. The field is 156 players. Players may obtain a place by being fully exempt or by competing successfully in Qualifying.
Around half of the field is made up of players who are fully exempt from qualifying. There are seventeen full exemption categories, including winners of the US Open for the last ten years and the other three majors for the last five years, the top 30 from the previous year's PGA Tour money list, the top 15 from the previous year's European Tour money list, and the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings as of two weeks before the tournament.
