• US Open: Preview

Stars descend on Capitol Hill for stern examination

Alex Dimond June 14, 2011

ESPN will be providing live commentary during all four days of the US Open from Congressional CC - along with all the news, views and opinion when it gets underway on Thursday.

Challenge.

Think of the four major championships in golf, and each pose distinct questions that create their own identity.

The USPGA Championship is about attracting the best field (usually inviting 98 or 99 of the world's top 100 ranked players) to some of the great and varied courses the US can offer, while the Open ensures links golf - and the specific and traditional vagaries that come with that - plays hosts to the game's best playing golf how and where it has been played for hundreds of years.

The Masters is about tradition - about azaleas and the beginning of spring. The US Open, however, is about challenge - about creating the most exacting and demanding course setup to ensure the best players win only after a test akin to torture (and preferrably only with a finishing score around level par).

That is achieved in many ways.

Most obviously, US Open rough is unlike any other rough.

The 2011 iteration of the event will also be the 111th. The first was played in 1895, over 36 holes around Newport Country Club, with six events subsequently cancelled over the years due to the demands of two World Wars.

British players dominated the early events, as ex-patriots maintained a healthy advantage over the native nobles they had been lured across the Atlantic to teach the game to. But, by around 1910 the balance had shifted - with teenager Francis Ouimet's victory over Ted Ray and Harry Vardon at Brookline in 1913 widely considered as the turning point in the history of American golf.

Brits still had their success, but by 1925 the Americans had taken control of their own national championship. It wasn't until 1970 that Tony Jacklin won the famous trophy at Hazeltine, becoming only the second foreigner (after Gary Player) in 45 years to finish ahead of any and all Americans.

In the modern, multi-cultural game the sport has become, victors have been spread out across the world. Graeme McDowell is the reigning champion, after an inspiring victory last year at Pebble Beach that saw him hold off challenges from the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, while profitting from a mental and physical meltdown from Dustin Johnson.

That's what the US Open does to you, unfortunately. It demands complete focus for all 72 holes - and even then it doesn't promise to be fair. The USGA often set up the greens so they are "like trying to land a ball on the roof of a Volkswagen Beetle", as Johnny Miller once quipped, making an ability to deal stoically with misfortune and an exemplary short-game as important as a silky swing.

The course setup, however, is most famous for the penalising rough that lines fairways - fairways that are traditionally pinched in more than a few yards to double the punishment. The rough is often allowed to grow so long and thick that it is simply impossible to reach the green on shots of more than 170 yards - and if you're really unlucky not even 17 yards.

Accuracy, then, is paramount for anyone hoping to win - perhaps more so than any of the other majors.

This year, the host is Congressional Country Club - the third time the Washington DC venue has had the honour of witnessing the event. Previous winners Ken Venturi (1964) and Ernie Els (1997) are two great players in the history of the game, suggesting the course identifies and rewards class and hints we may be unlikely to see a 'left-field' winner this time around.

Els' nearest challengers 14 years ago, after all, were Colin Montgomerie and Tom Lehman - two classy players near the peak of their powers at the time. A repeat performance this week, seeing a number of fine players crowding at the top of the leaderboard, seems likely.

The course itself will play incredibly long even by US Open standards, measuring in at exactly 7,574 yards. Not only that, but the type of soil the course is built on is not conducive to bounce and roll - expect to see a lot of tee-shots almost stick on landing, effectively lengthening the course by another 400 or 500 yards.

The USGA are not taking with one hand and taking with the other, however. There have been some concessions - the par will be 71, for example, after a decision to play the sixth as a par five as the members do, unlike on previous appearances in PGA Tour events.

Yes, Congressional is no stranger to stops on the US Tour. Host to the Tiger Woods-attached AT&T National up until 2009, the course was previously venue for the Booz-Allen Classic and Kemper Open. Recent winners around the course include Anthony Kim, Sergio Garcia and KJ Choi - again continuing the tradition of rewarding quality players.

The USGA will expect nothing less come Sunday evening (or Monday, should an 18-hole playoff be required).

---

Ten to contend

The past five US Open winners - McDowell, Lucas Glover, Tiger Woods, Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy. Other than a stellar golf game (not to be too obvious), all five are blessed with a bulletproof mentality that seems to enable them to keep on an even keel - or maybe even see with even greater clarity - under the most intense of pressure.

Such a quality is almost certain to be present in the winner this week as well. Beyond that, there is no obvious recipe for success - but a few key ingredients are likely to be necessary. Short-range putting, accuracy off the tee, distance control and course management to name just four. The man who perfects all those should have a great chance come Sunday afternoon.

Simple, really.

EUROPEAN HOPES

Lee Westwood
The world No. 2 - and current 'best player never to have won a major' - didn't quite get into Masters contention as expected earlier in the year. The Englishman is blessed with one of the most metronomic full swings in the modern game - if that is firing on all cylinders he will have a major advantage from tee to green. But his short game is still barely above tour average, and his putting continues to be suspect. But he has three top ten finishes in the US Open in his locker, suggesting it's not impossible he could contend.

