Although Sam Snead held the lead by a stroke after 36 holes with a record 138,[7][8] Hogan dominated the final two rounds, shooting 68-69 on Saturday for a total of 276 (−8), two shots ahead of runner-up Jimmy Demaret.

Hogan decimated the U.S. Open scoring record (281 by Ralph Guldahl in 1937) by five strokes,[6] and his three rounds in the 60s was a tournament first.

Eight months later, Hogan and his wife were involved in a serious automobile accident, a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus in west Texas.

This was the first U.S. Open played on the West Coast; the first in the western U.S. was a decade earlier, in 1938 near Denver.

[9] Babe Didrikson Zaharias became the first woman to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, but her application was rejected by the USGA.