Andy North - Professional Career

Professional Career

North turned professional in 1972. He had a moderately successful career on the PGA Tour made remarkable by the fact that two of his three wins on the Tour were in the U.S. Open. The first PGA Tour win of North's career came at the 1977 American Express Westchester Classic. He was 28 years old when he won the 1978 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. He moved into the lead after the second round, and was one shot ahead going into Sunday, but an erratic final round left him needing to make a five on the last hole to take the championship. He struggled up the eighteenth, finding the rough twice and then landing in a greenside bunker, but he nailed a four foot putt to win by one stroke over J. C. Snead and Dave Stockton.

At the 1985 U.S. Open, North found himself two shots behind Taiwan's Tze-Chung Chen going into the final round, but three shots clear of the rest of the field. Chen moved into a four shot lead early on, but threw the tournament wide open by shooting a quadruple bogey eight on the fifth hole. The lead swung between North, Chen, Denis Watson, Payne Stewart, and Dave Barr, who had surged into contention, but North went into the last hole with a two shot lead, and his bogey five was enough to give him a second major championship.

North played on the 1985 Ryder Cup team. In 1990, he won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. Since turning fifty in 2000 North has played intermittently on the Champions Tour. His best finish at this level is second in the 2001 Emerald Coast Classic. The improbability of North's career is illustrated by the fact that the only other post World War II golfer to win two U.S. Opens without reaching double figures in individual professional titles is Lee Janzen, and he accumulated eight to North's three.

Since 1993, North has served as a golf analyst for ESPN. He was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.