SAN FRANCISCO – The Olympic Club has earned the nickname, “The Graveyard of Champions,” for a reason.
It all started with Jack Fleck, the improbable 1955 U.S. Open winner on the Lake Course after outlasting Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff, a day after the television broadcast signed off by declaring Hogan the champion, not considering that Fleck still had holes to play. Billy Casper followed in 1966, rallying from seven shots back of Arnold Palmer with nine holes remaining to claim his second U.S. Open. Lee Janzen, in 1998, also made up seven strokes on the final day as he beat Payne Stewart. There was Scott Simpson over Tom Watson late in 1987, and Yuka Saso ending Lexi Thompson’s U.S. Women’s Open dreams by erasing five shots down the stretch in 2021.
This week at the 125th U.S. Amateu