Casey out to tame Oakmont again
Englishman dreams of emulating 66 at US Open Faldo insists long game is crucial on toughest course
It has not happened to Paul Casey before or since. In fact, it has not happened to any player before or since. Not in the second round of a US Open, anyway.
If anything is the ideal gauge of how tough Oakmont is then it was surely the applause the Englishman received from his fellow competitors after completing a round of 66 nine years ago. Having started on the 10th, Casey finished on the ninth and when the pros on the practice green looked up at the leaderboard and saw these startling red figures amid a sea of blue, they dropped their putters and showed their appreciation.
On a day when Adam Scott shot an 82, Phil Mickelson a 77 and 154 of 156 had failed to beat par, at least one of their rank had tamed the monster.
Looking back at that US Open, Casey still seems befuddled by how he managed it, particularly after his opening 77. “The average score for the second round was around 77 and I remember at my last hole, the really treacherous par-four ninth, my caddie tried to get me to hit a four-iron off the tee,” Casey said. “I told him, ‘Leave me alone, I’m trying to shoot four under here’.
“I’ve been lucky to have a lot of good, low rounds, but I can’t think of one that compares with that. It was seriously good golf. Players clapping me, US Open and Oakmont – it’s got the context. There have been clean rounds, like my final-round 67 [to finish fourth in the Masters] at Augusta this year, but not 11 shots better than the average score. That’s what makes it stand out.”
What the former world No3 would give for something similar this week, as the game’s hardest major revisits what, to the majority of experts, is its hardest major venue. In 2007, Casey earned only a tie for 10th, but he can still take pride in his magical 66 being the low- est of the tournament by two shots and by it being regarded as the best round played there, given the windy conditions, since Johnny Miller’s record 63 in 1973.
Not that the Pittsburgh members will be rushing to congratulate Casey. They rejoice in their course’s fierce reputation and just love to repeat the statement of the founder’s son, W C Fownes: “Let the clumsy, the spineless and the alibi makers stand aside.”
When his father, Henry Clay Fownes, designed the layout in 1903 he did so with the intent of replicating the unyielding nature of the links he encountered during his formative years in Britain.
Fownes was not thinking major headaches for the multi-millionaire superstars of the next century, but only of the locals at that time, and to this day they are unique in demanding their greenstaff ensure the course is kept at championship severity.
The joke in the members’ bar is that the greens – described by none other than Jack Nicklaus as “the quickest and most daunting in the world” – are actually slowed down for US Open If ever there is a hole that sets the tone then it is the first at Oakmont. If it is arguable that the Pittsburgh layout is the toughest in the majors then there is no week. At least, the eavesdroppers assume it is a joke.
“I remember playing a practice round a month before and they were lightly dusting the greens with fine mist – I wouldn’t call it watering them – and I was thinking, ‘What are they doing?’,” Casey said. “A member explained that if they don’t do that, the debate over which boasts the most difficult opener. With five bunkers guarding the left side of the sliver-like fairway and three, as well as trees, on the right side, the drive simply has to be accurate. But the pros will not want to be too far back to go for a green which slopes from front right to back left. mower gets stuck. They’re so tight and fast that it’s like applying shaving cream before the razor. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen or heard it. The course is brutally tough whenever you play it and that’s exactly how they like it.”
Jim Furyk was born in Pittsburgh and knows the Oakmont denizens well. “I don’t know if they’re gluttons for punishment, but they are very proud of their course and the fact that it’s hosted more US Opens than any other,” Furyk said. “I think a lot of them hold memberships at other clubs so as not to get their rear end kicked all the time.”
In 2007, Furyk finished in a tie for second with Tiger Woods behind the maverick Argentine Ángel Cabrera. The winning score was five over and if the forecast rain does not arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, that could be the number again.
Jordan Spieth, the defending champion, took a reconnaissance mission last Monday and Tuesday and came back saying: “Give me level par now.” The 22-year-old’s win at Colonial two weeks ago showed he has moved on from his Augusta meltdown and his putting game on these notorious greens could mean a major bounceback.
But talking to Sir Nick Faldo last week gave an understanding that despite Oakmont measuring only 7,200 yards – short by modern standards – the long game will be crucial. The fairways are narrow, the rough long and the penal bunkers numerous. “But it’s not just about accuracy as you need to be up the fairways as well to go into greens, which often slope away from you, with the shortest irons possible,” Faldo explained.
“I remember once building a zero iron and this US Open could be all about Jason Day and that fancy two-iron which he used so well at the Players. What was that two-iron off the tee on the final hole – 308 yards? That’s silly. It could very much be Jason piercing the fairways, getting it on the green and two-putting and moving on.
“But that’s easier said that done, because, those greens, well, they are tougher than Augusta because they just ripple on severe slopes and, unlike Augusta, there are no humps on which you can feed the ball in.”
Rory McIlroy will take optimism from his improved putting at the Memorial last week after his reversion to the conventional, right-hand-underleft, method. He should also take confidence from the ball-striking masterclass by Cabrera in 2007. The Ulsterman is one of the very few capable of emulating that performance. Plus McIlroy is neither clumsy nor spineless.
McEnroe is not an easy man to impress, but he clearly finds Raonic to be stimulating company, and has bought into this project with enthusiasm. The two have been hitting together this week at Queen’s and are staying nearby to maximise their time together.
“There’s not a former player that loves tennis more than John,” Raonic, who will open his grass-court season against Nick Kyrgios this week, explained yesterday. “We stepped out on court for the first time on Monday. He said, ‘Milos, start with a hitting partner and we’ll see’. But soon as we got on he grabbed the balls and got on court. He played 3½ hours that day.”
McEnroe plans to commentate on Raonic’s matches during Wimbledon, where he will be working for both the BBC and ESPN. It will be an efficient, multi-tasking use of his time, and he trusts his client not to bridle if he delivers the odd pointed criticism. As Raonic put it yesterday: “I don’t want a yesman in my box.” In any case, McEnroe does not find it easy to sit courtside. “I get bottled up in a way,” he said last week. “There are different ways to do it. You can keep smiling and clapping and saying, ‘Don’t worry about it, you just played a really dumb point. But keep positive’. That would annoy me as a player, though. You can just picture it. ‘Be more aggressive’. ‘Shut up, you don’t think I know that?’ ”
The contrast between McEnroe’s fiery temper and Raonic’s studied calm – so unflappable that he can resemble a giant Action Man on court – could hardly be greater. But they have an intense perfectionist streak in common.
As McEnroe put it: “If you had called me two months ago and said, ‘Name six or seven guys that can win Wimbledon’, I would put him as one of those guys. So if you come in as a coach and make a one per cent difference at that level, possibly even two per cent, it could pay some kind of dividend.”