MAMARONECK, NEW YORK | Bring together all of the elements that make the U.S. Open what it is intended to be – the most demanding and intimidating test in tournament golf – and you have Winged Foot.
Its immense stone clubhouse, which evokes images of Batman’s stately Wayne Manor, looms over the property like a shadow.
Located in one of the richest suburbs of New York City, Winged Foot exudes privilege.
And the West Course, one of two A.W. Tillinghast classics on the same piece of land, is golf’s version of being followed by a stranger late at night down a dark street.
Want to sum up the U.S. Open in one sweeping image?
It’s Winged Foot.
In a disorienting and disjointed year, it’s almost reassuring for the U.S. Open to be back at Winged Foot.
“I think it’s right up there next to Oakmont and I think Carnoustie as far as just sheer difficulty without even doing anything to it,” Tiger Woods said Tuesday after playing nine holes in the morning.
They’re all as tough as a tire iron and the case can be made that Winged Foot is the toughest.
If the USGA is as intent on rebranding its signature event as it appears to be, it’s come to the right place. This U.S. Open might be as old school as winged tips and rotary phones.
After seeing Brooks Koepka shoot 16-under par in winning the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills and Gary Woodland shooting 13-under par at Pebble Beach last June, Winged Foot is the antidote. In the five previous U.S. Opens at Winged Foot, the average winning score is 3.3 over par – and that includes Fuzzy Zoeller and Greg Norman shooting 4-under par in 1984. (A footnote: Norman shot 5-over par in the playoff making Zoeller the only player to finish under par in a U.S. Open at Winged Foot.)
“It seems very, very hard, one of the harder ones I’ve ever played.” – Dustin Johnson
U.S. Opens at Winged Foot tend to be remembered as much for their carnage as their champions – though Bobby Jones, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin, Zoeller and Geoff Ogilvy validate the quality of winners the venue produces.
“It seems very, very hard, one of the harder ones I’ve ever played,” Dustin Johnson, the hottest player in the game, said.
That raises the question of whether Winged Foot might be too hard. The USGA wants to push it and the players expect it but there’s a line between difficult and unfair.
Is a winning score of 7-over par considered a success? Depends on the appetite for double bogeys. They’re going to grow in clumps this week.
“Something would have to go seriously wrong to get into the realms of goofy golf,” Rory McIlroy said. “I think good shots here seem to get rewarded. Oakmont is a wonderful golf course, but I think Oakmont set up normally is right about on the edge, and if you just go a little further, then that can start to get a little goofy. Where here it doesn’t seem like that can happen.”
This U.S. Open setup, with rough deep enough to hide a water bottle, presents a singular challenge: Be as close to perfect as possible.
For years, that’s what the U.S. Open represented. It’s golf’s version of a street fight.
How deep is the rough? In looking for his own ball during a practice round Monday, club pro Danny Balin (who had Caddyshack star Michael O’Keefe as his caddie for two days) found four other balls before he found his own.
Playing the 18th hole Tuesday with the first hint of autumn blowing in, Woods, Justin Thomas and the members of their entourages went on what looked like an Easter egg hunt searching for loose tee shots.
“My caddie was throwing balls back to me chipping and we lost a ball for about 5 minutes and it was right in front of me,”defending champion Woodland said. “We didn’t find it until we stepped on it.”
Hitting driver off the tee means tempting fate on a course where one landing area narrows to 14 yards. Bryson DeChambeau plans to let driver rip almost every chance he gets.
For fans of pitchouts to the fairway, this week could be like Black Friday to shoppers. Remember, this is the place where Casper won the U.S. Open by laying up on the par-3 third hole all four days in 1959.
That’s just the half of it.
The greens – expanded and with their slopes enhanced as a central part of designer Gil Hanse’s recent makeover – bump and roll like a carnival ride. It starts at the first green, which introduces the notion of defensive putting, and continues throughout, concluding at the finishing hole with its long, steep false front and racetrack-like slopes around its back corners.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen greens like this, honestly,” said Jon Rahm, who compared the surfaces to Oakmont’s infamous greens minus some of the “craziness” at Oakmont.
The challenge for the USGA is to get the most out of Winged Foot and the players without going too far. On Tuesday, the greens were still soft enough to accept shots and while the fairways were already firm, players were comfortable hitting 3-woods or long irons off some tees.
For Johnson, who prefers left-to-right tee shots with his driver, it means backing down on some holes that dogleg in the opposite direction. For long hitters such as Phil Mickelson who struggle with accuracy, hitting an 8-iron from the fairway versus gambling on getting a playable lie with a wedge in the rough is a decision he will have to make often.
The U.S. Open isn’t for everyone. That’s part of its bruising charm.
“It’s a different kind of fun,” Thomas said. “It’s not a 20-, 25-under kind of fun. It’s a U.S. Open. It’s tough. You know it’s going to be tough, and you know par is a really, really good score.
“Maybe it’s just because it’s Tuesday I’m saying that. I might not think the same at the end of the week.”