If at the end of regulation play this Sunday two or more players are tied and a Monday playoff is required, the groans will be audible all the way down on the beach at La Jolla Shores.

Fans, volunteers, media, and maybe even the golfing participants, will likely rue a return because of the U.S. Golf Association's stubborn contention that 18 extra holes is the only way to truly identify a major champion.

If it does indeed happen for the first time since Retief Goosen's anticlimactic, 70-72 overtime win over Mark Brooks in 2001 – the 32nd playoff in Open history – take a look on the bright side: At least you weren't there for the marathon march of '31.

After holding the first 31 U.S. Opens with an 18-hole playoff system, the USGA didn't think that was enough golf. So it instituted a 36-hole playoff in 1928, and three years later it got this rather underwhelming matchup: Billy Burke against George Von Elm.

Not for 36 extra holes, but 72. An entire extra tournament, played over just two days.

At brutally hot Inverness in Toledo, Ohio, where it was 105 degrees in the first round July 2, Von Elm bogeyed four holes on the back nine in the final round, but birdied the last to get into the playoff. Then it went on and on, with the two tying at 149 after the first 36.

Burke, a nervous chain-smoker who is said to have gone through 32 cigars in 144 holes, finally prevailed by shooting 77-71 in the second 36 to win by a shot.

Not surprisingly, the USGA abandoned the 36-hole playoff after that.

But it still insists on 18 extra holes, even as the other majors make every attempt to settle their championship on Sunday, when the excitement is at its peak and the players are running on adrenaline.

The Masters is sudden death, the British Open requires four extra holes, with the aggregate score winning, and the PGA Championship switched from sudden death to three extra holes, and got a fantastic finish in 2000 when Tiger Woods staved off Bob May at Valhalla.

Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director of rules and competitions, said in his 18 years with the organization there have been many serious discussions among the executive committee about possibly changing the Open's playoff system. But he believes that it's never been close to being overturned.

“What it normally comes back to is that we feel it's an important enough championship that 18 holes is a better way to determine it,” Davis said. “You don't want a guy hitting one bad shot or one great shot to lose it or win it.”

Meantime, though, the USGA has decided that sudden death is fine for two of its other significant tournaments, the U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Senior Open, both of which used to have 18-hole playoffs.

“We see a difference between the U.S. Open and our Women's and Senior Open, although I'm not sure we could do a great job of convincing the media of that,” Davis said.

The six U.S. Open playoffs of the past 24 years have rarely been scintillating. Fuzzy Zoeller, in beating Greg Norman in 1984 with a 67, is the only playoff participant to break 70. Payne Stewart outlasted Scott Simpson in 1991 with a 75.

One of the better playoffs was a three-man affair in 1994 at Oakmont – Ernie Els, Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie. Montgomerie shot 78 on Monday, but Els and Roberts traded clutch putting to tie with 74s, and the 24-year-old Els ended up prevailing when Roberts bogeyed the second extra hole.

Els, by the way, should be thankful for the USGA and its extra 18. He opened the playoff bogey-triple bogey, and would have lost any of the other majors.

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