US Open winning scores: A history of the 72-hole winning totals

The old mantra is that the U.S. Open winning score is typically around even par, with the conventional thinking that the USGA protects par at all costs.

However, a U.S. Open winning score at even par is rare, at best. Since 1930, when the USGA began tracking scores in the championship against par, an even-par total has won just seven times, most recently when Graeme McDowell won the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Actually, the most common U.S. Open winning score has been 4 under par, which has happened 10 times since 1930. A 1-over winning score has been recorded eight different times as well, making it the second-most common winning score.

A winning score lower than 10 under par has only been recorded three times. It first happened Tiger Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach at 12-under total. Then Rory McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course at 16-under 268, the record 72-hole total. Brooks Koepka won the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin on 16-under 272, as the course played as a par-72 layout.

There’s also an expectation that the U.S. Open is played on a par-70 course, with 72-hole par at 280. And, that’s reasonable. In the 83 U.S. Opens dating back to 1930, 48 of the Open host courses had par at 70. The next most-common par is 71, which has been the case 21 different times, most recently in 2011. A U.S. Open host course has played to a par of 72 on 14 different times since 1930, with the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach being the last time before 2017.

US Open winning scores against par

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