MEDINAH MAJORS

1990 U.S. OPEN: Everyone remembers the 45-foot putt that Hale Irwin made on the 18th hole and the ensuing victory lap of the green, but that didn’t win him the tournament.

Irwin had started the final round four shots behind and nearly two hours ahead of unheralded leaders Mike Donald and Billy Ray Brown. That putt merely finished off a 67 that gave him a total of eight-under 280.

On their final hole, Donald two-putted to tie Irwin, but Brown missed a birdie that would have put him in an 18-hole playoff.

Actually, it turned out to be a 19-hole playoff, because Irwin and Donald each shot a 74 on Monday, before Irwin birdied the 91st hole of the tournament for his third U.S. Open championship.

The format had been changed in 1953 to allow for sudden death after an 18-hole playoff, but this was the first time it was needed.

Irwin became the oldest winner of an Open title at 45 and went on to great success on the senior tour. Donald, a journeyman before and after Medinah, had his shot at glory and missed it.

Actually, the monster that is Medinah’s No. 3 course didn’t seem all that tough after the first round, when 11 players broke 70 in the first round.

In fact, nine players at one point were nine under, a milestone that had previously been reached in the U.S. Open only by Ben Hogan in 1948 at Riviera.

But then the course showed its teeth. And Irwin showed his grit.

1975 U.S. OPEN: It looked as if a kid named Tom Watson was going to redeem himself for the 1974 Open at Winged Foot, when he had shot final-round 79. At Medinah, Watson had a three-shot lead after 36 holes before shooting a 78 on Saturday.

Frank Beard had a three-shot lead after three rounds, before he (and just about everyone else) collapsed in the stifling heat and pressure during the fourth round. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus played together in that final round, with Palmer shooting a 73 to finish three shots behind and Nicklaus uncharacteristically bogeying the final three holes to miss a chance for another major.

That left it up to the unlikely pair of Lou Graham and John Mahaffey, who finished in a tie at three-over 287.

Graham won the playoff, 71-73, but he needed a big break to get the victory. His drive on the 18th hole appeared to be going out of bounds when it hit a spectator.

1949 U.S. OPEN: Medinah, completed in 1928, was a project of Chicago’s Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and named after a city in Saudi Arabia, the home of the Mohammedan religion.

Cary Middlecoff wasn’t thinking about any of that after a first-round 75 that left him six strokes behind. Then he came back with rounds of 67 and 69 to move into the lead.

Middlecoff was in first place, but he wasn’t in the last group, because pairings for two rounds had been set before 36 holes were played the final day. So after Middlecoff finished off his round of 75, he had to wait to see if Sam Snead could finally win a U.S. Open.

He couldn’t. Snead had moved into a tie for the lead with birdies at the 11th and 12th holes, but he missed the green at the par-three 17th, which turned out to be the difference as he finished at 287, one behind Middlecoff.

Middlecoff wasn’t convinced his score would hold up, offering to bet any takers that he wouldn’t win. A friend from Memphis, J.C. Fondren, took the bet, but it is unknown if Middlecoff ever paid off.