Luke Donald
Coming into a major as the world No. 1 for the first time in his career, Donald will face an extra set of pressures when he tees off on Thursday. On the face of it his form is as good as anyone - he's proved his short game (particularly from bunkers) to be exemplary, and his putting stroke has shown it can hold up to severe examination. The only question mark is perhaps about his driver - while suggestions certain courses are too long for him should be put to bed by now (fitness work and the mere fact he has won at monster courses are ripostes to that tired old argument), Congressional is a real giant and, if the weather prevents balls rolling out from fairways, he will be at a distinct disadvantage with the club he takes into greens. As good as he is right now, that will be a difficult disadvantage to overcome.

Rory McIlroy
Advantages for McIlroy at Congressional: The course demands a draw more than a fade, it rewards length and accuracy off the tee, he should know by now what it takes to contend in a major. Negatives: He didn't exactly star under those lights at Augusta, his record in US Opens is sketchy at best (one top ten, one missed cut) and his putting is threatening to become a serious problem. Nevertheless, the Ulsterman should be in contention come the weekend, because at the end of the day he is a thoroughbred who will win a major one day.

Sergio Garcia
The Spaniard left it late to qualify for the event - coming through a seven-man playoff in a qualifier in Memphis - but will tee it up on Thursday to extend his major appearance streak to 47. A huge number of questions surround his ability to contend - his putting stroke comes and goes, as does his concentration - but there are an equally sizeable number of reasons not to write him off. He has won around Congressional before (albeit in 2005) and undeniably has the short-game and precision iron-play to rise above the rest of the field - if everything comes together for him. Unfortunately, that is one of the biggest 'ifs' in the game right now.

Alternatively: Alex Noren, Justin Rose, Robert Karlsson, Graeme McDowell

DOMESTIC CHALLENGERS

Steve Stricker
Other than Donald, arguably the form horse in the field. Stricker won at Memorial just over a week ago, getting to the point where he was lapping the field before stumbling somewhat over the closing stages. Nevertheless, he's inside the top ten on the current PGA Tour money list and has a professional record that makes the lack of a major title a glaring omission (if not at Congressional, the USPGA at Atlanta Country Club later in the year would seem another great opportunity to rectify that). He never seems to get flustered on the course, and American journalists have started pegging him as the man who would be chosen 'if one putt had to be holed to save humanity' (Tiger Woods previously had the monopoly and that rather odd theoretical question). Good omens for a US Open, even if his record in the event isn't as stellar as you might expect.

Matt Kuchar
A level-headed character, Kuchar has really developed into a well-respected and world-class player after ten years of underachievement after being one of Tiger Woods' biggest rivals back in their amateur days. He perhaps does nothing spectacularly but everything very well, and has continued some stellar form at the tail end of last season into the early part of this one. His US Open record is quite astonishingly poor, all things considered, but a T-6 finish last year indicates he is turning things around and, with a decent knowledge of Congressional, he can't be overlooked this time around.

Jonathan Byrd
A left-field choice perhaps, but one that deserves proper attention. Byrd won at the start of the season and has come close on more than one occasion since, most recently in Stricker's victory at Memorial. He proclaims to feel suited to the Congressional course, even if his results on tour events there don't necessarily bear that out, and is tenth on this year's money list with five career victories to his name. If Lucas Glover could win a major in 2009, Byrd fits a similar profile this time around.

Alternatively: Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Phil Mickelson

BEST OF THE REST

KJ Choi
Winner of the 'fifth major' this year at the Players Championship, the 41-year-old South Korean still has a window of opportunity to break through and join compatriot YE Yang as a major champion. Choi has a steely determination, is strong like an ox and can putt with the best of them when everything comes together. His US Open record isn't inspiring, but he has won recently around Congressional and should be full of confidence after a bright start to the season.

Adam Scott
An interesting player to follow this week. Returned from something of the golfing wilderness to the spotlight with his strong finish at the Masters in April, seemingly months after everyone had written him off as the regular major contender he had been expected to be for the better part of a decade. A move to the long putter seems to have cured many ills, and he has been given permission by Tiger Woods to have Steve Williams caddie for him this week. If that proves a fruitful relationship, he could well improve on his best finish at a US Open - T-26th in 2008.

Ernie Els
He's not been playing exceptionally well so far this season, but he's hardly been playing awfully either. The course may have changed dramatically since he won back in 1997, but nevertheless he has good memories from that triumph and is a double US Open champion. It would be something of a surprise if he didn't make the weekend, and from there anything can happen.

Alternatively: YE Yang, Aaron Baddeley

---

Woods watch

Errr... he isn't going to be there, which makes analysing his chances pretty simple.

Injured while on duty at the Masters, Woods has played just nine competitive holes of golf since finishing in the top five at Augusta National.

He'll be back eventually, of course, but whoever wins this week will do so with the asterisk beside his name denoting '*won without Tiger Woods in the field'. His absence is a blow to the tournament and spectators but his slump is now so deep that he was never likely to be a strong contender on the leaderboard.

Having said all that, hopefully he comes back soon to prove us all wrong.

---

Predictions

All this talk would mean little without a few equally meaningless predictions also thrown in...

Winning score: Three-under
Winning margin: One
Lowest round: 66
Low amateur: Patrick Cantlay

Top European: Luke Donald
Top American: Steve Stricker
Top Rest of World: KJ Choi

Winner: Steve Stricker

You heard it here first. Or not.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.