Top 5 Saddest U.S. Open Moments That Made Every Fan Cry

The USGA had made several shocking changes and taken a variety of initiatives to make the US Open one of the toughest golf tournaments in the world. However, this tournament has also seen several instances that were absolutely gut-wrenching and took golf fans on an emotional ride. Let us go through a list of five such moments that made golf fans cry:

5. Sam Snead’s tough luck in the US Open

Sam Snead had won the PGA Championship and the Masters Tournament three times each. He had also taken the winner’s crown at the Open Championship in 1946. However, this golf star, who had bagged 142 professional wins, including his seven major titles, had never been able to get his name listed as a US Open champion.

It was in 1939 that Snead was the closest to winning the tournament. He only needed a birdie to make the dream a reality. However, in this attempt at the Philadelphia Country Club, Snead was again caught up in a sudden thread of bad luck. According to Golf Monthly, “He hooked his drive, attempted a 2-wood, which found some sand, and a catalogue of further disasters added up to a treble-bogey eight.”

His distraughtness and frustration after such a play were later expressed. “That night, I was ready to go out with a gun and pay somebody to shoot me.” Snead further reflected on how it affected him both physically and mentally. He said, “It weighed on my mind so much that I dropped 10 pounds, lost more hair, and began to choke even in practice rounds.”

4. Phil Mickelson’s torn state of mind as a soon-to-be dad on the greens of Pinehurst

Pinehurst has given much trouble to golfers as one of Donald Ross’s best designs. In 1999, the US Open was hosted on the greens of Pinehurst No. 2 for the very first time, and it was the same year that saw Phil Mickelson lose his best and the earliest chance to win in the US Open.

However, what makes the scene even more tragic is the fact that the final round commenced on Father’s Day. Back then, Mickelson was waiting to be a father at any moment. He had kept a beeper in his pocket, knowing quite well that if there were any changes or a sudden stop of the beeper, Mickelson would leave his golf clubs behind and run to his wife, Amy, to celebrate and welcome the arrival of their first child, a daughter.

Even in such a tense moment, Mickelson put up a tough fight and only lost to Payne Stewart by one stroke. As the celebration began for Stewart, he came to Mickelson, not to rub his win in his face but to congratulate him for becoming a dad.

3. Tiger Woods’s one-legged major win

In 2008, Tiger Woods made one of the most shocking and sad wins at the US Open. The tournament that year was held at Torrey Pines in San Diego, California. The 2008 US Open was the third and last time Woods won in the tournament to date. Woods appeared in the highly coveted tournament two months after he had arthroscopic knee surgery to clean out the cartilage.

While preparing for the U.S. Open, Woods faced a double-stress fracture in his left tibia. Yet Woods won the major tournament by winning the play-off against Rocco Mediate, with one leg severely injured. Bleacher Report said, “It was Tiger’s so-called one-legged major, played on two stress fractures and a torn ACL in his left knee.”

Tiger Woods had a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament [ACL] injury a year before. Although he was in pain, the golfer decided not to go into surgery right then and went ahead to play six events next, out of which he won five.

According to ESPN, Tiger Woods continued to have issues with his leg, and he followed it up with another surgery. They noted, “One week after winning the U.S. Open, Woods underwent reconstructive surgery on the damaged ACL and missed the remainder of the 2008 season.”

2. Bryson DeChambeau’s father misses his major win

Bryson DeChambeau’s father, Jon, was a golf teacher in Fresno, California. It was upon his navigation that DeChambeau stepped into the golf world. However, his father was diagnosed with diabetes in the 1990s and has suffered ever since, until he died in 2022.

In his lifetime, Jon DeChambeau could see only two of his son’s performances in person: his 2015 US Amateur win and his participation in the 2016 Masters tournament. However, he had never seen his son win a major title.

DeChambeau has won his only major to date, the 2020 US Open. Although his father was alive back then, due to the COVID-19 protocols, Jon DeChambeau did not make it on the greens. Moreover, due to his own health, with an amputated left leg and kidney transplant, the proud father was not healthy enough to travel much.

What’s more gut-wrenching is that, in his last days, Jon DeChambeau had to witness his son getting backlash from the entire golf community for joining LIV Golf. Now that Bryson DeChambeau has a high chance of winning the US Open yet again, he does not have his father next to him.

1. The 1999 US Open Champion’s demise

Apart from Phil Mickelson’s sad runner-up finish in the 1999 US Open, there looms a graver misfortune that landed on the winner, Payne Stewart. Stewart won against Mickelson with a one-stroke margin of victory after he shot a 20-footer for par to take the lead in the tournament.

However, only about four months later, the two-time US Open champion was killed in a jet crash. It was a Learjet that flew from his home in Orlando, Florida. He was flying to play in the Tour Championship, held at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas.

According to the Washington Post, “the cause of the uncontrolled flight and crash after the Learjet 35 apparently ran out of fuel were not known, but aviation experts speculated that the aircraft may have lost pressurization and that emergency backup systems failed as the plane’s autopilot kept it in the air.”

With the 124th US Open almost in its last few hours, who do you think will win? Let us know your picks in the comments below!