U.S. Open: The best playoff format of golf’s four Majors
Unlike golf’s other three Majors, the U.S. Open has a playoff format unique unto itself.
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All of golf’s Majors have their own playoff system. The Masters, for example, is a sudden death system. Players start on 10, then, if necessary, move to 18 – continuing on until one wins a given hole.
The PGA and Open Championships employ aggregate playoffs. Players compete in the select amount of holes – three for the PGA, four for the Open – and then compare scores. In the event of another tie, sudden death is utilized.
And then there’s the U.S. Open, an island unto itself. The only Major to employ an 18-hole playoff.
Yep, one of the best quirks of the U.S. Open is that in the event of a tie things aren’t settled in the waning hours of daylight. Players go home, get one more good night of rest and come back on Monday to play an extra round. From 72-hole tournament to 90. Should there be a tie after 90 holes, the event then turns to a sudden death contest.
The 18-hole playoff is a thrill for several reasons. One, it’s an extra round of golf. What’s better than four rounds of a Major? How about five. Beyond that, it extends the drama across 18 holes. The Masters is thrilling because one bad swing can cost a player the Green Jacket, but it’s a punctuated excitement. In the Open and PGA Championships, a player might pull the holes he’s either exceptional at, or the opposite. There’s strategy, but on the short end.
With the U.S. Open, golfers can compete in the long game. One or two bad holes won’t bury them. They can perry and thrust throughout the morning and afternoon, with drama waxing in waning on every swing of the club head. Storylines unfold throughout the day.
The latest U.S. Open Playoff, which also happened to be a sudden death, was in 2008 when a one-legged Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines.