US Open Thoughts

The United States Open begins tomorrow morning at Torrey Pines in San Diego, California.

It promises to be an entertaining tournament, mostly because the kikuyu grass that promises to torment the players. It is a thicker, stronger grass than is normally seen on golf courses, and kikuyu rough at US Open heights could actually be dangerous. It should at least give the course some teeth.

Maybe this year all of the pre-tournament talk about "hacking it 50 yards out of the rough" will actually be true. It seems every year the players and officials talk about how tough the rough will be to hit from, but then you only see a few guys who actually have to really just hack the ball back into the fairway.

Personally, I would prefer the US Open to have thicker, more penal rough, narrower fairways, and not as much length. Torrey Pines is listed at over 7600 yards, even though the USGA says that "most likely" it will play somewhere between 7400 and 7600 (but not over 7600) all four days. The actual length will depend on what they do with a few tee boxes that can be shortened or stretched.

With the length of the course, along with the graduated rough that will be in use, a semi-accurate power hitter will just pound the driver, then take his chances out of the rough. A short hitter has no chance, really, because he has to be in the fairway, and even then he will be hitting fairway woods and long irons into the greens. With today's clubs, a 6- or 7-iron from the rough is just as controllable as a 2-iron from the fairway, so the long hitter isn't really penalized for missing the fairway.

Anyway, the USGA didn't ask my opinion, so on to my "predictions."

Tiger Woods will win. I just can't pick against him. He shouldn't win, because you shouldn't be able to win the US Open when you haven't played competitively since the Masters because of knee surgery. But, he's Tiger Woods, so I won't be surprised if he's right in the thick of things on Sunday afternoon (or night, on the East Coast).

Other than Tiger, I'd probably just use the driving distance statistics to find favorites, then add Stewart Cink and Jim Furyk. Cink and Furyk are not super-long, but they hit the ball fairly straight and putt well. Cink has contended in quite a few Opens, and Furyk has won it. Any one of the long drivers could have a good week on the greens and get lucky, which is basically why Angel Cabrera is the defending champion.

Good luck, gentlemen.