1983 U.S. Open (golf)


The 1983 U.S. Open was the 83rd U.S. Open, held June 16–20 at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, a suburb northeast of Pittsburgh. Larry Nelson won the second of his three major titles, and only U.S. Open, one stroke ahead of defending champion Tom Watson.
Watson and Seve Ballesteros shared the 54-hole lead, with Nelson a stroke back. Nelson was 7-over for the championship after four holes in his third round, but then played the final fourteen holes on Saturday in 7-under to get to even-par 213, one shot behind the co-leaders. Watson was attempting to become the first to successfully defend a U.S. Open title in over thirty years, last achieved by Ben Hogan in 1951.
In the final round, Watson opened with a front-nine 31 to open up a three-stroke lead over Nelson, who shot 33. Nelson tied Watson with a birdie at 14 after Watson had bogeyed 10 and 12. A storm came through Oakmont around 5:30 p.m., which postponed play to the following morning. Watson was on the 14th green, Nelson on the 16th tee, tied at four-under for the championship.
On Monday morning, Nelson holed a birdie putt at the par-3 16th, but then three-putted at the 18th for bogey. Nelson finished at four-under 280 total and waited for Watson. After he failed to save a par from a bunker at the 17th, Watson was one stroke behind Nelson. Watson needed a birdie at 18 to tie but his approach flew over the green. Nelson became the winner when Watson failed to hole out his chip shot.
Nelson established a new tournament record with 132 strokes over the last 36 holes, breaking Gene Sarazen's 51-year-old mark. It was the second consecutive runner-up finish at Oakmont for Watson, who lost a sudden-death playoff to John Mahaffey five years earlier at the PGA Championship in 1978.
Arnold Palmer made his last cut in a U.S. Open here and tied for 60th place. He played the Open just once more, in 1994 when he was granted a special exemption when it returned to Oakmont. Future major champion Paul Azinger made his major championship debut but missed the cut. Johnny Miller, the champion when the Open was last played at Oakmont in 1973, battled health issues, and also missed the cut.
This was the sixth U.S. Open at Oakmont, and ninth major championship. Ticket prices were $24 per day, cash only; practice days

Course layout

Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Yards4693434255613792014342404803,5324623716031853604532283224563,4406,972
Par444543435364453443443571

Source:
Lengths of the course for previous major championships:
Before 1962, the first hole was played as a par 5.

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Missed the cut

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, June 16, 1983
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Seve Ballesteros69−2
T1John Mahaffey69−2
T1Bob Murphy69−2
4Bruce Devlin70−1
T5Lou Graham71E
T5Bobby Wadkins71E
T5D. A. Weibring71E
T8Jim Booros72+1
T8Frank Conner72+1
T8Raymond Floyd72+1
T8Hale Irwin72+1
T8Jim Nelford72+1
T8Nick Price72+1
T8Joey Rassett72+1
T8Lanny Wadkins72+1
T8Tom Watson72+1

Second round

Friday, June 17, 1983
Saturday, June 18, 1983
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1John Mahaffey69-72=141−1
T1Joey Rassett72-69=141−1
T3Raymond Floyd72-70=142E
T3Tom Watson72-70=142E
T5Seve Ballesteros69-74=143+1
T5Calvin Peete75-68=143+1
T5Hal Sutton73-70=143+1
T8Andy North73-71=144+2
T8David Ogrin75-69=144+2
T8Scott Simpson73-71=144+2

Amateurs: Faxon, Sherman , Sigel, Lewis, Rinker, Moise, McNamara, Taylor, Farlow.

Third round

Saturday, June 18, 1983
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo par
T1Seve Ballesteros69-74-69=212−1
T1Tom Watson72-70-70=212−1
T3Larry Nelson75-73-65=213E
T3Calvin Peete75-68-70=213E
5Raymond Floyd72-70-72=214+1
6Gil Morgan73-72-70=215+2
T7Andy North73-71-72=216+3
T7Hal Sutton73-70-73=216+3
T9Ralph Landrum75-73-69=217+4
T9Roger Maltbie76-72-69=217+4
T9Scott Simpson73-71-73=217+4

Source:

Final round

Sunday, June 19, 1983
Monday, June 20, 1983
PlacePlayerCountryScoreTo parMoney
1Larry Nelson75-73-65-67=280−472,000
2Tom Watson72-70-70-69=281−344,000
3Gil Morgan73-72-70-68=283−129,000
T4Seve Ballesteros69-74-69-74=286+217,968
T4Calvin Peete75-68-70-73=286+217,968
6Hal Sutton73-70-73-71=287+313,254
7Lanny Wadkins72-73-74-69=288+412,088
T8David Graham74-75-73-69=291+710,711
T8Ralph Landrum75-73-69-74=291+710,711
T10Chip Beck73-74-74-71=292+88,976
T10Andy North73-71-72-76=292+88,976
T10Craig Stadler76-74-73-69=292+88,976

Source:
Amateurs: Brad Faxon, Sherman.

Scorecard

Final round
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718
Par444543435445344344
NelsonEE−1−1−1−2−3−2−3−3−3−3−3−4−4−5−5−4
Watson−1−2−3−4−4−5−4−5−6−5−5−4−4−4−4−4−3−3
Morgan+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+2+2+1EEEE−1−1−1
Ballesteros−1−1−1−2−2−2−1−1−1EE+1+1+1+2+3+3+2
Peete+1+2+2+2+2+2+2+1+1+1+1EEE+1+2+2+2
Sutton+3+3+4+3+2+2+1+2+1+3+3+4+3+2+1+2+2+3

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source: