2012 U.S. Open (golf)

Venue

This was the fifth U.S. Open at the Olympic Club, all played at the Lake Course. In 1955, unheralded Jack Fleck defeated Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff. In 1966, Billy Casper staged one of the greatest comebacks in U.S. Open history, erasing a seven-stroke deficit on the final nine holes to tie Arnold Palmer, then prevailed in an 18-hole playoff. In 1987, Scott Simpson won by a stroke over 8-time major winner Tom Watson. In 1998, Lee Janzen won his second U.S. Open, one stroke ahead of Payne Stewart.

Course layout

Olympic Club - Lake Course

Lengths of the course for previous major championships: |USA |USA California

• 6797 yd, par 70 - 1998 U.S. Open
• 6709 yd, par 70 - 1987 U.S. Open
• 6719 yd, par 70 - 1966 U.S. Open
• 6700 yd, par 70 - 1955 U.S. Open

One unique aspect of the course was that players began the first and second rounds on the 1st and 9th tees, rather than the 1st and 10th tees, as is typical. This was due to the 8th green and 9th tee being located far closer to the clubhouse than the 10th tee.

Changes to cuts

For 2012, the USGA changed the rule governing which players would make the cut after 36 holes. Now, only the top 60 players, plus those tied, would make the cut, instead of also including those players within ten strokes of the leader.

Field

About half the field each year consists of players who are fully exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Open. The players who have qualified for the 2012 U.S. Open are listed below. Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.

The qualification categories changed substantially in 2012. Seven categories (9 and 11 to 16, from 2011) were eliminated. These categories exempted top finishers on the money lists of various tours and multiple PGA Tour winners. Three categories were added (3, 4, and 9 below), for the winners of The Amateur Championship, the Mark H. McCormack Medal, and the BMW PGA Championship. Two categories were expanded (13 and 14 below), to include the top 60 instead of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

1. Last 10 U.S. Open Champions

• Ángel Cabrera (5)
• Michael Campbell
• Jim Furyk (13,14)
• Lucas Glover
• Retief Goosen
• Graeme McDowell (13,14)
• Rory McIlroy (11,13,14)
• Geoff Ogilvy (12,13,14)
• Tiger Woods (7,13,14)

2. Top two finishers in the 2011 U.S. Amateur

• Patrick Cantlay (a,4)
• Kelly Kraft forfeited his invitation by turning pro in April 2012.

3. Winner of the 2011 British Amateur

• Bryden Macpherson forfeited his invitation by turning pro in April 2012.

4. Winner of the 2011 Mark H. McCormack Medal

5. Last five Masters Champions

• Trevor Immelman
• Phil Mickelson (12,13,14)
• Charl Schwartzel (11,13,14)
• Bubba Watson (12,13,14)

6. Last five British Open Champions

• Stewart Cink
• Pádraig Harrington (7)
• Louis Oosthuizen (11,13,14)
• Darren Clarke withdrew after a groin injury.

7. Last five PGA Champions

• Keegan Bradley (12,13,14)
• Martin Kaymer (13,14)
• Yang Yong-eun (11,12)

8. Last three Players Champions

• K. J. Choi (12,13,14)
• Tim Clark
• Matt Kuchar (12,13,14)

9. Winner of the 2012 BMW PGA Championship

• Luke Donald (12,13,14)

10. The U.S. Senior Open Champion

• Olin Browne

11. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2011 U.S. Open

• Kevin Chappell
• Jason Day (12,13,14)
• Sergio García (13,14)
• Robert Garrigus
• Peter Hanson (13,14)
• Lee Westwood (13,14)

12. All players qualifying for the 2011 edition of The Tour Championship

• Aaron Baddeley (13,14)
• Jonathan Byrd (13,14)
• Jason Dufner (13,14)
• Bill Haas (13,14)
• Charles Howell III
• Freddie Jacobson (13,14)
• Dustin Johnson (13,14)
• Hunter Mahan (13,14)
• Chez Reavie
• Justin Rose (13,14)
• Adam Scott (13,14)
• John Senden (13,14)
• Webb Simpson (13,14)
• Vijay Singh
• Steve Stricker (13,14)
• David Toms (13,14)
• Bo Van Pelt (13,14)
• Nick Watney (13,14)
• Mark Wilson (13,14)
• Gary Woodland
• Brandt Snedeker (13,14) withdrew with a rib injury.

13. Top 60 on the Official World Golf Ranking list as of May 21, 2012

• Bae Sang-moon (14)
• Thomas Bjørn (14)
• Rafa Cabrera-Bello (14)
• Nicolas Colsaerts (14)
• Ben Crane (14)
• Simon Dyson (14)
• Ernie Els (14)
• Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño (14)
• Rickie Fowler (14)
• Anders Hansen (14)
• Ryo Ishikawa
• Miguel Ángel Jiménez
• Zach Johnson (14)
• Robert Karlsson (14)
• Kim Kyung-tae (14)
• Martin Laird (14)
• Francesco Molinari (14)
• Kevin Na (14)
• Carl Pettersson (14)
• Ian Poulter (14)
• Álvaro Quirós (14)
• Robert Rock (14)
• Kyle Stanley (14)
• Paul Lawrie decided not to play.
• Paul Casey withdrew after a shoulder injury.

