Tough rough: US Open conditions can rob drama from a major
ERIN, Wisconsin: Remember last year’s British Open, when Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson played a round for the ages, trading birdies and spectacular shots until Stenson finally came away with the title?
The US Open will not be like that. First off, barring a long rain delay on Thursday, Mickelson will be absent, attending his daughter’s high school graduation. And though Erin Hills, at first glance, may look like the sort of British links course that Mickelson and Stenson tore up last summer, Stenson will be the first to tell you it most certainly is not.
“Golf at the US Open has always been a bit harder than at the (British) Open or any of the other ones,” Stenson said.
So true.
In the closing round last year at Royal Troon, Mickelson and Stenson combined for 14 birdies, an eagle and 19 pars, and Stenson won by three shots with a closing score of 20-under par. A few weeks later, at the PGA Championship, Jimmy Walker made a key birdie on No. 17 to outlast Jason Day, who, playing one hole ahead, kept pressure on Walker by making eagle on 18. Walker shot 14 under to win by one. And at this year’s first major, the Masters, Sergio Garcia beat Justin Rose in a playoff to close out a riveting day of golf. Garcia and Rose tied at 9 under.
The last two US Opens, meanwhile, have been most notable for Dustin Johnson’s three-putt on the 18th green at a baked-out Chambers Bay, then Johnson’s three-shot win last year at Oakmont despite a scoring/rules dust-up that left him playing the final seven holes without knowing the exact size of his lead.
Over the last five years, the average winning score of the other three majors has been 12.2 shots below par. At the US Open over the same period: 3.1 under.
“The US Open, you normally play on golf courses that are tricked up just to the limits, sometimes over the limits and sometimes just underneath,” Stenson said.
Much has been made about the creation of Erin Hills, built on a 650acre tract of Wisconsin farmland that was, according to USGA executive director Mike Davis, simply screaming to have a golf course built on it. It was developed specifically with the idea of hosting a US Open.
It is huge, the longest US Open course ever, at more than 7,741 yards (With room to make it even longer). Some fairways are almost wide enough to land a 767.
“You could fit two and a half fairways at Winged Foot into the No. 10 fairway here,” Davis said.
But when the USGA gives, it almost always finds other places to take away.
Already this week, some players were complaining about the depth and stickiness of the rough. That tall, haylike grass lingering just outside those massive fairways? It’s fescue, but not all of it is the typically wispy stuff you see on the edges of British Open courses. The mist floating into the vegetation from the irrigation systems at Erin Hills has made some of it healthier than expected.
Meanwhile, author Ron Whitten, who helped design the course, said among his proudest achievements are the bunkers, most of which do not have flat lies and aren’t nearly as wellmanicured or maintained as what these players face on a weekly basis. There are 138 of them covering what will be the first par-72 test at a US Open since Pebble Beach in 1992.
“I’m surprised more players aren’t complaining about the bunkers,” Whitten said.