‘No reprieve’ as US Open starts at Oakmont

Oakmont (United States) (AFP) – Golf’s new “Big Three” led by Jason Day and perennial US Open nearly man Phil Mickelson were set to be tested Thursday as the second major golf championship of the season teed off at formidable Oakmont.

A stream of the game’s best could only shake their heads during early week practice rounds as they recounted the dangers and difficulties posed by the par-70, 7,219 course laid out in rolling country northeast of Pittsburgh.

An inch of overnight rain took some of the edge off the fast, undulating greens, and there was a sprinkling of birdies on the early leaderboard on Thursday.

A chance of thunderstorms later meant a possibly messy ending to the opening day of action, but morning starters including defending champion and world number two Jordan Spieth, world number three Rory McIlroy and British Open champion Zach Johnson, could expect to enjoy the rain-softened course before more threatening weather arrived.

But even a softened-up Oakmont promised to provide a daunting challenge.

“You have to be so disciplined,” McIlroy, the 2011 US Open winner, said. “One of the real challenges about this golf course, especially after taking so many trees away, is that it’s a big, wide-open space now and you’re hitting into these tight fairways.

“There’s not really a whole lot of definition out there. So you have to be so zoned in to where you want your target to be.”

Keeping the ball below the hole will also be key.

“I’d much rather have a 30-foot putt up the hill on these greens then even have an eight-footer down the hill,” McIlroy said, and his thoughts were echoed by Mickelson, a six-time US Open runner-up who could complete a career Grand Slam with a victory this week.

“I think putting is not so much how well you putt, but where you putt from,” Mickelson said of mastering Oakmont’s greens, whose speed at the 1935 US Open inspired the creation of the Stimpmeter.

“The most important element of playing this, besides a tee shot, will be having your next shot be uphill — your putt uphill, your chip uphill. It’s just not possible to do it downhill,” Mickelson said.

– No reprieve –

The American, celebrating his 46th birthday on Thursday, was to tee off at 2:09pm (18:09 GMT) alongside 2013 US Open champion Justin Rose of England and Henrik Stenson.

World number one Day, seeking to add a second major title to the US PGA Championship he won last year, was due off at 2:20 alongside major winners Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen.

All will have decisions to make on a course that almost certainly won’t be overpowered.

The last US Open played at Oakmont, in 2007, was won with a five-over par total by Argentina’s Angel Cabrera.

“There’s no reprieve off the tee, there’s no reprieve into the greens and there’s certainly no reprieve on the greens,” Mickelson said.

“It’s one of the most difficult golf courses I think we’ll ever play.”