The U.S. Open’s 10 greatest players: career rating
By Bill Felber
4. Walter Hagen, -1.10 (1913-1936)
Hagen won both the 1914 and 1919 U.S. Opens. But like Barnes, his contemporary, that event was not even his best. His 11 Major titles included just those two Opens, but five PGAs and four British Opens, all between 1921 and 1929.
In any event of the 1920s not featuring Bobby Jones – which basically meant any professional event – Hagen was usually the prohibitive favorite.
His 1914 title at Midlothian put Hagen, then just 21, on the golfing map. Cocky even as a youth, he had tied for fourth one year earlier then on his return home snapped to a friend asking how he’d done, “I lost.”
His opening round 68 in 1914 gave him a working margin that Hagen nursed to the finish, edging Chick Evans by a stroke. At Brae Burn in 1919, Hagen came from well of the pace in the final round to tie leader Mike Brady, then beat him in the next day’s playoff.
Although Hagen never got past his era’s other greats, Jones, Gene Sarazen or Barnes, to win a third U.S. Open, he played credibly. When Barnes blitzed the 1921 field, he was runner-up. He was top 4 four times between 1922 and 1928, the height of Jones’ dominance, fourth again to Sarazen in 1932 and third as late as 1935, when he was a veteran of 42.