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 So many great players, so few majors A slew of contenders stand primed to win U.S. Open crown
Posted: Monday June 15, 1998 09:07 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- For a while, the inability of anyone to dominate the four major golf championships was because no single great player had emerged. Going into the U.S. Open, the lack of a dominating golfer seems to be because there are too many great players -- especially young ones. The last 14 major championships were won by 14 different players and nine of those won their first -- and so far only -- major. Even Tiger Woods, whose 12-stroke victory in the 1997 Masters had people talking Grand Slam, has not been able to dominate. In fact, he has not made a real run at a major title since winning the Masters. "I think it's going to be very common to have four different major winners in a year," said Davis Love III, winner of the PGA Championship last year. The reason is clear. After a search for several years for the next Jack Nicklaus or Tom Watson, golf found not one but a slew of players wanting the title of best in the world. As Thursday's first round of the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club nears, many players are near the top of their game. Woods, two-time U.S. Open winner Ernie Els, British Open champion Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Australian Stuart Appleby and Lee Westwood of England have all won this year and all are 28 or younger. Throw in Love, Masters winner Mark O'Meara, 1992 Masters winner Fred Couples, Colin Montgomerie and a revitalized Watson, and the Open field is very deep. "If you ask me who is playing the best right now going into the Open, I'd have to say Duval and Couples," Love said.
He also thinks Els has a chance to become the first player to successfully defend the U.S. Open title since Curtis Strange did it in 1989. "He hits it straight and he's a great putter," Love said. "For a long hitter he's very patient. He's always going to do well on a U.S. Open-type course." Woods, Els, Love and Couples come into Olympic with health questions. Woods withdrew from Kemper and Els pulled out of the Buick Classic, both with back problems. But it's also possible they withdrew mostly because they wanted to have a more leisurely -- and less stressful on the back -- travel schedule to California and a more relaxed practice routine. The fact that both Woods and Els withdrew a week apart could indicate the threat of back problems to the great young golfers. Or it could indicate how intent the two of them are on playing well at Olympic. Love, who played three very good rounds at the Memorial Tournament before fading on Sunday, and Couples seem to have their bad backs under control. In fact, Couples has found an inner peace during a series of personal problems -- including the death of his father and his girlfriend's breast cancer -- to play his best golf since 1992. Woods, whose game has been much more consistent but not as spectacular as last year, feels he has an advantage at Olympic because he knows the course very well. "We used to play there nearly every Monday," he said about his college team at Stanford.
Still, Woods will have to deal with another one of his problem courses -- one where he cannot hit the driver very often. "There are a lot of doglegs at Olympic," Woods said. "There will be a lot of 2-irons off the tee." And when the driver has to stay in his bag Woods loses his biggest advantage. Montgomerie, Duval and Mickelson come into the Open with the burden of trying to claim their first major championship. At almost 35, Montgomerie is under the most pressure, especially since his accurate game seems perfect for the U.S. Open, a fact proven by his two second-place and one third-place finish. Mickelson turns 28 on June 16 but his 12 career victories and five full seasons on the PGA Tour leave people wondering when he will get a major title. Duval has less pressure. He is just 26 and his breakthrough victory came last October. Since then he has won five times and is the hottest player in the world. He has also developed the confidence and grind-it-out attitude it takes to win a U.S. Open. Another young guy with a perfect game for the tight fairways, high rough and fast greens of a U.S. Open venue is Jim Furyk. The 28-year-old is in that group of young players along with Appleby and Westwood just a notch below Woods, Els, Leonard, Duval and Mickelson.
"I think of all the major championships the U.S. Open suits my game the best," Furyk said. "I grew up on these old-style courses where you have to keep it in play. I'm very comfortable with that style of golf." Westwood, 25, won four times in Europe last year and won his last two tournaments before crossing the Atlantic to play in the Buick Classic near New York the week before the Open. He also won in New Orleans, getting his first PGA Tour victory, something Montgomerie still does not have. "No one heard of me before New Orleans," Westwood said about American golf fans. "Now they are grouping me with Tiger Woods, David Duval and Ernie Els," he said, raising his eyebrows in a combination of disbelief and pride. Appleby, 27, has won twice on the PGA Tour in 15 months. A big question mark is Nick Faldo, who has not contended in a major championship since the 1996 British Open, the same year he won the Masters, the last of his six major titles. What began as a putting problem for Faldo has grown into a general can't-play problem. Missing from the U.S. Open will be Greg Norman, who is sidelined for the rest of the PGA Tour season following surgery on his left shoulder. It's the first major Norman has missed since the 1992 U.S. Open -- 23 straight -- and during that time he had 14 consecutive top-20 finishes in majors. But while the Norman and Faldo era may be slipping away, it is being replaced by something that could be even better -- a bunch of young players battling it out for best-in-the-world honors. All that has been missing so far is a shootout involving Woods and Els, or Els and Leonard, or Leonard and Duval, or any and all combinations of the above -- plus others -- down the stretch at a major championship. Maybe that is the thrill the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club has in store.
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Els, the defending champion, is battling back problems that kept him out of last week's Buick Open 
Woods practiced at The Olympic Club many times while at Stanford 
Mickelson is still trying to shake off the label of "Best player never to win a major" 
Furyk's game is suited well for the tight fairways, high rough and fast greens of a U.S. Open course 