Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Francis Ouimet, known by many as the "father of amateur golf," forever changed the game when, on Sept.
20, 1913, he defeated two of the sport's top players at the time for his first and only major victory, becoming the first amateur to win the U.S.
Open. Ouimet, who was just 20 at the time, is largely credited with popularizing the game of golf in America after his victory at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Francis Ouimet (1893-1967), an American golfer who was the first to win the U.S. Open. (Getty Images ) The Massachusetts native grew up across the street from The Country Club and was encouraged by a friend to play in the tournament after the announcement it would be held in Brookline, according to Ekwanok Country Club, where Ouimet won the U.S.