The 12 Largest Margins Of Victory In The History Of The U.S. Open

The U.S. Open is widely considered golf’s most difficult major, and every player has to grapple with the difficult conditions that threaten to derail every single round. However, there are a number of golfers who’ve managed to win with relative ease while making the rest of the field look pretty foolish in the process.

2025 marks the 125th edition of the U.S. Open, and golf fans can usually expect a tournament that’s capable of humbling the best players on the planet while treating them to a pretty competitive affair.

The U.S. Open has been decided by exactly one stroke on 35 occasions (including the four most recent iterations of the major), which doesn’t account for the 33 times a playoff was needed to determine the winner.

However, there are also a more than a few champions who ended up securing the trophy with a very sizeable margin of victory.

Tiger Woods: 15 Strokes (2000)

In 1997, Tiger Woods won The Masters by 12 strokes to get his first major and firmly announce his grand arrival while ushering in the most dominant run golf has ever seen.

He arguably reached his peak thanks to what unfolded in 2000, as he’d already racked up four victories on the PGA Tour by the time he arrived at Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open.

Tiger pulled out to a one-stroke lead after the opening round and never looked back while going wire-to-wire  and increasing his lead with every day that passed before finishing at -12 for the tournament—15 strokes ahead of second-place finisher Miguel Ángel Jiménez.

It remains the largest margin of victory in any major tournament and also marked the start of a run that saw him cap off the career grand slam while becoming the first golfer in history to win all four majors in a row.

Willie Smith: 11 Strokes (1899)

Tiger’s win at the U.S. Open in 2000 also toppled a record that had stood for over a century, as Willie Smith set the mark he surpassed in the fifth iteration of the tournament that was first held at Newport Country Club in 1895.

The Scotsman finished Thursday’s round at Baltimore Country Club in a tie for first and was actually a stroke behind Willie Anderson by the time play wrapped up on Friday, but things took a turn once the weekend rolled around.

Smith had a four-stroke lead heading into Sunday after shooting a 79 and capped things off by equaling the 77 he recorded in the first round to beat the three runners-up by 11 strokes and earn the $150 check reserved for the winner.

Jim Barnes: 9 Strokes (1921)

There are more than a few guys on this list you’re probably not intimately familiar with if you’re not a student of golf history, and Jim Barnes definitely falls under that umbrella.

The Englishman had four major victories during his career, and his lone win at the U.S. Open came in decisive fashion when the tournament was held at Columbia Country Club outside of Washington, D.C. in 1921.

Barnes had a four stroke lead and was the only player under par after the first round where he finished at -1, and he also went wire-to-wire.

He ultimately finished at +9, but that was more than enough to beat the two men who came in second at +18.

Martin Kaymer: 8 Strokes (2014)

Two golfers have won the U.S. Open by eight strokes, and Martin Kaymer became the second to do so when he had the best month of his career in 2014.

Kaymer got his first win on the PGA Tour in 2010 and had to wait four years for his second, which came at the PGA Championship in May of 2014.

He only won his first major by a single stroke, but he had a much easier time getting his second when the U.S. Open unfolded at Pinehurst No. 2 midway through June.

The German came hot out of the gate with back-to-back 65s, which was good enough for a six stroke lead heading into the weekend.

The lead had narrowed to five by the time the third round wrapped up, but he didn’t have to sweat on Sunday while doing the wire-to-wire thing and beating Erik Compton and Rickie Fowler by eight strokes with a -9 showing.

Rory McIlroy: 8 Strokes (2011)

As was the case with Kaymer, Rory McIlroy only had a single PGA Tour victory under his belt when the U.S Open was held at Congressional Country Club in 2011, but he’d already started making a name for himself on the circuit.

The 22-year-old was hoping to redeem himself after choking away a lead at The Masters in brutal fashion in April, and he managed to do exactly that by bouncing back in a big way.

The Northern Irishman had a three-stroke lead after the opening round thanks to his six-under 65. His scores gradually increased over the next few days, but he never went over par and finished at -16—good enough for the lowest score in U.S. Open history and an eight-stroke win over Jason Day.

Tony Jacklin: 7 Strokes (1970)

There are three golfers who’ve won the U.S. Open by seven strokes, and we’ll once again start with the most recent and work our way back.

Tony Jacklin ended up with four victories on the PGA Tour (although he had close to 30 as a pro thanks to his international play), and two of those came in major tournaments.

The Englishman got a win on his home turf in The British Open in 1969 while winning by two strokes, and he was able to breathe a bit easier when the U.S Open was held at Hazeltine the following year.

