2012 U.S. Open (golf)


The 2012 United States Open Championship was the 112th U.S. Open, played June 14–17 at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California. Webb Simpson won his first major title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Graeme McDowell and Michael Thompson.

Venue

This was the fifth U.S. Open at the Olympic Club, all played at the Lake Course. In 1955, unheralded Jack Fleck defeated Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff. In 1966, Billy Casper staged one of the greatest comebacks in U.S. Open history, erasing a seven-stroke deficit on the final nine holes to tie Arnold Palmer, then prevailed in an 18-hole playoff. In 1987, Scott Simpson won by a stroke over 8-time major winner Tom Watson. In 1998, Lee Janzen won his second U.S. Open, one stroke ahead of Payne Stewart.

Course layout

- Lake Course
Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Yards5204282474384984892882004493,5574244304511994191546705223443,6137,170
Par443444434344443435543670

Lengths of the course for previous major championships:
One unique aspect of the course was that players began the first and second rounds on the 1st and 9th tees, rather than the 1st and 10th tees, as is typical. This was due to the 8th green and 9th tee being located far closer to the clubhouse than the 10th tee.

Changes to cuts

For 2012, the USGA changed the rule governing which players would make the cut after 36 holes. Now, only the top 60 players, plus those tied, would make the cut, instead of also including those players within ten strokes of the leader.

Field

About half the field each year consists of players who are fully exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Open. The players who have qualified for the 2012 U.S. Open are listed below. Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
The qualification categories changed substantially in 2012. Seven categories were eliminated. These categories exempted top finishers on the money lists of various tours and multiple PGA Tour winners. Three categories were added, for the winners of The Amateur Championship, the Mark H. McCormack Medal, and the BMW PGA Championship. Two categories were expanded, to include the top 60 instead of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
;1. Last 10 U.S. Open Champions
Ángel Cabrera, Michael Campbell, Jim Furyk, Lucas Glover, Retief Goosen, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Geoff Ogilvy, Tiger Woods
;2. Top two finishers in the 2011 U.S. Amateur
Patrick Cantlay
;3. Winner of the 2011 British Amateur
;4. Winner of the 2011 Mark H. McCormack Medal
;5. Last five Masters Champions
Trevor Immelman, Phil Mickelson, Charl Schwartzel, Bubba Watson
;6. Last five British Open Champions
Stewart Cink, Pádraig Harrington, Louis Oosthuizen
;7. Last five PGA Champions
Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer, Y. E. Yang
;8. Last three Players Champions
K. J. Choi, Tim Clark, Matt Kuchar
;9. Winner of the 2012 BMW PGA Championship
Luke Donald
;10. The U.S. Senior Open Champion
Olin Browne
;11. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2011 U.S. Open
Kevin Chappell, Jason Day, Sergio García, Robert Garrigus, Peter Hanson, Lee Westwood
;12. All players qualifying for the 2011 edition of The Tour Championship
Aaron Baddeley, Jonathan Byrd, Jason Dufner, Bill Haas, Charles Howell III, Fredrik Jacobson, Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan, Chez Reavie, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, John Senden, Webb Simpson, Vijay Singh, Steve Stricker, David Toms, Bo Van Pelt, Nick Watney, Mark Wilson, Gary Woodland
;13. Top 60 on the Official World Golf Ranking list as of May 21, 2012

Bae Sang-moon, Thomas Bjørn, Rafael Cabrera-Bello, Nicolas Colsaerts, Ben Crane, Simon Dyson, Ernie Els, Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño, Rickie Fowler, Anders Hansen, Ryo Ishikawa, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Zach Johnson, Robert Karlsson, Kim Kyung-tae, Martin Laird, Francesco Molinari, Kevin Na, Carl Pettersson, Ian Poulter, Álvaro Quirós, Robert Rock, Kyle Stanley
;14. Top 60 on the Official World Golf Ranking list as of June 11, 2012
Branden Grace, Spencer Levin
;15. Special exemptions selected by the USGA
None
;Sectional qualifiers
;Alternates who gained entry
denotes amateur
denotes player advanced through local qualifying

