Ranking the Open Championship winners from the U.S.

The then-rookie Hamilton won twice on the PGA Tour, both coming in 2004, with the biggest in surprise fashion at Royal Troon in a four-hole playoff over Ernie Els. Hamilton, who enjoyed tremendous success on the Japan Tour, shot three straight sub-70 rounds after opening with a 71. Since Hamilton never won again, he may be the least memorable American winner at the Open. 

Out of nowhere, Curtis became the first golfer since Tom Watson in 1975 to win his Open debut. Curtis wasn't even ranked among the world's top 300 golfers, but he hung around and took advantage of Thomas Bjorn's late collapse. The Ohio native shot a Sunday 69 thanks to a key 10-foot par putt on the 18th hole at Royal St George's. Curtis, who won three more times on the PGA Tour, missed the cut at the next three Opens before tying for eighth in 2007 and seventh the year after.

Leonard's three-shot victory at Royal Troon highlighted a strong 1997 campaign for the Texan, who also won the Kemper Open, finished second at the PGA Championship and tied for seventh at the Masters. A final-round 65 allowed Leonard to erase a five-stroke deficit to extend the American Open winning streak at the time to three.

Shute won the first of his three major titles in 1933 on the Old Course at St. Andrews. He did so over fellow American Craig Wood in a 36-hole playoff after carding 73s in all four rounds. Shute's other two major victories came at the PGA Championship.

Greg Norman shot a Royal Troon record eight- under 64 on Sunday, but it was Calcavecchia who outlasted the Shark and Wayne Grady in a playoff. Calcavecchia won his only major championship via the first four-hole playoff format at the Open. After opening with a 71, Calcavecchia carded three straight rounds of 68.

Lehman held a six-shot lead after three rounds and won by two to become the first American to win at Royal Lytham & St. Annes since Bobby Jones in 1926. This was the only major championship for Lehman, who also won the Tour Championship the same year. Further down the leaderboard, tied for 22nd place, was a 20-year-old by the name of the Tiger Woods — the only amateur to make the cut.

Rogers might be a name that eludes golf fans today, but back in 1981 the Texan was among the best in the game. The PGA Player of the Year in '81, Rogers won four times that season, highlighted by his four-stroke Open victory over Bernhard Langer at Royal St. Georges. Rogers also finished in a tie for second at the U.S. Open and won the World Series of Golf in '81. However, he won just one PGA Tour event after that remarkable season. 

Before he became an overly opinionated television analyst, Miller was a two-time major champion. The last of his majors came in the 1976 Open at Royal Birkdale. Miller, who also won the 1973 U.S. Open, trailed Seve Ballesteros by two shots heading into the final round but fired a blistering 66, while the famed Spaniard faded. Miller won by six strokes.

Playing on the Old Course for the first time, Lema enjoyed a memorable debut in 1964. In his only major victory, "Champagne Tony" topped runner-up Jack Nicklaus by five strokes and celebrated with a glass of bubbly. Lema posted three more PGA Tour victories before he was killed, along with his wife, in 1966 when the plane he chartered for an exhibition event crashed on a golf course in the Chicago suburb of Lansing.

With the tournament at Troon Golf Club, Weiskopf led the entire way en route to his only major title. Weiskopf's 12-under-par total of 276 equaled the Open record at the time held by Arnold Palmer, which he accomplished in 1962 on the same course. The victory was part of a three-year Open run for Weiskopf that featured three straight top-10 finishes.

O'Meara's stellar 1998 campaign got even better when he followed up his victory at Augusta by winning the Open at Royal Birkdale. While rain and wind dominated the tournament, O'Meara stood firm, as did Brian Watts. The pair went to a playoff, which O'Meara claimed for his final victory on the PGA Tour. 

Following a host of near misses in majors, including two runner-ups at the Masters, Duval finally broke through to win his only major in 2001, at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. He carded weekend rounds of 65 and 67 to top Sweden's Niclas Fasth by three strokes. Duval won 13 times on the PGA Tour, but this was the last as injuries helped derail his career. 

Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones might have ruled the Open in the 1920s, but the British-born Barnes, who became a naturalized American, had his moment in 1925 at Prestwick. Known as "Big Jim" because of his 6-foot-4 frame and hitting distance, Barnes won by a stroke for his fourth and final major title. 

With the attention focused on defending champion Rory McIlroy's withdrawal due to injury and Jordan Spieth's pursuit of a third straight major title, the Iowa-born Johnson was flying well below the radar at the Old Course. Poor weather plagued the event with the final round and ensuing playoff concluding on Monday. When things settled down, Johnson's final-round 66 got him into a playoff, which he won over Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen for his second major championship. 

