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 Tour and the European Tour. Since 1898 the competition has been 72 holes of stroke play, with the winner being the player with the lowest total number of strokes. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, scheduled so that, if there are no weather delays, the final round is played on the third Sunday. The U.S. Open is staged at a variety of courses, set up in such a way that scoring is very difficult, with a premium placed on accurate driving. As of 2023, the U.S. Open awards a $20 million purse, the largest of all four major championships.
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The cup holds a flagstick, known as a "pin". A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes, and as such most courses contain 18 distinct holes; however, there are many 9-hole courses and some that have holes with shared fairways or greens. There are also courses with a non-standard number of holes, such as 12 or 14.
The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs.
Firestone Country Club is a private golf club in the United States, located in Akron, Ohio. It was a regular stop on the PGA Tour and has hosted the PGA Championship three times. It is the current home of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship through 2026.
The Riviera Country Club is a private club with a championship golf course and tennis courts in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of the Westside of Los Angeles, California.
The Sahalee Country Club is a private golf course and country club in the northwest United States, located in Sammamish, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle. In the Chinookan language, Sahalee means "high heavenly ground." The 27-hole course is located on a heavily forested plateau immediately east of Lake Sammamish.
Hazeltine National Golf Club is a golf club located in Chaska, Minnesota, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis, United States. It is a private club and therefore closed to guests not accompanied by a member. The golf course was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1962.
Oakmont Country Club is a country club in the eastern United States, located mostly in Plum with only a very small portion of the property located in Oakmont, suburbs of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. Established 120 years ago in 1903, its golf course is regarded as the "oldest top-ranked golf course in the United States." It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. The Pennsylvania Turnpike separates seven holes (2–8) from the rest of the course.
The Olympic Club is an athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, California.
The Baltusrol Golf Club is a private 36-hole golf club in the eastern United States, located in Springfield, New Jersey, about twenty miles (30 km) west of New York City. It was founded 128 years ago in 1895 by Louis Keller.
Montauk Downs State Park is a state park in Montauk, New York, United States. The park is located in Suffolk County near the eastern tip of Long Island's South Fork, about one mile (1.6 km) east of the hamlet of Montauk. Montauk Downs State Park includes an 18-hole championship golf course, driving range, tennis courts, swimming pool, and restaurant facilities.
In golf, par is the predetermined number of strokes that a proficient golfer should require to complete a hole, a round, or a tournament. For scoring purposes, a golfer's number of strokes is compared with the par score to determine how much the golfer was either "over par", "under par", or was "even with/equal to par".
Congressional Country Club is a country club and golf course in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. Congressional opened in 1924 and its Blue Course has hosted five major championships, including three U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship. It was a biennial stop on the PGA Tour, with the Quicken Loans National hosted by Tiger Woods until 2020. Previously, Congressional hosted the former Kemper Open until its move to nearby TPC at Avenel in 1987. Congressional hosted its third U.S. Open in 2011. Tournament winners at Congressional have included Rory McIlroy, Ken Venturi, Ernie Els, Justin Rose and Tiger Woods, among many others. Congressional is generally considered one of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world.
Bellerive Country Club is a golf country club in the central United States, located in Town and Country, Missouri, a suburb west of St. Louis. With the Old Warson, Westwood, and St. Louis country clubs, it is considered one of the "big four" old-line elite St. Louis clubs. The course has hosted three major championships: the U.S. Open in 1965, and the PGA Championship in 1992 and 2018.
Oak Tree National, formerly called Oak Tree Golf Club, is a golf and country club located in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, Oklahoma. The course was designed by Pete Dye, and it opened in 1976. It plays to a par 71.
Meriwether National Golf Club is a 27-hole golf club in Washington County, just south of Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1961, it has three regulation-length nine-hole courses and an executive-length course located along the Tualatin River in suburban Portland, Oregon. The Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club is situated just across the river to the east.
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
TPC Southwind is a private golf club in Shelby County, Tennessee, southern United States, located within the gated community of Southwind in Southeast Memphis.
The Glendower Golf Club is an 18-hole golf complex located in Edenvale, Gauteng, South Africa. The course has been the home of the South African Open for eight competitions. Englishman Chris Paisley won his first European Tour title winning the 2018 SA Open. Englishman Graeme Storm won the 2017 SA Open beating Rory McIlroy in a play-off while South African golfer Brandon Stone won the 2016 SA Open.
North Adelaide Golf Course is a 54 hole golf course in Adelaide, South Australia. The golf course is situated in the park lands which surround the City of Adelaide. The course consists of three courses, the Par 69 North Course, the Par 71 South Course, and an 18 hole Par 3 course. The North Adelaide Golf Course is perhaps the only golf course of its size to be located only a kilometre away from the business heart of a capital city.