14. Top 60 on the Official World Golf Ranking list as of June 11, 2012

• Branden Grace
• Spencer Levin

15. Special exemptions selected by the USGA

• None

Qualifiers

Source:

• Japan: Hiroyuki Fujita, Brendan Jones, Lee Dong-hwan, Park Jae-bum, Tadahiro Takayama, Toru Taniguchi
• England: Matthew Baldwin, Grégory Bourdy, George Coetzee, Mikko Ilonen, Raphaël Jacquelin, Søren Kjeldsen, Peter Lawrie, Matteo Manassero, Alex Norén, Lee Slattery, Marc Warren
• United States :*Daly City, California: Michael Allen, Matt Bettencourt, Alex Čejka, James Hahn, Beau Hossler (a), Alberto Sanchez (a), Scott Smith (L) :*Lecanto, Florida: Brooks Koepka (a), Scott Langley (L), Sam Osborne (L) :*Suwanee, Georgia: Jason Bohn, Tim Weinhart, Casey Wittenberg :*Glen Ellyn, Illinois: Tim Herron, Anthony Summers :*Rockville, Maryland: Shane Bertsch, Paul Claxton, Jeff Curl (L), Cole Howard, Darron Stiles, Michael Thompson, Nicholas Thompson (L) :*Summit, New Jersey: Brian Gaffney (L), Jim Herman (L), Mark McCormick (L), Cameron Wilson (a) :*Columbus, Ohio: Blake Adams, Martin Flores, Brian Harman, Morgan Hoffmann (L), Steve LeBrun (L), Edward Loar, Davis Love III, Steve Marino, David Mathis, Dennis Miller, Jesse Mueller (L), Rod Pampling, Scott Piercy, D. A. Points, Kevin Streelman, Charlie Wi :*Springfield, Ohio: Brice Garnett, John Peterson (L) :*Creswell, Oregon: Casey Martin, Nick Sherwood (a) :*Memphis, Tennessee: Stephen Ames, Tommy Biershenk, Roberto Castro, Joe Durant, Hunter Haas, Hunter Hamrick (L), Bill Lunde, Joe Ogilvie, Aaron Watkins :*Houston, Texas: Bob Estes, Alistair Presnell, Brian Rowell

Alternates who gained entry:

• Justin Hicks (Columbus) – claimed spot held for category 14
• Colt Knost (Columbus) – claimed spot held for category 14
• Kyle Thompson (Memphis) – claimed spot held for category 14
• Jordan Spieth (a, Houston) – replaced Brandt Snedeker
• Andy Zhang (a,L, Lecanto) – replaced Paul Casey. At 14, Zhang became the youngest golfer to compete in the U.S. Open since at least World War II.

(a) denotes amateur

(L) denotes player advanced through local qualifying

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Source:

Second round

Friday, June 15, 2012

Source:

Amateurs: Hossler (+3), Spieth (+8), Cantlay (+8), Sanchez (+9), Wilson (+14), Koepka (+14), Zhang (+17), Sherwood (+18)

Third round

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Source:

Final round

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Final leaderboard

Source:

Scorecard

Final round

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Source:

References

References

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2. McCabe, Jim. (June 15, 2012). "Mickelson sneaks into weekend at U.S. Open".
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4. (June 18, 2012). "Webb Simpson beats McDowell at the Olympic Club". BBC Sport.
5. (June 18, 2012). "Webb Simpson sees off Graeme McDowell to win first major". Guardian.
6. "U.S. Open at Lakeside: Lake Course featured holes". The Olympic Club.
7. (June 9, 2012). "Inside Olympic Club: U.S. Open Championship course guide". European Tour.
8. Sandritter, Mark. (June 14, 2012). "U.S. Open 2012 Tee Times And Pairings For Thursday: Woods And Mickelson Headline First Round".
9. (June 14, 2012). "USGA says change was publicized". ESPN.
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11. (April 23, 2012). "Pro Move: U.S. Amateur champ Kelly Kraft had a blast at the Masters, but he gave up exemptions to the U.S. and British Opens to make a run at a Tour card, a tactic that could become common".
12. Ching, David. (April 2, 2012). "Ready for the Masters". ESPN.
13. (May 28, 2012). "Clarke out of U.S. Open due to nagging groin injury". PGA Tour.
14. Harig, Bob. (June 11, 2012). "Jordan Spieth in U.S. Open". ESPN.com.
15. (May 20, 2012). "Official World Golf Ranking – Week 20, 2012".
16. (May 2, 2012). "1999 British Open champ Lawrie decides to skip U.S. Open". [[USA Today]].
17. "Amateur Zhang replaces Casey in field". PGA Tour.
18. (June 10, 2012). "Official World Golf Ranking – Week 23, 2012".
19. "Sectional Qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Open Championship". USGA.
20. (June 15, 2012). "US Open 2012: round one – as it happened". Guardian.
21. (June 16, 2012). "Tiger Woods shares US Open lead at the Olympic Club". BBC Sport.
22. (June 17, 2012). "US Open 2012: round three – as it happened". Guardian.
23. (June 18, 2012). "US Open 2012: final round – as it happened". Guardian.
24. (June 18, 2012). "US Open - final round as it happened". BBC Sport.
25. (June 17, 2012). "2012 U.S. Open Leaderboard - Round 4". USGA.