The 2012 United States Open Championship was the 112th U.S. Open, played June 14–17 at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California. Webb Simpson won his first major title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Graeme McDowell and Michael Thompson.[4][5]

2012 U.S. Open
Tournament information
DatesJune 14–17, 2012
LocationSan Francisco, California
Course(s)Olympic Club, Lake Course
Organized byUSGA
Tour(s)PGA Tour
European Tour
Japan Golf Tour
Statistics
Par70
Length7,170 yards (6,556 m)[1]
Field156 players, 72 after cut
Cut148 (+8)[2]
Prize fund$8,000,000
6,433,972
Winner's share$1,440,000
€1,158,115[3]
Champion
United States Webb Simpson
281 (+1)
← 2011
2013 →

Venue edit

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 edit

Olympic Club - Lake Course[1][6][7]

Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total
Yards 520 428 247 438 498 489 288 200 449 3,557 424 430 451 199 419 154 670 522 344 3,613 7,170
Par 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 4 34 4 4 4 3 4 3 5 5 4 36 70

Lengths of the course for previous major championships:

 
 
San Francisco
 
 
San Francisco

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.[8] This was due to the 8th green and 9th tee being located far closer to the clubhouse than the 10th tee.

Changes to cuts edit

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.[9]

Field edit

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.[10]

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

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

3. Winner of the 2011 British Amateur

4. Winner of the 2011 Mark H. McCormack Medal

5. Last five Masters Champions

6. Last five British Open Champions

7. Last five PGA Champions

8. Last three Players Champions

9. Winner of the 2012 BMW PGA Championship

10. The U.S. Senior Open Champion

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

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

13. Top 60 on the Official World Golf Ranking list as of May 21, 2012[15]

14. Top 60 on the Official World Golf Ranking list as of June 11, 2012[18]

15. Special exemptions selected by the USGA

  • None

Qualifiers edit

Source:[19]

Alternates who gained entry:

(a) denotes amateur
(L) denotes player advanced through local qualifying

Round summaries edit

First round edit

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Place Player Score To par
1   Michael Thompson 66 −4
T2   Graeme McDowell 69 −1
  Justin Rose
  David Toms
  Nick Watney
  Tiger Woods
T7   Jason Bohn 70 E
  Jim Furyk
  Beau Hossler (a)
  Robert Karlsson
  Matt Kuchar
  Park Jae-bum
  Ian Poulter
  Alistair Presnell

Source:[20]

Second round edit

Friday, June 15, 2012

Place Player Score To par
T1   Jim Furyk 70-69=139 −1
  David Toms 69-70=139
  Tiger Woods 69-70=139
T4   Nicolas Colsaerts 72-69=141 +1
  Graeme McDowell 69-72=141
  John Peterson 71-70=141
  Michael Thompson 66-75=141
8   Blake Adams 72-70=142 +2
T9   K. J. Choi 73-70=143 +3
  Jason Dufner 72-71=143
  Beau Hossler (a) 70-73=143
  Freddie Jacobson 72-71=143
  Raphaël Jacquelin 72-71=143
  Matt Kuchar 70-73=143
  Hunter Mahan 72-71=143
  Charl Schwartzel 73-70=143
  Aaron Watkins 72-71=143

Source:[21]

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

Third round edit

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Place Player Score To par
T1   Jim Furyk 70-69-70=209 −1
  Graeme McDowell 69-72-68=209
3   Freddie Jacobson 72-71-68=211 +1
T4   Blake Adams 72-70-70=212 +2
  Nicolas Colsaerts 72-69-71=212
  Ernie Els 75-69-68=212
  Lee Westwood 73-72-67=212
T8   Kevin Chappell 74-71-68=213 +3
  Jason Dufner 72-71-70=213
  Beau Hossler (a) 70-73-70=213
  John Peterson 71-70-72=213
  John Senden 72-73-68=213
  Webb Simpson 72-73-68=213

Source:[22]

Final round edit

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Final leaderboard edit

Champion
Silver Cup winner (leading amateur)
(a) = amateur
(c) = past champion
Place Player Score To par Money ($)
1   Webb Simpson 72-73-68-68=281 +1 1,440,000
T2   Graeme McDowell (c) 69-72-68-73=282 +2 695,916
  Michael Thompson 66-75-74-67=282
T4   Jason Dufner 72-71-70-70=283 +3 276,841
  Jim Furyk (c) 70-69-70-74=283
  Pádraig Harrington 74-70-71-68=283
  John Peterson 71-70-72-70=283
  David Toms 69-70-76-68=283
9   Ernie Els (c) 75-69-68-72=284 +4 200,280
T10   Kevin Chappell 74-71-68-72=285 +5 163,594
  Retief Goosen (c) 75-70-69-71=285
  John Senden 72-73-68-72=285
  Lee Westwood 73-72-67-73=285
  Casey Wittenberg 71-77-67-70=285