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Missed the cut

Nationalities in the field

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, June 14, 2012
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
1Michael Thompson66−4
T2Graeme McDowell69−1
T2Justin Rose69−1
T2David Toms69−1
T2Nick Watney69−1
T2Tiger Woods69−1
T7Jason Bohn70E
T7Jim Furyk70E
T7Beau Hossler 70E
T7Robert Karlsson70E
T7Matt Kuchar70E
T7Park Jae-bum70E
T7Ian Poulter70E
T7Alistair Presnell70E

Source:

Second round

Friday, June 15, 2012
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Jim Furyk70-69=139−1
T1David Toms69-70=139−1
T1Tiger Woods69-70=139−1
T4Nicolas Colsaerts72-69=141+1
T4Graeme McDowell69-72=141+1
T4John Peterson71-70=141+1
T4Michael Thompson66-75=141+1
8Blake Adams72-70=142+2
T9K. J. Choi73-70=143+3
T9Jason Dufner72-71=143+3
T9Beau Hossler 70-73=143+3
T9Fredrik Jacobson72-71=143+3
T9Raphaël Jacquelin72-71=143+3
T9Matt Kuchar70-73=143+3
T9Hunter Mahan72-71=143+3
T9Charl Schwartzel73-70=143+3
T9Aaron Watkins72-71=143+3

Source:
Amateurs: Hossler, Spieth, Cantlay, Sanchez, Wilson, Koepka, Zhang, Sherwood

Third round

Saturday, June 16, 2012
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Jim Furyk70-69-70=209−1
T1Graeme McDowell69-72-68=209−1
3Fredrik Jacobson72-71-68=211+1
T4Blake Adams72-70-70=212+2
T4Nicolas Colsaerts72-69-71=212+2
T4Ernie Els75-69-68=212+2
T4Lee Westwood73-72-67=212+2
T8Kevin Chappell74-71-68=213+3
T8Jason Dufner72-71-70=213+3
T8Beau Hossler 70-73-70=213+3
T8John Peterson71-70-72=213+3
T8John Senden72-73-68=213+3
T8Webb Simpson72-73-68=213+3

Source:

Final round

Sunday, June 17, 2012
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo parMoney
1Webb Simpson72-73-68-68=281+11,440,000
T2Graeme McDowell69-72-68-73=282+2695,916
T2Michael Thompson66-75-74-67=282+2695,916
T4Jason Dufner72-71-70-70=283+3276,841
T4Jim Furyk70-69-70-74=283+3276,841
T4Pádraig Harrington74-70-71-68=283+3276,841
T4John Peterson71-70-72-70=283+3276,841
T4David Toms69-70-76-68=283+3276,841
9Ernie Els75-69-68-72=284+4200,280
T10Kevin Chappell74-71-68-72=285+5163,594
T10Retief Goosen75-70-69-71=285+5163,594
T10John Senden72-73-68-72=285+5163,594
T10Lee Westwood73-72-67-73=285+5163,594
T10Casey Wittenberg71-77-67-70=285+5163,594

Source:
Amateurs: Spieth, Hossler, Cantlay

Scorecard

Final round
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718
Par443444434444343554
Simpson+3+4+4+4+5+4+3+2+2+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1
McDowell−1−1EE+1+2+2+2+3+3+2+1+2+3+3+3+2+2
Thompson+5+5+5+5+4+4+3+3+4+4+3+3+3+3+3+2+2+2
Dufner+3+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+3+4+4+4+4+3+3
Furyk−1−1−1−1−1EEEEEEE+1+1+1+2+2+3
Harrington+5+6+6+6+6+7+6+5+4+4+4+4+3+3+3+3+2+3
Peterson+4+4+3+4+4+4+3+3+3+2+2+2+2+2+2+4+3+3
Toms+5+5+5+5+6+6+5+5+5+5+5+4+4+4+4+4+3+3
Els+2+2+3+3+3+3+1+2+3+3+3+2+2+2+2+3+3+4
Jacobson+1+2+2+2+3+4+3+3+4+5+5+5+5+6+5+6+6+6

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
EagleBirdieBogeyDouble bogey

Source: