This will be the eighth time the USGA has selected Oakmont to hold its biggest annual bash. That's the most that any one course has held this party. The first time was back in 1927 when that old curmudgeon Henry Fownes was striding around the course with gap-teethed bunker rakes, hurrumphing something about a loose shot into a bunker should be a shot irretrievably lost. No sir, these huge pits - some are 12 feet deep - are not going to allow you to finish the hole with a par.
The spotlight will shine most glaringly on Phil Mickelson, who disintegrated so alarmingly on the 72nd hole of the Open last year. Mickelson says that the extra attention shouldn't be a problem - "It's not much different than the last 10, 11 months," he said with a grin, provoking much laughter from those standing nearby. His shoddy play at Winged Foot has been folded, spindled and mutilated to such a high degree that there simply isn't much else that can be dissected.
However, not so much has been made of the fact that he did just about everything right the previous 71 holes at Winged Foot to be in the lead at that critical juncture. In fact, Mickelson has been runner-up in the U.S. Open four times. And he concedes that he probably should not be a contender in a tournament at which such a high premium is placed on accurately driving the ball. Since 1998, though, Mickelson has finished in the top 10 six of nine years.
It's Oakmont's greens, though, that are going to be the toughest test, said Phil. And - ahem - wouldn't you know Mickelson is the most accurate putter on the PGA Tour?
"I think that Oakmont's greens are probably the toughest greens in America," he said, "because the pitch where the hole is, is more severe than the next toughest (course) - which is probably Augusta. I think Augusta's greens are as tough as you can handle, and around the hole at Oakmont, it's even more severe than Augusta. It's going to be a very difficult test on and around the greens."
Undoubtedly, the Tiger-Phil "rivalry" will once again be a major focus here, despite the fact that a golf tournament never is about two competitors, but rather about upwards of 150.
Photo: © Matthew Stockman/Getty Images |
| Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson grinding it out in their Mano-a-Mano battle at Doral in 2005. |
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America being America, though, it's the one-on-one prospect that gets people buzzing. Forget the fact that Mickelson and Woods have gone toe-to-toe only four or five times the last 10 years. One occurrence that does jumps out, is Doral in 2005, with Woods finally catching Mickelson at the wire. People remember those moments and it's the prospect that the U.S. Open just MIGHT be a reoccurrence that keeps people chattering.
Neither, however, seems to really mind the pseudo-rivalry.
"It's flattering," said Mickelson. "To me, anyways. Probably not to him, but it's flattering to me."
Tiger gets it, too. And, in a little bit of a shocker, he sees the public's side of the issue.
"I totally understand it. That's what fans certainly want to see and want to have happen, and as players, yeah, it would be nice to have that."
And Mickelson says - talk on. He will do his best to cooperate.
"It's a tough feat," he reminded. "I mean, we're talking about probably the best player of all time. I'm working hard. I think that it's going to take some time for me to get ultimately where I want to be as far as where I want my swing to be, as far as where I want my ball-striking to be and my misses. But I'm certainly optimistic with the early success that I've had."
Photo: © Andy Lyons/Getty Images | | Phil Mickelson's win at The Players has helped stoked the fire of a possible Phil/Tiger battle at Oakmont. |
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Tiger agrees that the Players, which Phil won, has certainly shoved Mickelson back to the forefront of the "Tiger's Rival" debate.
"He's playing better, no doubt about that," said Woods. "He's playing a little more consistently. This year he's putting a little better, too. That's something he probably didn't do towards the end of the year last year as well as he did at the beginning of the year. We all know he can hit it great all the time, but you have to make putts. If you do both, you're looking pretty good."
One thing has always remained consistent - Tiger has been one of the two players mentioned. Others move in and move out, but over the past decade, it has always "X" and Tiger. "As long as I'm up there in that conversation - and I'm always a part of each one of those conversations - I'm doing all right," he said. "Ever since I've been on tour, they've been looking for a rivalry for me."
This business of creating a one-on-one rivalry is as old as golf itself, of course.
"It's the same, if you look at Jack's career, it was the same way" said Tiger. "He had Palmer, Player, Watson, Trevino, Weiskopf, Miller - he was always a part of each mix, which is always a nice thing to have in your career."
Flawed though it is, there certainly are reasons that this one-on-one thing exists. The public clamors for a rival, and unfortunately it only rarely happens in golf that No. 1 and No. 2 hook up for the championship of a tournament. Woods says that in order to reach that lofty stage, you've got to be in the mix repeatedly.
"Well, I think you've got to do it not just once, you've got to do it a number of times in order to get that kind of reputation. You know, you look at some of the guys like Watson and Trevino did that to Jack, but they didn't just do it one time, they did it a number of times. You can't just do it once."
All that can be said about the supposed rivalry is that both are in the field at Oakmont, and both will start out with the exact same scores - even-par. However, their pre-game chatter seems to be that the course at Oakmont will be the eventual winner, not any one individual. This, friends, is one ornery layout.
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