OAKMONT, Pa. — The U.S. Open hasn’t had a playoff since the famous 2008 edition at Torrey Pines where Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate in an 18-hole Monday playoff.
The 18-hole playoff has been since retired by the USGA, but its new format has not yet been needed.
That format is a two-hole aggregate-score playoff, and at Oakmont would include the short par-4 17th and par-4 18th holes. Low score for the two holes would win, and if players remained tied after that a sudden-death playoff would begin at the 15th hole, then 16, 17 and 18.
There has already been one playoff this year in major championship golf, at the Masters where Rory McIlroy defeated Justin Rose on the first hole of sudden death to complete his career Grand Slam.
The Masters is the only major to use sudden death, other majors use aggregate-score playoffs of varying lengths. A three-hole format was used for the first time in a PGA Championship in 2000, where Tiger Woods defeated Bob May in a epic duel at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky in the midst of his “Tiger Slam.”
The PGA Championship last had a playoff in 2022, when Justin Thomas defeated Will Zalatoris in the three-hole aggregate.
The British Open uses a four-hole aggregate, last seen in 2015 when Zach Johnson defeated Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen at St. Andrews.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Here’s the U.S. Open Playoff Format If Needed Sunday at Oakmont.
