The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, scheduled so that, if there are no weather delays, the final round is played on the third Sunday, which is Father's Day.

The U.S. Open is staged at a variety of courses, set up in such a way that scoring is very difficult with a premium placed on accurate driving. U.S. Open play is characterized by tight scoring at or around par by the leaders, with the winner usually emerging at around even par. A U.S. Open course is seldom beaten severely, and there have been many over-par wins (in part because par is usually set at 70 except for the very longest courses). Normally, an Open course is quite long and will have a high cut of primary rough (termed "Open rough" by the American press and fans), undulating greens (such as at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2005, which was described by Johnny Miller of NBC as "like trying to hit a ball on top of a VW Beetle"), and pinched fairways (especially on what are expected to be less difficult holes). Some courses that are attempting to get into the rotation for the U.S. Open will undergo renovations to develop these features. Rees Jones is the most notable of the "Open Doctors" who take on these projects; his father Robert Trent Jones had filled that role earlier. As with any professional golf tournament, the available space surrounding the course (for spectators, among other considerations) and local infrastructure also factor into deciding which courses will host the event.

The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian professional golfer and entrepreneur who spent 331 weeks as the world's Number 1 ranked golfer in the 1980s and 1990s. He is nicknamed The Great White Shark or sometimes simply The Shark – a reference to Norman's blond hair, size, aggressive golf style and the shark inhabiting Australian waters.

Norman was born in Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia to Merv and Toini Norman. His mother was the daughter of a Finnish carpenter, and his father an electrical engineer. As a youth, he played rugby and cricket and was a keen surfer. His mother was a fine golfer with a single-figure handicap. Norman began playing golf at 15, somewhat late for a world-class player, and within two years was playing to a scratch handicap. Norman attended Townsville Grammar School in Townsville, Queensland (enrolled 1964) then moved on to Aspley State High School on the north side of Brisbane.

At the age of 20, Norman served as assistant professional under Billy McWilliam OAM at Beverley Park Golf Club in Sydney, New South Wales. His professional career had begun as Charlie Earp's trainee in the Royal Queensland Golf Club pro shop, earning $A38 a week.

Martin Kaymer (born 28 December 1984) is a German professional golfer. He became the No. 1 ranked golfer in the Official World Golf Rankings on 27 February 2011 after his runner-up finish in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, but lost the top spot to Lee Westwood eight weeks later.

Kaymer was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. He turned professional in 2005 and is a member of the European Tour. He has won ten tournaments on the tour including four in 2010 to win the Race to Dubai, formerly the Order of Merit, for the first time. Among those wins was the 2010 PGA Championship, a victory which made him only the second German to win a major championship, after Bernhard Langer. He also won the 2011 WGC-HSBC Champions, which made him only the tenth player to have won both a major championship and a World Golf Championship event.

Kaymer picked up his first professional win at the age of 20 as an amateur at the Central German Classic in 2005 on the third-tier EPD Tour. He shot a −19 (67–64–66=197) to win the tournament by a margin of five strokes.

Justin Peter Rose (born 30 July 1980) is a South African-born English professional golfer who plays most of his golf on the PGA Tour, while keeping his membership on the European Tour. He first came to prominence at the 1998 Open Championship where he holed a dramatic shot from the rough at the final hole to finish in a tie for fourth place. He won the 2007 Order of Merit on the European Tour and was ranked in the World top ten for 34 weeks between November 2007 and July 2008, with a highest ranking of six. In March 2012, Rose won his first World Golf Championship event at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. This was the biggest win of his career, and as a result he re-entered the World top ten at number seven.

Rose was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to England at the age of five where he started to play golf seriously at Hartley Wintney GC, near his then Hampshire home. Rose broke 70 for the first time at the age of 11, and was a plus one handicap by 14. He played in the Walker Cup in 1997 as a 17-year-old. Shortly after that event, Rose burst to world-wide prominence at The Open Championship in 1998. He holed a dramatic shot from the rough from about 50 yards for birdie on the 18th hole, to finish in a tie for fourth. He won the silver medal for the low amateur. The following day he turned professional.