Golfers Who Won the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Open
So far, only three golfers have managed to pull off the U.S. Junior-U.S. Open double. One of them is still active and a certain Hall-of-Fame; the other two are already in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Those three golfers are Johnny Miller, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth. What about Jack Nicklaus? He lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur in 1955 (when he was 15), in the semifinals in 1956, and in the fourth round in 1957.
The U.S. Junior Amateur was founded in 1948; golfers must be under 19 years old on the last day of the tournament. There are a larger number of golfers who've pulled off the U.S. Amateur-U.S. Open double than the U.S. Junior-U.S. Open double, which makes sense given the younger ages of the golfers in the Junior Am. Winning the Junior Amateur, because of the ages of the golfers, is less predictive of future success as a pro than winning the U.S. Amateur.
Here's a brief look at each golfer so far who has won both the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Open golf tournaments:
- Johnny Miller: Miller was the first golfer to pull off the Junior Am/Open double. He won the 1964 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 1973 U.S. Open. His Open win in '73 included his famous final-round 63, the first 63 scored in any of the major championships.
- Tiger Woods: Woods won three U.S. Junior Amateurs and, so far, three U.S. Opens. His wins in the Junior Am were in 1991, 1992 and 1993; his U.S. Open wins in 2000, 2002 and 2008. Woods is the only golfer who has won three Junior Ams, and he did so consecutively. His win in the 2000 U.S. Open was by a tournament-record 15 strokes.
- Jordan Spieth: Spieth joined Woods as the only multiple U.S. Junior Amateur champions by winning that title in 2009 and 2011. He later won the 2015 U.S. Open to become the third member of this exclusive club. The four-year gap between his last Junior Am title and first U.S. Open win is the shortest such gap by any of the three golfers.
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