Back-to-Back Winners of the U.S. Amateur
How many golfers have won the U.S. Amateur Championship back-to-back? That number currently stands at nine, although no golfer has done it since the mid-1990s. Only one golfer, though, has won the U.S. Amateur back-to-back-to-back: Tiger Woods.
Woods holds the tournament record for consecutive years winning. He won three in a row from 1994-96. His first victory, in 1994, ended with a championship match win over Trip Kuehne by a 2-up score. At age 18, Woods was, at the time, the U.S. Amateur's youngest-ever winner.
His second-consecutive championship in 1995 included a win in the final over Buddy Marucci Jr., also by a 2-up score. And Woods completed the three-peat in 1996, beating Steve Scott in the championship match, 1-up on the 38th hole.
Consecutive Years Winning the U.S. Amateur
3 years in a row
- Tiger Woods, 1994, 1995, 1996
2 years in a row
- H.J. Whigham, 1896, 1897
- Walter Travis, 1900, 1901
- Chandler Egan, 1904, 1905
- Jerry Travers, 1907, 1908 and 1912, 1913
- Bobby Jones, 1924, 1925 and 1927, 1928
- Lawson Little, 1934, 1935
- E. Harvie Ward, 1955, 1956
- Jay Sigel, 1982, 1983
In Travers' first pair of consecutive wins, he beat Archie Grahan and Max Behr, respectively, in the championship matches, Graham by a 6-and-5 score, Behr by an 8-and-7 score. In his second pair of back-to-back U.S. Amateur wins, Travers' championship match victories were over Chick Evans (1912, 7-and-6) and John Anderson (1913, 5-and-4).
Travers was arguably the greatest American amateur golfer prior to Jones, so Jones being the other guy with two different back-to-backs seems appropriate. And Jones' back-to-backs don't even include his fifth win in the U.S. Amateur, the one in his Grand Slam year of 1930. Jones' wins were also by even larger margins than Travers'.
In the 1924 U.S. Amateur title match, Jones beat George Von Elm, 9-and-8. In 1925, he downed Watts Gunn, 8-and-7. Von Elm got some revenge by winning the 1926 U.S. Amateur over Jones. But then Jones won two more consecutively: In 1927 he beat Chick Evans in the final, 8-and-7; and in 1928, he defeated Phil Perkins for the championship, 10-and-9.
Something else well-worth pointing out is Lawson Little's inclusion on the list. Little won back-to-back U.S. Amateurs in 1934-35. But he also won the British Amateur back-to-back those same years. He is the only golfer in history to win both those tournaments in the same years two years running.
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