The 1978 U.S. Open was the 78th U.S. Open, held June 15–18 at

Cherry Hills Country Club Cherry Hills Country Club is a private country club in the western United States, located in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, a suburb south of Denver. Founded in 1922 and designed by William Flynn, the club features a championship 18-hole golf c ...

Cherry Hills Village, Colorado The City of Cherry Hills Village is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 6,442 at the 2020 United States Census. Cherry Hills Village is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, C ...

, a suburb south of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Andy North Andrew Stewart North (born March 9, 1950) is an American professional golfer who had three wins on the PGA Tour, including the U.S. Open twice. Since 1992, he has served as a golf analyst for ESPN. Early years North was born in Thorp, Wisconsin ...

held on for a one-stroke victory over runners-up

Dave Stockton David Knapp Stockton (born November 2, 1941) is an American retired professional golfer who has won tournaments on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Stockton was born in San Bernardino, California. He attended the University of Souther ...

and

J. C. Snead Jesse Carlyle "J. C." Snead (born October 14, 1940) is an American professional golfer who won tournaments on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour. Snead is the nephew of hall of famer Sam Snead. Snead, who prefers that people called him by his ...

to claim the first of his two U.S. Open titles. The strength in North's game was putting, and he needed only 114 putts over 72 holes, tying the record set by

Billy Casper William Earl Casper Jr. (June 24, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American professional golfer. He was one of the most prolific tournament winners on the PGA Tour from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. In his youth, Casper started as a caddie a ...

in 1966. This was North's second win on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

, but he would not win again until the 1985 U.S. Open; of North's three career PGA Tour wins, two of them came at the U.S. Open. This was the third U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, which previously hosted in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

and 1960. It was also the site of the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...

, and later hosted in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. The average

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of the course exceeds above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. Three players received special exemptions into the field. They were

Seve Ballesteros Severiano Ballesteros Sota (; 9 April 1957 – 7 May 2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A member of a gifted golfing family, he won 90 inte ...

, and

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous ev ...

. Forty-three golfers received an exemption from the qualifying process. The

felt this was too few players. To protest, the PGA Tour staged the

Buick Open The Buick Open was a PGA Tour golf tournament from 1958 to 2009. In 2007, the tournament was held at the end of June, a change from its traditional spot between The Open Championship and the PGA Championship. Regardless, many prominent players ...

the same week to compete with the U.S. Open.

Course layout

Source: Lengths of the course for previous major championships: *, par 71 - 1960 U.S. Open *, par 71 - 1941 PGA Championship *, par 71 - 1938 U.S. Open

Round summaries

First round

''Thursday, June 15, 1978''

Second round

''Friday, June 16, 1978'' Amateurs: '' Clampett (+1), Holtgrieve (+8)'', Heafner (+9),

Miller A miller is a person who operates a Gristmill, mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Mill (grinding), Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surname ...

(+9),

Edwards Edwards may refer to: People * Edwards (surname) * Edwards family, a prominent family from Chile * Edwards Barham (1937-2014), a former member of the Louisiana State Senate * Edwards Pierrepont (1817–1892), an American attorney, jurist, and ora ...

(+11), Choate (+16), Hodge (+17),

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

(+21), Pomerantz (+25).

Third round

''Saturday, June 17, 1978''

Final round

''Sunday, June 18, 1978'' North began the final round with a one-stroke lead over

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

. Two months earlier, Player had won the Masters with a blistering 64 in the final round. History, however, would not repeat itself, as this time around Player struggled to a 77 (+6) and finished in a tie for 6th. North owned a four-shot lead over Snead heading to the back-nine, and after birdies at 11 and 13 he appeared to have the championship wrapped up. A bogey at 14, however, combined with a double-bogey at 15 and a birdie by Dave Stockton at the same hole dropped his lead to just one. Stockton, however, missed an 18-footer (5.5 m) for par at 18, increasing North's lead to two. Snead had a chance for birdie at the last after his tee shot skipped off the water and onto the fairway, but he missed the birdie putt. Needing just a bogey at 18 to win, North's drive found the rough. He hit his second shot into the fairway, then his third found a greenside bunker. Needing to get up-and-down, he played his sand shot to five feet (1.5 m), and after backing off twice, sank the bogey putt for the one-stroke win. Amateurs:

Bobby Clampett Robert Daniel Clampett Jr. (born April 22, 1960) is an American television golf analyst, golf course architect, writer, and professional golfer, who played on the PGA Tour from 1980 to 1995. Clampett began playing on the Champions Tour in April ...

(+13), Jim Holtgrieve (+20)

Scorecard

''Final round'' ''Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par''
Source:

References

External links

USOpen.com – 1978USGA Championship DatabaseCherry Hills Country Club
{{coord, 39.643, -104.963, type:event, display=title U.S. Open (golf) Golf in Colorado Sports competitions in Denver Englewood, Colorado U.S. Open

U.S. Open (golf) The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open national championship of golf in the United States. It is the third of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA ...

1970s in Denver