Source:[23][24]

Scorecard edit

Final round

Hole  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Par 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 3 4 3 5 5 4
  Simpson +3 +4 +4 +4 +5 +4 +3 +2 +2 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1
  McDowell −1 −1 E E +1 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +2 +1 +2 +3 +3 +3 +2 +2
  Thompson +5 +5 +5 +5 +4 +4 +3 +3 +4 +4 +3 +3 +3 +3 +3 +2 +2 +2
  Dufner +3 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +3 +4 +4 +4 +4 +3 +3
  Furyk −1 −1 −1 −1 −1 E E E E E E E +1 +1 +1 +2 +2 +3
  Harrington +5 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +6 +5 +4 +4 +4 +4 +3 +3 +3 +3 +2 +3
  Peterson +4 +4 +3 +4 +4 +4 +3 +3 +3 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +4 +3 +3
  Toms +5 +5 +5 +5 +6 +6 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +3 +3
  Els +2 +2 +3 +3 +3 +3 +1 +2 +3 +3 +3 +2 +2 +2 +2 +3 +3 +4
  Jacobson +1 +2 +2 +2 +3 +4 +3 +3 +4 +5 +5 +5 +5 +6 +5 +6 +6 +6

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Eagle Birdie Bogey Double bogey

Source:[25]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "2012 U.S. Open: Course". USGA. Archived from the original on June 21, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  2. ^ McCabe, Jim (June 15, 2012). "Mickelson sneaks into weekend at U.S. Open". Golfweek. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
  3. ^ "U.S. Open Championship: leaderboard". European Tour. June 18, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  4. ^ "Webb Simpson beats McDowell at the Olympic Club". BBC Sport. June 18, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  5. ^ "Webb Simpson sees off Graeme McDowell to win first major". Guardian. June 18, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  6. ^ "U.S. Open at Lakeside: Lake Course featured holes". The Olympic Club. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  7. ^ "Inside Olympic Club: U.S. Open Championship course guide". European Tour. June 9, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  8. ^ Sandritter, Mark (June 14, 2012). "U.S. Open 2012 Tee Times And Pairings For Thursday: Woods And Mickelson Headline First Round". SBNation.com. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  9. ^ "USGA says change was publicized". ESPN. Associated Press. June 14, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  10. ^ "Entry Form, 112th U.S. Open Championship" (PDF). United States Golf Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 25, 2013. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
  11. ^ Garrity, John; Stricklin, Art (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". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  12. ^ Ching, David (April 2, 2012). "Ready for the Masters". ESPN. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
  13. ^ "Clarke out of U.S. Open due to nagging groin injury". PGA Tour. Associated Press. May 28, 2012. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
  14. ^ a b Harig, Bob (June 11, 2012). "Jordan Spieth in U.S. Open". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  15. ^ "Official World Golf Ranking – Week 20, 2012" (PDF). May 20, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  16. ^ "1999 British Open champ Lawrie decides to skip U.S. Open". USA Today. Associated Press. May 2, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
  17. ^ a b "Amateur Zhang replaces Casey in field". PGA Tour. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  18. ^ "Official World Golf Ranking – Week 23, 2012" (PDF). June 10, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  19. ^ "Sectional Qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Open Championship". USGA. Archived from the original on May 30, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  20. ^ "US Open 2012: round one – as it happened". Guardian. June 15, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  21. ^ "Tiger Woods shares US Open lead at the Olympic Club". BBC Sport. June 16, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  22. ^ "US Open 2012: round three – as it happened". Guardian. June 17, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  23. ^ "US Open 2012: final round – as it happened". Guardian. June 18, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  24. ^ "US Open - final round as it happened". BBC Sport. June 18, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
  25. ^ "2012 U.S. Open Leaderboard - Round 4". USGA. June 17, 2012. Archived from the original on June 22, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2013.

External links edit

37°42′32″N 122°29′42″W / 37.709°N 122.495°W / 37.709; -122.495