Foreigners Making Their Presence on American Soil

Looking back to the first US Open in 1895, it took 17 years before an American won our championship.

John McDermott broke the foreign dominance in 1911, and the American players dominated this championship for the next 80 plus years.  There were three more foreign winners in 1920-21 and 1924. Then in 1925, steel shafted golf clubs were legal to use in the US Open.

To show you the American dominance, between 1927 and 1993, there were only five foreign-born US Open Champions.  The trend started to change in 1994 with Ernie Els; since then, there have been seven foreign champions in the last sixteen years and three in the last six.  The golf landscape is changing.

Let’s look at 2010 on the PGA Tour.  The last seven PGA Tour events were won by six foreign players. The foreign players have won eleven of the twenty two events this year.  On the women’s side, congratulations to Christie Kerr for her victory last week, the first American to win on their tour this year.

Following trends, the 2010 US Open champion will not be wearing the red, white and blue.

The final round at Pebble Beach will be great scenery as we the scenery of the golf landscape going back to the early days of Willie Anderson and the foreign invasion when an American winning was the exception and not the rule.

I will be waving the American flag Sunday.  Go USA!