1974 U.S. Open Winner and Scores
The 1974 U.S. Open was the 74th time the tournament was played. And this one is remembered less as the site of Hale Irwin's first major championship victory than for the difficulty of the Winged Foot setup — difficulty that earned the tournament the nickname "The Massacre at Winged Foot."
Winner: Hale Irwin, 287
Where it was played: Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York
Tournament dates: June 13-16, 1974
Leader after first round: Gary Player, 70
Leader after second round: Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Arnold Palmer and Raymond Floyd, 143
Leader after third round: Tom Watson, 213
What Happened at the 1974 U.S. Open
The so-called "Massacre at Winged Foot" happened this year with a winning score of 7-over par. Did the USGA set up Winged Foot with extremely thick rough and lightning-fast greens because one year earlier Johnny Miller scorched the final round of the 1973 U.S. Open with a 63? Many of the golfers in this tournament thought so: It was the USGA making sure nobody would do that again.The winner — the survivor — was Hale Irwin. Irwin carded a 73 in Round 4 that was good enough because Tom Watson, the third-round leader, collapsed with a 79. This was the first of three U.S. Open wins for Irwin, who established here his reputation for playing well on the toughest courses.
The story on Day 1 was just how tough the golf course was, something driven home when Jack Nicklaus putted off the first green — news of which rippled across the golf course and through the locker room like news of a lurking bogeyman.
Nobody broke par in the first round, one of a dozen or so times in the U.S. Open's post-World War II history there were no sub-par scores for a round. Gary Player was the only golfer to match par, and that 70 gave him a one-stroke lead. Only 23 of the 150 golfers in the field scored better than 75; 44 of those golfers shot 80 or higher.
On Day 2, one golfer, Hubert Green, went as low as 67, and 38 golfers did better than 75. So the scoring did improve a bit. The very impressive quartet of Player, Arnold Palmer, Raymond Floyd and Irwin (who, at that time, had only two wins on the PGA Tour) shared the second-round lead.
Player had a good front nine on the third day, but skied to a 41 on the back nine and fell out of contention. But Palmer stayed in it with a 73, ranking third after Round 3.
The new leader at that point was Tom Watson, who had not yet won a tour event. Watson shot 69 in the third round to lead second-place Irwin (71) by one stroke going into the final round.
Palmer fell away early in the final round, starting with a three-putt from 12 feet on the second hole. Watson needed long par-savers early in the round to hang on, but Irwin tied him on the fifth hole. On the ninth hole, Irwin sank a 35-foot birdie to take the lead, and never gave it up.
Watson started the back nine one behind Irwin, but fell apart over the final nine holes. He finished with a 79 and fell to fifth place. (But Watson got his first PGA Tour win a couple weeks later.)
Irwin bogeyed four of the first seven holes on the back nine, but stabilized enough to finish with two pars. He finished at 2-over 287, two strokes ahead of runner-up Forrest Fezler. Palmer finished tied for fifth, Player tied for eighth, and Jack Nicklaus shot a 69 in the final round to move up to 10th.
Irwin went on to win the 1979 U.S. Open and 1990 U.S. Open, too. This was the final major championship played by 1964 U.S. Open winner Ken Venturi, who missed the cut.
1974 U.S. Open Scores
| Hale Irwin | 73-70-71-73—287 |
| Forrest Fezler | 75-70-74-70—289 |
| Lou Graham | 71-75-74-70—290 |
| Bert Yancey | 76-69-73-72—290 |
| Arnold Palmer | 73-70-73-76—292 |
| Jim Colbert | 72-77-69-74—292 |
| Tom Watson | 73-71-69-79—292 |
| Gary Player | 70-73-77-73—293 |
| Tom Kite | 74-70-77-72—293 |
| Jack Nicklaus | 75-74-76-69—294 |
| Bud Allin | 76-71-74-73—294 |
| John Mahaffey | 74-73-75-73—295 |
| Frank Beard | 77-69-72-77—295 |
| Larry Ziegler | 78-68-78-71—295 |
| Mike Reasor | 71-76-76-73—296 |
| Tom Weiskopf | 76-73-72-75—296 |
| Raymond Floyd | 72-71-78-75—296 |
| David Graham | 73-75-76-73—297 |
| Dale Douglass | 77-72-72-76—297 |
| Al Geiberger | 75-76-78-68—297 |
| Leonard Thompson | 75-75-76-72—298 |
| J.C. Snead | 76-71-76-75—298 |
| Larry Hinson | 75-76-75-73—299 |
| Bruce Crampton | 72-77-76-74—299 |
| Bobby Mitchell | 77-73-73-76—299 |
| Lanny Wadkins | 75-73-76-76—300 |
| Chi Chi Rodriguez | 75-75-77-73—300 |
| Jim Jamieson | 77-73-75-75—300 |
| Hubert Green | 81-67-76-76—300 |
| David Glenz | 76-74-75-76—301 |
| Rod Funseth | 73-75-78-75—301 |
| Jerry McGee | 77-72-78-74—301 |
| Ron Cerrudo | 78-75-75-73—301 |
| Rik Massengale | 79-72-74-76—301 |
| Don Iverson | 74-77-76-75—302 |
| Johnny Miller | 76-75-74-77—302 |
| Bob E. Smith | 77-74-73-78—302 |
| Steve Melnyk | 74-79-73-76—302 |
| John Buczek | 73-73-83-73—302 |
| Mark Hayes | 73-77-76-77—303 |
| Dave Eichelberger | 76-77-76-74—303 |
| Kermit Zarley | 74-73-78-78—303 |
| Homero Blancas | 77-71-79-76—303 |
| Dave Stockton | 79-74-78-72—303 |
| Bob Stone | 75-74-77-78—304 |
| Tom Ulozas | 77-75-74-78—304 |
| Jerry Heard | 73-77-75-79—304 |
| Jim Dent | 76-73-79-76—304 |
| Lynn Janson | 77-74-77-77—305 |
| Bobby Nichols | 72-77-80-76—305 |
| George Knudson | 78-75-75-78—306 |
| Jim Masserio | 75-75-76-80—306 |
| Mike McCullough | 76-76-74-80—306 |
| Alan Tapie | 77-74-77-79—307 |
| Bob Zender | 77-73-79-78—307 |
| a-Jay Haas | 78-73-79-77—307 |
| Barney Thompson | 72-77-80-78—307 |
| Jack Rule | 78-75-73-81—307 |
| Eddie Pearce | 75-71-84-78—308 |
| Charles Sifford | 77-76-76-80—309 |
| Tom Shaw | 77-76-78-81—312 |
| Jim Simons | 77-72-81-83—313 |
| Roy Pace | 74-76-78-85—313 |
| a-Bill Hyndman | 79-72-82-81—314 |
| a-Andy Bean | 74-76-83-81—314 |
| Bruce Summerhays | 77-76-79-83—315 |
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