OAKMONT, Pa. – Admit it, golf fans. You like pain as long it’s not being inflicted on you. Admit that you like to watch, that you draw some sort of sadistic pleasure, from seeing the world’s best players suffer.
Admit that you’ve set aside time to watch this year’s U.S. Open at diabolical Oakmont Country Club and are salivating for that first moment you see one of the world’s best chopping his Titleist around the course with the same look of exasperation you’ve had so countless many times in your weekend Nassau.
This is what the U.S. Open, which begins today, has become: The most sadistic sporting event this side of the Iditarod.
And you love it.
You were riveted to the television set last June not to see eventual winner Geoff Ogilvy par the last four holes of the Open at Winged Foot en route to victory, but to see Phil Mickelson crash and burn in a fiery wreck on the 72nd hole.
You related not to Ogilvy and his steadiness, but to Mickelson, whose tee shot ricocheted off a corporate tent the way some of your drives rattle around in the trees off to the side of the fairway.
You related to Mickelson then trying to take too much of a bite with his second shot, which hit a tree flush and bounced back toward his feet.
You were fascinated to see Mickelson unravel in a tournament-blowing double bogey before the eyes of the golf world in the most public collapse in his sport since Jean Van de Velde had his trousers rolled up his shins in that burn at Carnoustie at the 1999 British Open.
It was all compelling theater there at Winged Foot.
Now we get to do it all over again at Oakmont, which a large number of players insist is more difficult than Winged Foot, the course that produced Ogilvy’s 5-over-par winning score.
Ask anyone in this 156-player field and he’ll tell you that, right now, he’ll sign up for four rounds of 1-over-par 71 for a 4-over finish and he’ll go run and hide underneath one of the dozens of rusted-out steel bridges around this city and wait for early Sunday evening to accept the winner’s trophy.
“Hardest course I’ve ever seen,” Ogilvy said.
“This is going to be Shinnecock [Hills] on steroids,” Rory Sabbatini said.
“It does make Winged Foot seem very pleasant,” Padraig Harrington said. “You know, 5-over par won at Winged Foot. If somebody goes out and shoots 66 the first day, God help the rest of us for the next three days.”
As much as the course will be the star of the week, so too will be Tiger Woods, the runaway No. 1 player in the world who’s a year removed from (gasp) missing the cut at Winged Foot, so he has a score to settle.
Woods, who said this week his game is in form, is the favorite wherever he goes – be it a U.S. Open or a local miniature golf outing on a Jersey Shore boardwalk.
Surely, as much attention as there will be on Woods, the masses are wildly curious about Mickelson and his quest for his first U.S. Open victory after four runner-up finishes in the last eight years – including, of course, last year’s shocking loss at Winged Foot.
Mickelson, who played a practice round yesterday for the second consecutive day, is nursing inflammation in his left wrist, an injury suffered while practicing hitting balls out of rough here on May 28.
By all indications, it’ll take a minor miracle for Mickelson to either make the cut and/or last all four rounds without aggravating the injury and having to pull out.
The winner here undoubtedly will be the player who keeps his tee shots in the fairway and three-putts the fewest times on the wicked, quick, undulating greens.
Paul Goydos called Oakmont “stifling[ly] difficult … to the point of walking off and feeling like you’ve gone 12 rounds with Ali.”
When asked if there are any “fun” holes on the course, Woods deadpanned, “Yeah, the 19th is great, man.”
Ogilvy, speaking of those cruel people who set Oakmont up for this week’s Open, said, “I think they’re all insane. These people must like losing balls and shooting 100.”