U.S. Open
Oakmont Country Club
Oakmont, Pennsylvania
June 14-17, 2007
Defending Champion: Geoff Ogilvy

Everyone remembers Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships and Tiger Wood’s relentless pursuit to break it. After watching Tiger move up on the leader board only to come up short to finish second, like he also did at the Masters I quickly remembered how Nicklaus finished runner up 19 times, also a record. To match Jack, Tiger has a lot of disappointment to experience before eventually surpassing him as best of all time. What I clearly noticed at this year’s first two majors is how similar these two champions are in their mental approach to preparing for majors.

At major tournaments with the toughest playing conditions, Nicklaus always felt like he had an immediate edge. His reasoning was simple; most of the field eliminated themselves. Look at the scores at Oakmont this year, Winged Foot last year and US Opens since the mid 1960’s and you’ll see very similar results. With rare exception, the winning scores are near or over par, but a closer look at the entire field shows many top players posting embarrassing rounds in the high 70’s or 80’s. Finishing scores of +20 or higher are very common.

Tiger, like Jack has the knack to hang in there, grind it out and minimize the damage until there’s only a few players left standing to beat. Even when he’s way down the leader board after rounds one and two, Tiger almost always seems to get himself back into contention, heading toward the top on Sunday. I would have given great odds that he would come back to win during the final round at Oakmont.

The conditions played into Tiger’s favor but at the end the one stroke margin of victory came from the same place it usually does at the pro level, on the greens. The winning edge came from Angel Cabrera’s ability to make birdies when he had the chances verses Tiger Wood’s inability to do the same. At the end it wasn’t how many fairways, or 395 yard bombs off the tee, or greens in regulation as it was getting the ball to drop into the 4 ¼ inch cup at the right time.For those who don’t think golf is a real sport, wake up. Golf is great theatre!

The best golfers, most dedicated fans and media from around the world are in Oakmont, Pennsylvania to see this season’s second major championship, the U.S. Open at famed Oakmont Country Club, for a record eighth time. The last time the Open was played at Oakmont was in 1994. Ernie Els claimed the first of his two U.S. Open titles by fending off Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie, in the first three-way playoff since 1963. Oakmont is much different than it was in 1973 when Johnny Miller shot a U.S. Open record round of eight-under 63, beating John Schlee by a stroke. Over 5,000 trees were removed to regain the original links style design plus length added to measure well over 7,200 yards.

Remembering back to last year at Winged Foot, when Geoff Ogilvy gutted out the win as Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomery and the heartbreak loser Phil Mickelson, winner of the previous two majors — the 2005 PGA Championship and the 2006 Masters, all had finishes they’d like to forget.

Television coverage this week is as follows: ESPN and NBC from 10:00 a.m. (et) until 7:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. NBC will be on air from 3:00-5:00 p.m., while the remaining seven hours of action will be on ESPN. NBC will be on air from 1:00-7:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Here are pairings and tee times for days one and two:
# 1 Thursday/# 10 Friday
7:00/12:30 – Ken Duke, Sam Walker, Johnson Wagner
7:11/12:41 – Craig Kanada, Jon Mills, Tom Gillis
7:22/12:52 – Allen Doyle, Olin Browne, Tom Byrum
7:33/1:03 – Nick Dougherty, a-Trip Kuehne, Ricky Barnes
7:44/1:14 – Ryuji Imada, Vaughn Taylor, Michael Campbell
7:55/1:25 – Jose Maria Olazabal, Sergio Garcia, Pablo Martin
8:06/1:36 – Tiger Woods, a-Richie Ramsay, Geoff Ogilvy
8:17/1:47 – Justin Leonard, Rory Sabbatini, Jerry Kelly
8:28/1:58 – Retief Goosen, Luke Donald, Angel Cabrera
8:39/2:09 – Bob Estes, Johan Edfors, Ryan Palmer
8:50/2:20 – Woody Austin, Mathew Goggin, Pat Perez
9:01/2:31 – Jason Allen, Mike Small, Geoffrey Sisk
9:12/2:42 – Michael Berg, a-Jason Kokrak, Kyle Dobbs
12:30/7:00 – Jeff Brehaut, Andrew Buckle, Darron Stiles
12:41/7:11 – Martin Laird, a-Alex Prugh, Todd Fischer
12:52/7:22 – Joe Durant, Steve Stricker, Joey Sindelar
1:03/7:33 – Trevor Immelman, Stewart Cink, Paul Casey
1:14/7:44 – Vijay Singh, Davis Love III, Henrik Stenson
1:25/7:55 – Jeff Sluman, Fred Funk, Toru Taniguchi
1:36/8:06 – Camilo Villegas, Lucas Glover, Aaron Baddeley
1:47/8:17 – David Howell, J.J. Henry, Rod Pampling
1:58/8:28 – Lee Westwood, Chad Campbell, Carl Pettersson
2:09/8:39 – Brett Quigley, Anthony Wall, Hunter Mahan
2:20/8:50 – Kevin Sutherland, Soren Kjeldsen, Eric Axley
2:31/9:01 – Joe Daley, a-Martin Ureta, Miguel Rodriguez
2:42/9:12 – a-Chris Condello, Adam Speirs, Jacob Rogers

