US Open 2009 Preview

[by Tim Transon, Armchair Superstar senior golf correspondent]

It’s about that time of year again for my second favorite major tournament–hey Noffke, the Masters is coming up soon. The question for this year’s US Open is; will it be able to live up to the excitement of last years?

The 2008 US Open was an exciting one with an extra day needed to determine a winner. All weekend we heard the story about Tiger Woods' knee injury and if would be able to compete. We kept seeing images of Tiger grimacing in pain after shots, however I believe he was showing off to the cameras because he did it after every bad shot. Not only did Tiger have to make a putt on the final hole on Sunday to force an 18-hole playoff, but he then had to do it again the next day to beat out the veteran Rocco Mediate (I was pulling for Rocco). It was an exciting five days of golf.

The 2009 US Open is being played at Bethpage Black (eighteenth hole pictured here) in Farmingdale NY. The course is a par 70 and 7,426 yards long. The last year the US Open was played here was in 2002 and Tiger Woods was the winner by three strokes over the current number two ranked player Phil Mickelson. While the weather is always unpredictable every year, a few things you can count on include long thick rough, lightning fast greens, and high scores. Although there will be numerous players trying to win, here are a few names, in my mind, for you to keep an eye on.
Tiger Woods: No brainer here, I have always told Noffke that I think Tiger pretty much only tries in Majors and all the smaller tournaments to him are basically just public appearances. We always bet on majors–I take Tiger and he takes the field. It’s not as much of a sucker bet as you might think. I will tell you one thing and that is a couple of weeks ago if you were to ask me who would win the US Open I wouldn’t have even considered Tiger. He was nowhere near back from his knee surgery and his putting stroke was not consistent along with his tee shots. Looking back at the Masters and tournaments that followed he putted terribly.

However, two weeks ago Tiger showed that he is back. After trailing by multiple shots heading into the weekend he played terrific, hitting putts and going 14 for 14 in fairways hit on the final day. He had the best percentage in that category for the entire tournament. If Tiger can play like that this weekend, the tournament could be over quickly.

Phil Mickelson: It’s great to see Phil playing this weekend after learning about the terrible news about his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer. I hope for nothing but a healthy recovery. It will be a difficult time for the Lefty to concentrate with all that is going on in his life right now, however after being paired with Tiger in the Masters and not having his usual collapse he might be able to push everything in the back of his mind for at least four days.

Jim Furyk: I love Jim Furyk. He is one of my favorite golfers. He has that crazy twitch in his backswing but can still recover in time to hit a good shot. Furyk has only one major win, which came in the 2003 US Open at Olympia Fields, but he is consistently at the top of the leader board. I wouldn’t be surprised if Furyk is in contention come Sunday.

Padraig Harrington: Harrington is the best European golfer playing this weekend in my mind. Harrington has three major titles, two British Open wins and a PGA, however he has seemed to be struggling in recent majors. Even though he has been struggling he still has the skills to win and still should be considered a threat.

Sergio Garcia: No I do not believe Sergio to be a contender to win the US Open, but what kind of golf article would it be without making fun of Sergio Garcia? The only way I see Sergio winning this tournament is if they somehow rename the US Open the Ryder Cup.

While many other players don’t seem to play well, especially the Americans in recent years with the exception of this past Ryder Cup, Sergio tends to shine and outplay everyone including Tiger Woods. When it comes to majors, though, he forgets how to play. For instance in 2007 he had a 6 foot putt to win the British Open. As I recall he pushed his putt to go into a playoff with Padraig Harrington and Sergio was easily defeated.

An article in the Daily Herald by Jim Litke here talks more about Garcia’s woes and reminds the reader that he is “0 for 39 in matches that count”. Look for Sergio to keep being Sergio.

There are other players to watch but I don’t have the time to write about all of them. A fun fact for you is that Tiger will be going for major win number 15 and back to back US Opens. After it’s all said and done I believe that Tiger will win this year but I wouldn’t mind if Furyk won or even Kenny Perry who barely just lost the Masters this past April. Well hopefully you enjoyed my first article. I am a terrible writer so if this was painful to read I am sorry. I will come back with a US Open recap sometime next week.

Update: First round has been Postponed till 6:30 tomorrow. It looks like some bad weather all weekend so there will be some high scores. Fodor asked for some dark horses and here they are: Justin Leonard, Kenny Perry, Mike Weir, Zack Johnson, VJ Singh, and Angel Cabrera