G-Mac: I’ll par Pinehurst to death

Graeme McDowell is digging in for another hard slog at the US Open as the 2010 champion prepares to par Pinehurst No. 2 "to death", starting tomorrow.

US Opens are always a grind, that’s the way the tournament organisers at the USGA like it as they present the toughest challenge of the year. It is one McDowell has met excellently, both at Pebble Beach four years ago when he became a major champion and again at Olympic Club two years later, finishing runner-up to Webb Simpson.

This year in North Carolina, on the course Donald Ross built on the sandhills here in 1901, it will be a different kind of grind, the traditional rough dispensed with and browning fairways that look more at home in The Open Championship.