2007 U.S. Open Preview
shlinklincoln June 12th, 2007
Preview
It’s major time once again my friends. This Thursday a field of 150+ golfers will begin their quest for the elusive title of U.S. Open Champion. It will not be easy. Early indications are that Oakmont will play as possibly the most difficult course ever. EVER! Well, except for maybe the now defunt Orenco Woods after my 12th beer. FORE!
Incase you forgot, last season Phil scored a double bogey on 18 at Winged Foot to finish runner up to Geoff Ogilvy. No doubt that will be weighing on Phil’s mind this week, that and his wrist injury which forced him to withdraw from the last two tournaments on tour. The question is what will be the bigger factor? Collapse? Wrist?
Tiger comes into this week’s Open looking for his 13th career major. As always he is the favorite to win and will be looking to bounce back after missing the cut in 2006. Tiger ranks 3rd in G.I.R. but 91st in Total Putts Per Round.
Greens and (no more than) two putts are going to be the most important factors to winning at Oakmont.
The 2007 US Open
Oakmont Country Club - Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Will Tiger and Phil end up in the final pairing on Sunday? As often as I talk about this dream final pairing, it has only happened a handful of times. It would be an amazing Open moment to see Tiger and Phil battle out the back nine on Sunday but odds are it won’t happen. Odds are one of them won’t be in contention. Odds even suggest that neither could be in contention.
Forget the collapse. The collapse is ancient history. I suspect that Phil’s wrist will be too much to overcome this week. I would love him to prove me wrong…..you all know I’m a Phil guy. But I just don’t see a forth major in the cards for Phil in PA. The wrist prevails. Afterall don’t we all get beaten by the wrist at the end of the day?
Bold Statement of the Week: Tiger will be in contention on Sunday.
But who will step up to challenge him?
The usual suspects go without saying. VJ, Furyk, and Scott all have a shot at winning this thing. Scott looked brilliant last week…..for the first three rounds. Shooting a +5 on Sunday does not look good for Oakmont. But then again had he won last week he’d have less of a shot this week. No one has ever won the week before and won the U.S. Open.
Furyk and VJ know what it takes to win a major. Furyk finished T2 last season and won the Open in 2003. VJ has never won a U.S. Open, but he does have seven top 10s, including the last two seasons. Interesting to note that both Furyk and VJ have each only missed the cut here once. That’s consistency. I see no reason why Furyk and VJ won’t continue that consistency this week.
Masters champions Zach Johnson is looking to win his second straight major. No small task for sure as ZJ has missed the cut the last two years. If ZJ can ball strike and sink pressure putts for par like he did at Augusta he should find himself at the top of the leaderboard come Sunday. ZJ ranks 22nd in the key stat for this week, Putts Per Round.
Ryuji Imada has two top 15 finishes the last two seasons and I have a hunch he’ll be in the top 20 this year. Look for him as a possible sleeper to sneak into the top 10 come Sunday. (Plus I just picked him up in Rotoff)
So who wins? I’m going to give the cop out answer. Oakmont will be the big winner this week. I suspect the winning score will be +10 or higher. There will be a few people in the red on Thursday, but not anytime after. While it does make for a true test to the worlds best golfers, it won’t be exciting golf. It’s gonna be grind ‘em golf. With the course set up so difficult, it’s impossible to predict the winner. But here’s my top 10 in no specific order:
Tiger Woods
Adam Scott
Stewart Cink
K.J. Choi
Vijay Singh
Jim Furyk
Rory Sabbatini
Justin Rose
Zach Johnson
Tim Clark
Hopefully a winner comes from that list.
Another fun thing to watch will be Johnny Miller’s mentions of his 73 U.S. Open victory and final round 63 during the weekend telecast.Enjoy the U.S. Open everyone. I’m getting axious to see the drama of Oakmont unfold.
