1980 U.S. Open

Tournament information
Dates	June 12–15, 1980
Location	Springfield, New Jersey
Course(s)	Baltusrol Golf Club, Lower Course
Organized by	USGA
Tour(s)	PGA Tour
Statistics
Par	70
Length	7,076 yards (6,470 m)[1]
Field	156 players, 63 after cut
Cut	146 (+6)
Prize fund	$356,700
Winner's share	$55,000
Champion
Jack Nicklaus
272 (−8)
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Baltusrol

Location in the United States

Baltusrol

Location in New Jersey

Baltusrol

Location in
Union County

The 1980 U.S. Open was the 80th U.S. Open, held June 12–15 at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey, west of New York City. Jack Nicklaus set a new tournament scoring record to win his fourth U.S. Open title, two strokes ahead of runner-up Isao Aoki; in fact, as the tournament transpired these two golfers ended up playing all four rounds together.^[2][3][4]

Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf began the tournament by shooting a record-tying 63 in the first round on the Lower Course on Thursday.^[5] Weiskopf, however, did not shoot better than 75 in any other round and finished 37th. After a second round 71, Nicklaus owned a two-stroke lead over Isao Aoki. Aoki, however, carded a third consecutive round of 68 in the third to tie Nicklaus.^[6]

In the final round on Sunday, Nicklaus birdied the 3rd after Aoki recorded a bogey on 2, taking a two-shot lead. Nicklaus, however, could not separate himself from his challenger. After he hit his approach to 3 feet on 10, Aoki made a long putt from the fringe for a birdie. On the 17th Nicklaus holed a 22-footer for birdie while Aoki made his own 5-footer for birdie. And at the 18th Nicklaus rolled in another birdie from 10-feet to win the championship, his sixteenth major title as a professional.^[7]

Nicklaus' winning total of 272 established a new U.S. Open standard, breaking the record 275 he set in 1967 on the same Lower Course. He also tied Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, and Ben Hogan by winning his fourth U.S. Open title.^[7][8] Nicklaus had failed to win a tournament in 1979 for the first time in his career, and at 40 many believed his best days were behind him. He won four more times on the PGA Tour with two majors, including the PGA Championship two months later and the Masters in 1986.

Seve Ballesteros, the reigning champion of the British Open and Masters, was late to the course on Friday, missed his tee time, and was disqualified; he had carded a 75 on Thursday.^[9][10]

The U.S. Open returned to the Lower Course in 1993, and the PGA Championship was played there in 2005 and in 2016.

Course layout

Lower Course

Source:^[1]

Lengths of the course for previous major championships:

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, June 12, 1980

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Jack Nicklaus	63	−7
	Tom Weiskopf
T3	Keith Fergus	66	−4
	Mark Hayes
	Lon Hinkle
T6	Raymond Floyd	67	−3
	Jay Haas
	Calvin Peete
T9	Isao Aoki	68	−2
	Mark Lye
	Andy North
	Lee Trevino

Second round

Friday, June 13, 1980

Place	Player	Score	To par
1	Jack Nicklaus	63-71=134	−6
T2	Isao Aoki	68-68=136	−4
	Keith Fergus	66-70=136
	Lon Hinkle	66-70=136
	Mike Reid	69-67=136
6	Mark Hayes	66-71=137	−3
T7	Pat McGowan	69-69=138	−2
	Tom Weiskopf	63-75=138
T9	Peter Jacobsen	70-69=139	−1
	Tom Watson	71-68=139

Source:^[11]

Amateurs: Hallberg (+2), Clampett (+6), Sigel (+7), Sindelar (+7), Wagner (+9), Wood (+10), Blake (+11), Sutton (+11), Rassett (+13), Sluman (+15), Clearwater (+16), Mudd (+16), Norton (+16), O'Meara (+16), Bergin (+17), Landers (+20), Chalas (+21), Glickley (+22).

Third round

Saturday, June 14, 1980

Place	Player	Score	To par
T1	Isao Aoki	68-68-68=204	−6
	Jack Nicklaus	63-71-70=204
3	Lon Hinkle	66-70-69=205	−5
T4	Keith Fergus	66-70-70=206	−4
	Mark Hayes	66-71-69=206
	Tom Watson	71-68-67=206
7	Craig Stadler	73-67-69=209	−1
T8	Mike Morley	73-68-69=210	E
	Lee Trevino	68-73-69=210
T10	Bruce Devlin	71-70-70=211	+1
	Hubert Green	73-73-65=211
	Jay Haas	67-74-70=211
	Peter Jacobsen	70-69-72=211
	Pat McGowan	69-69-73=211
	Mike Reid	69-67-75=211
	Bill Rogers	69-72-70=211

Source:^[6]

Final round

Sunday, June 15, 1980

Place	Player	Score	To par	Money ($)
1	Jack Nicklaus	63-71-70-68=272	−8	55,000
2	Isao Aoki	68-68-68-70=274	−6	29,500
T3	Keith Fergus	66-70-70-70=276	−4	17,400
	Lon Hinkle	66-70-69-71=276
	Tom Watson	71-68-67-70=276
T6	Mark Hayes	66-71-69-74=280	E	11,950
	Mike Reid	69-67-75-69=280
T8	Hale Irwin	70-70-73-69=282	+2	8,050
	Mike Morley	73-68-69-72=282
	Andy North	68-75-72-67=282
	Ed Sneed	72-70-70-70=282

Source:^[5]

Amateurs: Gary Hallberg (+5), Bobby Clampett (+10).

Scorecard

Final round

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	3	4	4	4	3	5	5
Nicklaus	−6	−6	−7	−6	−6	−6	−5	−5	−5	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−6	−7	−8
Aoki	−6	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−3	−4	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−5	−6
Fergus	−4	−4	−3	−4	−4	−4	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−3	−4
Hinkle	−5	−5	−5	−4	−4	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−3	−4
Watson	−3	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−4	−3	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−2	−3	−3	−4
Hayes	−3	−3	−3	−2	−2	−2	−1	−1	E	−1	E	E	E	E	E	E	E	E
Reid	+1	+2	+2	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+2	+2	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	E	E

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Source:^[12]