Praying for a miracle at tricky Oakmont

ALL the talk for much of the next five days will surround Church Pews, 288-yard par threes, lightning fast greens, ridiculous rough — in other words, more of the same, where US Open courses are concerned.

Well, obviously, not quite. It’s only when another big tournament goes to Oakmont, the country club on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the venue for this year’s championship starting on Thursday, that golfers make their acquaintance with the Church Pew bunkers, a series of quaintly-shaped sand traps some 100 yards long and 30 yards wide all lined with 12 inches of four-feet high turf that divide the third and fourth fairways. You go in there, and it’s time to start praying.

And then there’s the 8th, the “short” hole that will play to 288 yards on two of the four days and from a “mere” 230 on the other two. Some elite members of the field suspect they may have to lay up on a couple of days — world No 3 Jim Furyk averages 273 yards with the driver and it’s another 29 to the back of the green!

On a recent visit, Tiger Woods refused to hit a driver, laughingly suggesting that “it would be against my religion to do that”.

One-time USGA supremo Sandy Tatum (a close friend of Tom Watson and therefore also of Ballybunion Golf Club) once set up such a difficult course for a US Open and was asked if he was trying to “humiliate” the game’s greatest players. Unfazed, Tatum famously responded: “No, just trying to identify them.”

However, could it be that they have finally gone over the top? After all, how could a par three play to such an inordinate length, especially as there is even a hint of a dogleg at the Sahara bunker guarding the green? Once again, the USGA see no reason for concern, recalling the time when par threes of 250 yards were commonplace — and those were the days of hickory shafts.

I can’t say that I came across too many of those in my travels, although their senior competition’s director Mike Davis is on firmer ground when pointing out that the 8th green is the largest and flattest at Oakmont and, above all, was designed to accept a long iron or three-wood tee shot.

In any event, it wouldn’t be the US Open if we didn’t have this kind of controversy in the build-up. This week sees the latest attempt by the Europeans to bridge the ever-widening gap since one of their number last captured a major title. Paul Lawrie did it at Carnoustie in 1999 but one must go back to Tony Jacklin at Hazeltine in 1970 for the most recent US Open champion from this side of the Atlantic.

IN SPITE of all their success in the Ryder Cup, people like Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and David Howell have invariably come up short on the biggest occasions of all. Two more, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, haven’t even qualified for the tournament.

Where Padraig Harrington is concerned, hope invariably springs eternal here in his native country. In spite of missing the cut in Memphis last week, the 35-year-old Dubliner insists that he is happy with his game. Nor is he worried about tackling Oakmont for the first time, arguing,

hopefully with some foundation, that “with the exception of Shinnecock Hills and Pinehurst, once you’ve played one US Open course, you’ve played them all”.

Harrington is planning “two and a half rounds” of practice and is satisfied that will be sufficient. Graeme McDowell, the second Irish man in the field, sees things in a similar light, claiming that “one practice round will be enough. You don’t want to know too much about the places you shouldn’t be going”.

To his credit, McDowell has come through the regional qualifying process over the past couple of years and then made the cut in the championship each time. Although anything that happens in the Austrian Open is probably meaningless in the context of the US Open, McDowell’s closing 64 in Vienna on Sunday should be a source of some confidence.

Unfortunately, after playing himself into a nice position at the halfway stage last year with fine rounds of 71 and 72, he fell away to 75 and 79 over the weekend to eventually finish in a share of 48th.

A month later, he led the Open Championship at Hoylake after day one with a sparkling 66 only to follow up with 73, 72 and 79 and tie for 61st.