Sarazen led wire to wire to win his only Open title at Prince's Golf Club in Sandwich, England. Going 70-69-70 in the first three rounds, Sarazen ended up winning by five strokes for his fifth major championship. From 1928-36, Sarazen recorded six top-10 finishes at the Open Championship.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Armour moved to the U.S. in the 1920s and became an American citizen. With Carnoustie playing host for the first time, Armour edged Argentinian Jose Jurado by a stroke to win his only Open title. His final-round 71 matched the course record at the time to overcome a five-stroke deficit.

This probably is not the name that comes to mind when asked who was the first American to win the U.K.'s most prestigious golf event. Hutchison was actually born in Scotland but moved to the U.S. and became a naturalized American a year before he won the Open at his former stomping grounds of St. Andrews. Hutchison recorded a hole-in-one in the first round but needed to beat Roger Wethered in a playoff for the victory.

Cink's only major title was even sweeter, considering he beat 59-year-old Tom Watson to accomplish the feat. The Alabama native trailed Watson by three strokes after three rounds but carded a 69 on Sunday to force a playoff, which he ultimately won for his last victory of any kind.

Four years after the burly Daly stunned the golf world by winning the PGA Championship, the good 'ol boy did it again by outlasting Costantino Rocca at the Old Course. A Saturday 73 dropped Daly four shots off the pace heading into the final round, but a 71 made him the clubhouse leader until Rocca holed an amazing 65-foot, uphill, breaking putt on the 18th to force a playoff. In the end Daly prevailed, but his next and last PGA Tour win did not come for another nine years.

In his 20th attempt, Lefty finally left as Open champion in 2013. Taming the famed Muirfield track, Mickelson came from five strokes back after three rounds to shoot 66 and beat Henrik Stenson by three shots. Mickelson called his stellar Sunday performance "probably the best round of my life." Three years later at Royal Troon, Stenson returned the favor by beating Mickelson by three shots.

Last year Spieth tried to become the first golfer since Padraig Harrington in 2007-08 to win consecutive Opens and the first American to do so since Tiger Woods (2005-06). In control for almost the entire 2017 tournament, Spieth recorded four straight rounds below 70 to hoist the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale. At the 2018 event at Carnoustie, Spieth finished tied for ninth, four strokes behind the winner, Francesco Molinari of Italy.

In the first Open Championship held after World War II, Snead won by four shots at St. Andrews for his only title in the history of the event. He was the first American to win the Open since Denny Shute in 1933, but Snead took flack for saying the Old Course looked like an "old abandoned kinda place" on first sight.

With his two titles in the early 1970s, Trevino became the first back-to-back Open champion since Arnold Palmer 10 years earlier. In 1971, less than a month after winning the U.S. Open, Trevino won his first Open title by a stroke at Royal Birkdale. A year later Trevino posted another one-stroke victory, this time edging buddy Jack Nicklaus at Muirfield.  

Palmer's back-to-back titles in 1961-62 began a sort of resurgence for American golfers at the Open Championship. Prior to those two wins by Palmer, U.S. golfers won the event just twice (Sam Snead and Ben Hogan) since 1934. Since '61, Americans have won 31 times at the Open. Palmer won his '62 title at Troon by six strokes.

The 1920s and early '30s of Open golf belonged to the Americans, who won 12 of 13 events. The last amateur to win the tournament, Jones was a big reason for that, posting back-to-back victories in 1926 (Royal Lytham & St. Annes) and '27 (St. Andrews). Jones' 1930 victory at Royal Liverpool was part of his Grand Slam that year. He retired after the '30 season and never played the Open again.

Nicklaus' first Open win in 1966 at Muirfield meant so much to the Golden Bear that he named his signature course in Ohio after the Scottish track. He won four years later in a playoff at the Old Course, where he again lifted the Claret Jug in '78 for the 15th of his 18 major championships. He also tied for or finished second outright seven times at the Open.

A three-time Open champion, Woods enjoyed his most dominant performance en route to that first title on the Old Course in 2000. His 19-under-par finish was a record at the time in relation to par. In a return to St. Andrews in 2005, Woods led wire to wire and defended his title by shooting 18-under at Royal Liverpool the next year.

No golfer in the 1920s dominated the Open Championship more than Hagan, a four-time champion. He won his first three titles by a combined four strokes before posting a six-shot victory in 1929 at Muirfield for his 11th and final major championship. 

Hogan made his only Open Championship appearance count, winning by four strokes at Carnoustie. Reportedly dealing with the flu, Hogan posted a final-round 68 that was a course record at the time, but his lone Open appearance was memorable for more than the finish. The par-5 sixth hole has come to be known as "Hogan's Alley" for the way he brilliantly played the split fairway during the tournament.  

No American has won the Open Championship more than Watson. He claimed his first title over Jack Newton in a playoff in 1975 and topped buddy Jack Nicklaus two years later at Turnberry in what was known as the "Duel in the Sun." Following his three Open wins in the 1980s, Watson almost pulled out another at age 59 in the playoff with Stewart Cink in 2009.