The US Open is a big deal. As one of four major annual golf championships, it’s part of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour, attracting fans of the sport from around the world. Put on each year by the United States Golf Association, the US Open has been an important piece of the sport’s history for more than a century – the first one was held in 1895!

Practice Makes Perfect

Not just anyone can play in the US Open. That being said, it’s dubbed an “open” tournament because it’s available to professionals as well as amateur players, provided they have a USGA handicap of 1.4 or less. Competitors still need to qualify through professional play in order to get in, though there are a number of exemptions. If you’ve won a US Open anytime in the last ten years, you can show up no questions asked, for example. You’re also exempt from qualifying if you’re in the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking two weeks before the tournament. Either way, the US Open attracts the best and brightest golfers from around the globe, and damn if they don’t put on a show.

Some of the best players in the sport have competed at the US Open over the years. While the British had the upper hand in the early days of the championship, the event has been firmly dominated by American golfers since 1910, and often by a major margin. Take Tiger Woods, for example, who won 15 strokes ahead in 2000, a tournament record that’s likely to stand for a very long time.

Kind of a Big Deal

When you’ve been the gold standard for professional golf tournaments for more than a century, you know you’re doing something right. Even its early days were far from modest: while the first US Open was only 32 holes, things changed a few years later. Since 1898 the championship has taken place on an 18-hole course over four rounds for a total of 72 holes of stroke play.

But the length of the tournament isn’t the only thing that’s grueling. The USGA chooses courses with care from a long list of some of the most difficult in the country. These courses often stress high driving accuracy and the ability to handle vast amounts of open rough, pinched fairways, and undulating greens. But the reward is worth it – the purse for the US Open is the largest of the four major championships at $12 million as of 2019. Only the PGA Tour’s Players Championship awards more. As we said, the US Open is a big deal.