Sponsored by:
When Tiger Woods throttled the field by eight strokes at this year's Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines Golf Course, site of this month's U.S. Open, it almost seemed reasonable for the USGA to pre-deliver the Open trophy to Tiger and save everyone the bother of showing up. It was, after all, Woods's fourth straight win and sixth overall as a professional at the seaside San Diego muni where he also won the Junior World as a teenager.
There's, um, just one thing: Tiger won't win the Open.
Torrey may feel like home to the world's No. 1, but the USGA will render the place unrecognizable from its Tiger-friendly self. Even Woods admitted that his easy "W" in January would mean nothing in June. The USGA's trampoline fairways and wrist-breaking rough require straight driving — Tiger's weakness, and the reason why he's won "only" two U.S. Opens in 11 starts as a professional, his worst record in the majors.
Of particular concern will be Torrey's brutally long par 4s, including the 483-yard 4th, the 515-yard 6th, the 504-yard 12th and the 477-yard 15th. Woods will likely have to hit driver on those holes and others, and that's trouble. He was hitting a sorry 57% of fairways (154th on Tour) at press time, and winning. But Open rough spares no one. In 2000 and 2002, when he won his Opens, Woods hit 73.21% of his fairways. He was playing a different game.
Might Woods quarantine his driver? It's normally a sound strategy for a peerless long-iron player who thrives on rock-hard courses (Hoylake, 2006) or in the heat (Southern Hills, 2007), when the ball goes forever and he can play a mix of stinger 3-woods and long irons off the tee. But Torrey is never-ending (par 71, 7,600 yards), and it won't feel like Hoylake or Southern Hills. The average mid-June temperature is in the upper 60s; a marine layer of fog, the "June Gloom," adds moisture; and the USGA isn't averse to watering fairways. He'll need the big dog.
So if not Tiger, who? I like Jim Furyk, who's not long but more accurate than an atomic clock. Furyk's played in only three Buick Invitationals, twice missing the cut, but he seems to have cracked the USGA's code, with an Open win in 2003 and two T2s in the last two editions.
Sorry, Tiger, but the Open is the last, best place left where your winning is still the exception, not the rule. And this year will be no exception.
Senior Writer Cameron Morfit picked Gary Player to win the Masters.
){kind=link}