One of the ongoing themes the players have been repeating this week is that Oakmont will be the toughest, most difficult U.S. Open ever.
Put Phil Mickelson down as one of those players.
“It’s one of the most difficult golf courses I think we’ll ever play. I think that it is a very strategic course that you’ll have to put the ball in the right, correct spots, and if you don’t, kind of accept the fact you’ll make a bogey and really try to minimize any doubles.”
Phil likes it hard, real hard. And he says his best chance at winning an Open is when the course is right on the edge, or over the edge of unfair.
The greens are the hardest he’ll see all season. “These greens are way more difficult to putt than Augusta’s because where the hole locations are, they’re pitched twice as much and the green speeds are comparable.”
“…I believe it also gives me the best chance because after 25 years, you have to really know how to play this style of golf. It’s just not like a regular Tour event. It’s not like going out and playing golf at any other golf course. This is a whole different style of golf, something that over the years I’ve become very effective at playing.
Because of that, I would love to see it cross the line the way U.S. Opens often do, and become a little bit over the edge. That actually benefits me because we’re going to have a winner at the end of the week. Whatever that score is, who cares if it’s 5 under or 12 over, doesn’t matter, the lowest score wins.
So I would like to see it go over that edge because I feel like I’ve learned how to play that style of golf, and this golf course, specifically, even though past performance hasn’t been it. Over those two Opens, over the times that I’ve prepared, I feel like I’ve developed a game plan now coming in that will allow me to shoot the lowest score.
But you still have to execute. You still have to hit great shots, make putts.”
And he knows from where he speaks. He’s come excruciatingly close on so many occasions amassing six second place finishes. So he knows how to play a U.S. Open course but hasn’t got over the hump just yet.
According to Phil the key to a win this week will face him eighteen times everyday until Sunday night. And that’s each and every tee shot at Oakmont. When asked which part of the game needs to be the sharpest this week he responded with a bit more than just one aspect.
“The tee shot. There’s 18 of them. The tee shot’s most important on every hole. It is magnified this week.
Yeah, I think putting is not so much how well you putt, but where you putt from. I think that’s going to be the more important thing this week.
But the tee shot because your second shot will miss up by the green as opposed to having to wedge out or lay back. So I think the tee shot’s going to be the most critical shot.”
Whether it is hitting the fairways on the par fours and fives or finding the green on the par threes, he says those are the shots that you must play well to be holding that trophy on Sunday.
Leave it to Phil the Thrill to quote Stephen Hawking in trying to figure out Oakmont. “I love a quote that Stephen Hawking says. ‘Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.””
Phil has reduced the U.S. Open to a simple winning formula: hit fairways, hit greens, make putts, adapt. It’s simple.
Lefty will try to do just that over the next four days. And if he has finally figured out the U.S. Open equation that has taunted him for years he may just do it.
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