The U.S. Open’s 10 greatest players: career rating
By Bill Felber
2. Willie Anderson, -1.50 (1897-1910)
The first four-time U.S. Open champion, Anderson’s 14-year record was one of consistent dominance. He never finished worse than 15th, and only three times finished outside the top five.
Comparisons may be in order. In the best 14-year Open stretches of their remarkable careers, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods finished among the tournament’s top 5 nine and seven times respectively. Between his 1897 debut and his 1910 death, Anderson did so 11 times.
Only his early demise four days after his 31st birthday denied Anderson much of the fame that would accrue to a player doing today what he did then. The game Anderson left behind in 1910 was not yet aware of future legends such as Hagen, Jones or Sarazen, much less Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods.
As a result, his accomplishments often received only sparing notice on the nation’s sports pages, rendering him only occasionally recalled today.
A native Scot, Anderson came to the U.S. in 1896, entered the 1897 U.S. Open at age 17 and announced his presence with a runner-up finish, a single shot behind the champion, Joe Lloyd. He was third in 1898, and in 1901 began the most dominant stretch of play in the tournament’s history. Through 1905 he won four times, his only blemish being a tie for fifth in 1902.
He was fifth again in 1906, fourth in 1908 and 1909, and 11th at the 1910 championship, his last.
A few months after that Open, Anderson died, reportedly of epilepsy, at his Philadelphia home.