This was yet another wire-to-wire victory, as Jacklin had a two-stroke lead as the only golfer under par after the first round with a -1. He improved to −7 by the time play wrapped up on Sunday and was also the only golfer in the red, as Dave Hill finished in second with an “E” next to his name.

Alex Smith: 7 Strokes (1906)

Willie Smith wasn’t the only member of his clan to win the U.S. Open in fairly decisive fashion, as his brother Alex did pretty well for himself with the first of the two wins he had at the major in 1906 (he needed a playoff to win in 1910).

Both Smith brothers competed when the tournament headed to Onwentsia Club in Illinois, and they ended up in a tie for first (along with fellow Scotland native Willie Anderson) after the first round.

However, Alex began to pull away over the next couple of days and had a three-stroke lead heading into the final round before ultimately outdoing Willie by seven strokes.

Fred Herd: 7 Strokes (1898)

If you haven’t caught on by now, Scottish golfers dominated the U.S. Open during the early days of the tournament (an American wouldn’t win until 1911; 12 guys from Scotland and four from England reigned supreme prior to that point).

St. Andrews native Fred Herd helped firm up that run of dominance thanks to what went down at Myopia Hunt Club in Massachusetts in 1898 (a unique tournament where participants had to play two rounds per day on the nine-hole course after it expanded from 36 to 72 holes for the first time).

This is a particularly impressive entry when you consider Herd was in a tie for sixth and six strokes behind Alex Smith when the first round wrapped up.

He’d dropped to seventh and was still six strokes back after Friday’s play, but he surged to the top of the leaderboard with a 75 on Saturday that gave him a six-stroke lead of his own after previously recording an 84 and 85.

He regressed on Sunday with another 85, but most of the field failed to fare much better as he clinched the victory over Smith by seven strokes.

Bryson DeChambeau: 6 Strokes (2020)

Bryson DeChambeau turned plenty of heads with the physical transformation he underwent in 2020, as the amount of muscle he put on helped him add an impressive amount of distance to his shots off of the tee.

He was able to get a win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic that year but was still in search of his first major victory when the U.S. Open belatedly descended upon Winged Foot in September, and he became the fourth golfer to win the major by six strokes—doing so in a pretty unexpected fashion.

DeChambeau was four strokes behind leader Justin Thomas after Thursday’s round, but he ended up at -3 and a stroke behind new leader Patrick Reed by the time the cut was finalized.

Reed ended up choking on Saturday as 21-year-old Matthew Wolff leapt into first place at -5 with a two-stroke lead over Bryson.

However, DeChambeau responded with a 67 as Wolff shot a 75 to help the former get the first of his two U.S. Open wins so far to the tune of six strokes.

Ben Hogan: 6 Strokes (1953)

You may not be intimately familiar with the majority of the guys on this list, but there is one more major exception in the form of nine-time major winner Ben Hogan.

Hogan won the U.S. Open four times, and none of those wins were as comfortable as his final one at Oakmont in 1953.

The -5 that Bantam Ben had on Thursday was good enough for a three-stroke lead, but Sam Snead started closing the gap and ended just a stroke behind Hogan heading into Sunday.

However, Snead posted a 76 as Hogan recorded a 71 to finish at -5 and six strokes ahead of his fellow legend as the only golfer under par that year.

Ralph Guldahl: 6 Strokes (1938)

Snead also finished in second place more than 15 years before he fell to Hogan, as Ralph Guldahl beat him by two strokes at the U.S. Open in 1937.

That was the first of back-to-back victories at the major for Guldahl, who successfully defended his crown in fairly emphatic fashion when it was hosted at Cherry Hills Country Club the following year.

The reigning king was one of a dozen players who were tied for seventh and four shots back of the lead after the opening round, and while he gradually moved up the leaderboard, the gap between his score and first place remained unchanged by the time things got underway on Sunday.

Dick Metz was the leader at -2 before carding a 79 on the final 18, and Guldahl was able to shave a couple of strokes off of his score with the 69 that resulted in the six-stroke win.

Laurie Auchterlonie: 6 Strokes (1902)

It’s only appropriate that we close things out with one more Scotsman who more than held his own at the U.S Open, as Laurie Auchterlonie is the last member of the quartet that’s won the tournament by six strokes.

His lone major win came when the U.S Open was held at Garden City Golf Club on Long Island.

He was one stroke back of the lead when the first round wrapped up but was up by two shots by the time play came to a close on Friday—a margin he extended to five the following day en route to beating the rest of the field by six.

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