# 10 Thursday/# 1 Friday
7:00/12:30 – Michael Putnam, a-Rhys Davies, Lee Williams
7:11/12:41 – Boo Weekley, Nobuhiro Masuda, Bubba Watson
7:22/12:52 – a-John Kelly, Graeme McDowell, Kirk Triplett
7:33/1:03 – Colin Montgomerie, Chris Dimarco, Tim Clark
7:44/1:14 – Ernie Els, Zach Johnson, Padraig Harrington
7:55/1:25 – Thomas Bjorn, Ben Curtis, Stephen Ames
8:06/1:36 – K.J. Choi, David Toms, Mike Weir
8:17/1:47 – Stuart Appleby, Scott Verplank, Robert Allenby
8:28/1:58 – Todd Hamilton, John Rollins, Anders Hansen
8:39/2:09 – Niclas Fasth, Arron Oberholser, Nathan Green
8:50/2:20 – Nick Watney, Peter Hanson, Harrison Frazar
9:01/2:31 – a-Philip Pettitt Jr, Warren Pineo, John Koskinen
9:12/2:42 – Andy Matthews, a-Jeff Golden, Michael Block
12:30/7:00 – Jason Dufner, Darren Fichardt, Chris Stroud
12:41/7:11 – Brandt Snedeker, Christian Cevaer, Steve Marino
12:52/7:22 – Shaun Micheel, Charl Schwartzel, Tom Pernice Jr.
1:03/7:33 – Nick O’Hern, Brett Wetterich, Robert Karlsson
1:14/7:44 – Kaname Yokoo, Paul Goydos, Kenneth Ferrie
1:25/7:55 – Ian Poulter, Ryan Moore, Shingo Katayama
1:36/8:06 – Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Jim Furyk
1:47/8:17 – Lee Janzen, Steve Elkington, Rich Beem
1:58/8:28 – Charles Howell, Justin Rose, Sean O’Hair
2:09/8:39 – Anthony Kim, Jeev Milkha Singh, Dean Wilson
2:20/8:50 – Tim Petrovic, Marcus Fraser, Tripp Isenhour
2:31/9:01 – D.J. Brigman, a-Richard Lee, George McNeill
2:42/9:12 – Frank Bensel, Todd Rossetti, a-Mark Harrell

Q&A: Who can qualify for the US Open?
Any professional golfer, or any amateur with a USGA men’s handicap index of 1.4 or lower, can attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open. Many golfers are exempt from sectional qualifying, or exempt from local qualifying but not from sectional. Most of the exemptions are based on such things as performance in other majors, performance in other USGA championships, standing on the money list or world golf rankings, and so on. Assuming you don’t qualify for an exemption, then you’ll have to take part in a local qualifier. In 2006, local qualifiers were held at 110 locations across the United States, with more than 7,000 golfers taking part.

Elsewhere in professional golf:

EUROPEAN TOUR
OPEN DE SAINT-OMER, Aa Saint Omer Golf Club, Lumbres, France
Last year, Cesar Monasterio closed with a four-under 67 to overcome a five- shot deficit and claim a one-stroke win over Martin Maritz and third-round leader Henrik Nystrom

NATIONWIDE TOUR
Rochester Area Charities Showdown at Somerby, Somerby Golf Club, Byron, Minnesota
Last year, Brandt Snedeker needed two extra holes to defeat Jeff Quinney. Both players have been playing well this year on the PGA Tour as Snedeker is 43rd on the money list, while Quinney is 27th. Each has practically secured their PGA Tour card for next year with over a $1 million earned to this point in the season.

Last Week’s recap:
PGA TOUR
Woody Austin fired a final round eight-under 62 to capture the Stanford St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind. Austin played the round of his life when it counted for his fifth win on the PGA Tour.

LPGA TOUR
Suzann Pettersen won the McDonald’s LPGA Championship on Sunday and moved up eight places to # 4 in the latest Rolex Rankings for women’s golf. Karrie Webb finished runner-up for the second year in a row and knocked Annika Sorenstam from the # 2 position. Sorenstam, the longtime No. 1 before Lorena Ochoa supplanted her earlier this season, is the new # 3.

EUROPEAN TOUR
Richard Green bogeyed the final hole of the BA-CA Golf Open to tie Jean-Francois Remesy at 16-under-par, winning on the first playoff hole, his first win since the 1997 Dubai Desert Classic.

CHAMPIONS TOUR
Jay Haas bogied the final two holes but had a big enough cushion to win The Principal Charity Classic by three strokes.NATIONWIDE TOUR
Kyle Thompson shot a one-under 70 over Bob Burns to win the Rex Hospital Open in wire-to-wire fashion, his first Nationwide Tour victory.