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1979 U.S. Open (golf)

Field	Value
name	1979 U.S. Open
dates	June 14–17, 1979
location	Toledo, Ohio
course	Inverness Club
org	USGA
tour	PGA Tour
par	71
yardage	6982 yd
field	153 players, 63 after cut
cut	151 (+9)
winners_share	$50,000
champion	USA Hale Irwin
score	284 (E)
previous	[1978](1978-u-s-open-golf)
next	[1980](1980-u-s-open-golf)

|USA Club The 1979 U.S. Open was the 79th U.S. Open, held June 14–17, at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Hale Irwin won his second U.S. Open title, two strokes ahead of former champions Jerry Pate and Gary Player.

Summary

For the first time, the USGA granted exemptions to Order of Merit champions of the top five international tours. The tours granted exemptions were: Southern African Tour, European Tour, PGA Tour of Australia, Asia Golf Circuit, and Japan Golf Tour.

Hale Irwin, the 1974 champion, held a three-stroke lead over Tom Weiskopf going to the final round. Irwin did not play particularly well, recording bogeys at 11, 14, and 18, and a double-bogey at 17. His final-round 75 tied the post-World War II tournament record for highest final round score by the champion. Jerry Pate, the 1976 champion, began the day five behind Irwin and carded a 72 to finish two back. 1965 champion Gary Player, nine behind at the start of the round, fired a 68 to tie Pate for 2nd. Weiskopf struggled on his way to a 76 and finished in 4th.

During the first round a mini controversy sprung up when Lon Hinkle purposefully hit his tee shot on the par 5 8th hole on to the fairway of hole 17, dramatically shortening the hole by cutting off the dogleg. Hinkle reached the green in two with an iron, two putted for birdie and shared the first-round lead. USGA officials were not pleased by Hinkle's ingenuity and the following morning planted a tree off the side of the 8th tee so that players would not be able to take Hinkle's shortcut again.

Player's runner-up finish was his final top-10 in a U.S. Open. Fred Couples, age 19, played in his first major championship and was low amateur.

This was the fourth U.S. Open at Inverness, which hosted in 1920, 1931, and 1957. It later hosted the PGA Championship in 1986 and 1993.

Course layout

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Yards	398	385	185	446	401	220	452	528	420	3,455	363	378	167	523	448	458	405	431	354	3,527	6,982
Par	4	4	3	4	4	3	4	5	4	35	4	4	3	5	4	4	4	4	4	36	71

:Source:

Lengths of the course for previous major championships:

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, June 14, 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	USA Andy Bean	70	−1
USA Keith Fergus
USA Lou Graham
USA Lon Hinkle
USA Tom Purtzer
T6	USA Jim Colbert	71	E
USA John Cook (a)
USA Larry Nelson
USA Jerry Pate
USA Dana Quigley
USA Bill Rogers
USA Tom Weiskopf

Second round

Friday, June 15, 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	USA Larry Nelson	71-68=139	−3
USA Tom Purtzer	70-69=139
3	USA Hale Irwin	74-68=142	E
4	USA Bill Rogers	71-72=143	+1
T5	USA Jim Colbert	71-74=145	+3
USA Lou Graham	70-75=145
USA Jerry Pate	71-74=145
USA Ed Sneed	72-73=145
USA Dave Stockton	75-70=145
USA Tom Weiskopf	71-74=145

Amateurs: Couples (+8), Rassett (+8), Cook (+9), Britton (+11), Clampett (+11), Ogrin (+13), McGough (+16), Gusmus (+18), Inskeep (+21), Kemp (+21), Peddy (+21), Rentz (+21), Clements (+22), Nordling (+24), Taylor (+26), Marrello (WD).

Third round

Saturday, June 16, 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	USA Hale Irwin	74-68-67=209	−4
2	USA Tom Weiskopf	71-74-67=212	−1
T3	USA Jerry Pate	71-74-69=214	+1
USA Tom Purtzer	70-69-75=214
T5	USA Lee Elder	74-72-69=215	+2
USA Larry Nelson	71-68-76=215
T7	USA Bob Gilder	77-70-69=216	+3
AUS David Graham	73-73-70=216
USA Bill Rogers	71-72-73=216
T10	USA Andy Bean	70-76-71=217	+4
USA Al Geiberger	74-74-69=217
USA Bob E. Smith	77-71-69=217
USA Bobby Walzel	74-72-71=217

Final round

Sunday, June 17, 1979

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	USA Hale Irwin	74-68-67-75=284	E	50,000
T2	USA Jerry Pate	71-74-69-72=286	+2	22,250
ZAF Gary Player	73-73-72-68=286
T4	USA Larry Nelson	71-68-76-73=288	+4	13,733
USA Bill Rogers	71-72-73-72=288
USA Tom Weiskopf	71-74-67-76=288
7	AUS David Graham	73-73-70-73=289	+5	10,000
8	USA Tom Purtzer	70-69-75-76=290	+6	9,000
T9	USA Keith Fergus	70-77-72-72=291	+7	7,500
USA Jack Nicklaus	74-77-72-68=291

Amateurs: Fred Couples (+18), John Cook (+20), Joey Rassett (+20).

Scorecard

Final round

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	4	3	4	4	3	4	5	4	4	4	3	5	4	4	4	4	4
USA Irwin	−4	−5	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−4	−4	−4	−3	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−1	E
USA Pate	+1	E	−1	−1	+1	+1	+1	+1	+3	+2	+2	+2	+3	+2	+2	+2	+3	+2
ZAF Player	+6	+6	+6	+6	+6	+5	+5	+4	+4	+4	+4	+4	+3	+4	+4	+4	+3	+2

:Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par :{|class="wikitable" span = 50 style="font-size:85%; |- |Eagle-- |Birdie |Bogey |Double bogey |Triple bogey+ -- |} :Source:

References

(June 18, 1979). "Golf: U.S. Open finish". Spokesman-Review.
(June 18, 1979). "A bit of a tussle, but hearty at the end". Toledo Blade.
Jenkins, Dan. (June 25, 1979). "Up a tree in Toledo".
(February 2, 1979). "Sports in Brief". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Raley, Dan. (May 18, 2001). "Hinkle linked to tree for 25 years". [[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]].
(June 9, 1979). "Map: 79th U.S. Open Championship". Toledo Blade.
(June 14, 1979). "Inverness statistics". Toledo Blade.

Info: Wikipedia Source

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