Ferrie knows if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere
‘Get-in-the-hole’ New Yorkers won’t be missed, but the US Open is sure to be weird without fans
Kenneth Ferrie happily describes the US Open as the toughest test in golf.
So it will be odd for him to be watching the world’s best take on those major demands in virtual silence.
Postponed in June because of Covid- 19, the year’s second major starts this Thursday at Winged Foot, little more than half-an-hour’s drive from New York City.
But it will go ahead without thousands of New Yorkers lining the fairways, which would have made for a special atmosphere, particularly over the weekend.
Ferrie experienced it firsthand in 2006 when he was involved in one of the most dramatic final days in the long history of this great championship.
So, as he prepares to watch the 2020 version from his home just outside Newcastle, he knows the players will be missing out on something special.
“A tournament in New York without spectators will be weird,” says Ferrie. “Obviously we won’t miss the ‘Get- in- the- hole’ brigade, but it will still seem bizarre.
“The crowds at The Open Championship are the most knowledgeable and appreciative in golf.
“But the ones in New York are the rowdiest. They get into tournaments more than anywhere else. “I watched the US PGA last month on a great course at Harding Park in San Francisco, but it all felt a bit flat.
“I remember the huge, raucous crowds, especially on the Sunday afternoon in 2006. That sticks in my mind.”
Ferrie was in the last game out on the Sunday. After three brutal days, he was tied for the lead at two- over with Phil Mickelson.
On a day when the lead changed hands 15 times, Ferrie’s chances went with a last round 76 that saw him finish eight-over.
Australian Geoff Ogilvy set the clubhouse target at five-over.
As it turned out, a par for either Colin Montgomerie or Mickelson at the 18th would have clinched the title. But they each finished with a double-bogey six.
A disastrous tee shot did for the American, while Monty’s miss from the middle of the fairway still probably haunts him to this day as that last chance at major glory slipped away.
Ferrie has his own regrets, but as time has gone on, he has come to appreciate his part in an afternoon of unrelenting drama.
“There was a huge roar when Geoff Ogilvy chipped in for a birdie on 17,” he recalled. “I was too far back to see what happened to Monty on 18, but you knew from the murmurs that something had gone wrong.
“So this year, if you can’t see a scoreboard and with no crowd to help you, the players in contention
‘ You knew from the murmurs that something had gone wrong
won’t have quite as much idea of what is happening out there.
“It felt like a missed opportunity 14 years ago. But overall, the whole week was fun.
“I loved the course. It had an oldfashioned feel to it.
“It was my first major in America and everything felt bigger and brasher.
“The New York crowds were loud and vocal and, as an underdog, they got right behind me.
“That Sunday, the course played no harder than the rest of the week. But the stakes were so much higher, and it shows what pressure can do. Phil had only hit two fairways in 17 holes, but his course management was brilliant.
“He would miss the green and look dead but he and his caddie, Bones ( Jim Mackay), had done their homework and he would have a simple chip to three or four feet.
“But maybe he had been to the well once too often, and it caught up with him on the last hole – in a big way.
“As for Monty, with the shot he had and where the pin was, it was tailormade for one of his baby cuts to funnel down to the hole.
“That had been his game for 20 years, so it was the wrong time for a bad swing and a bad club choice.
“I only finished three shots off a play-off, and yet I was sixth. Although three shots at a US Open is more than elsewhere.
“But I am certain that anyone who finished in the top 10 that week went away with a story of what might have been.”
Ferrie won three times on the European Tour, but injuries and a loss of form saw him lose his card in 2012.
He has tried to regain it at Q School a couple of times but now, at 41, he admits he is not fit enough to get back to what he was, so he is an armchair fan.
“People want to see your whole game tested and that’s what you get at the US Open,” he adds.
“The way I was taught was – hit it down the middle, knock it on the green, try to hole your putt and, if not, tap it in for par.
“Nowadays that’s called US Openstyle golf!”