Most U.S. Open Golf Championships of All Time

The United States Open Championship — better known as the U.S. Open — has been the signature open tournament for the United States since 1895. 

You can’t make a list of the greatest golfers who ever lived or the greatest major championship wins of all time without the U.S. Open dotting the landscape. Played every year with the exception of a two-year break for World War I and a four-year break for World War II, golfers around the world have used the U.S. Open as a proving ground — a springboard to stardom. 

Here’s a look at the golfers with the most U.S. Open championships of all time. 

U.S. Open championships: 2017, 2018

Bottom line: Brooks Koepka has an impressive two U.S. Open championship wins, tied with eight other golfers who achieved the same. But Koepka was a bit different. When he won the U.S. Open in back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018 and the PGA Championship in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019, he became the first golfer to hold back-to-back titles in two different majors at the same time. 

In 2022, Koepka decided to leave the PGA Tour to join the LIV Golf Tour for a deal worth a reported $100 million. 

U.S. Open championships: 2001, 2004

Bottom line: South African golfer Retief Goosen’s first win on U.S. soil came at the 2001 U.S. Open when he held off Mark Brooks on a Monday 18-hole playoff. 

Goosen returned in 2004 to win the U.S. Open again, this time with one of the greatest putting performances in golf history — he needed just 24 putts over 18 holes in the final round. 

U.S. Open championships: 1968, 1971

Bottom line: One of the most popular, iconic golfers of all time, Lee Trevino is one of only four golfers to win the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship two times each. 

Trevino was already 29 years old when his career went into the stratosphere after his first major championship at the U.S. Open in 1968, where he beat defending champion Jack Nicklaus by four strokes. Trevino returned in 1971 to beat Nicklaus once again, but this time in an 18-hole playoff. 

U.S. Open championships: 1994, 1997

Bottom line: South African golfer Ernie Els towered over most of his competition throughout his career — mainly because he’s 6-foot-3 but also because he won four major championships and finished as the runner-up at The Masters twice. 

Els’ career was unusual in the time between his first and last major wins — he won his first major at the U.S. Open in 1994 and won his last major at the British Open 18 years later in 2012.