Despite allure, U.S. Open course no day at beach
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth began the final day of U.S. Open preparation with a walk along the beach.
No other U.S. Open has such a calming effect, especially the seven-hole stretch along the Pacific coast with sweeping views of sea lions basking on the rocks below the sixth green and people walking dogs on the seashore below the 10th fairway.
“What’s not to like?” Dustin Johnson said. “The golf course is fantastic from start to finish. When you’ve got nice weather, it’s quite beautiful out there.”
About the time Woods and Spieth, along with Justin Thomas and Kevin Kisner, began their nine-hole practice round Wednesday on No. 10, fog crept over the foothills and soon blanketed the course. Visibility was reduced to about 250 yards.
It was an ominous sign the U.S. Open is no holiday.
Johnson is among the early starters when the 119th U.S. Open begins Thursday at Pebble Beach, which is celebrating its 100th year.
He is one of the favorites, not only from his sheer skill, but historical reasons whether it’s February or June. Johnson has won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am twice and was runner-up twice. The last time the U.S. Open was at Pebble, he had a threeshot lead going into the final round until he rushed his way through a triple bogey, a double bogey and a bogey before he reached the fifth hole. Johnson shot 82 and tied for eighth.
“The golf course was great,” Johnson said about 2010. “I feel like the golf course is getting to where it’s going to play like that later on this week. It’s going to play tough. You’ve got to be very, very precise.”
The USGA says it used 2010 as a blueprint for this U.S. Open, with a few exceptions.
The rough is lush as ever. The greens are small, and they look even smaller when not hitting from the fairway. This is what a U.S. Open is supposed to look like.
Adding to the anticipation is how the other two majors turned out this year. Woods won the Masters, emerging from a six-player pack on the back nine to win his fifth green jacket and 15th major.
Brooks Koepka showed his major prowess, along with plenty of resolve, when he set a PGA Championship record with a seven-shot lead through 54 holes, nearly lost it, and then held on to beat Johnson by two shots.
Koepka goes for three straight U.S. Open titles, a feat only accomplished more than a century ago. Johnson looks for atonement from his U.S. Open meltdown at Pebble Beach. No one has greater history at Pebble Beach than Woods, whose 15-shot win in 2000 is nearly as iconic as the course itself.