The scene for this year's US Open is Chambers Bay, on Puget Sound in the state of Washington. Just as TPC Sawgrass was built to host The Players, Chambers Bay was built in 2007 to host the US Open and has already hosted the 2010 US Amateur. The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. to be a modern British-links course. Set on the majestic Washington coastline, the site of Chambers Bay was once home to a mine and the course itself makes use of the elevation changes and land features created by the mine. The results of this are sloping fairways with abrupt, mountain-like mounds of earth and gorse separating each hole. This along with the numerous bunkers (the deepest at 10 feet) and lengthy holes ensures that good scores will not be handed out, but earned.
This is the first time the US Open will be played in the Pacific Northwest. For it, Chambers Bay will play as a par 70 with a length varying from 7,607 yards to 7,874 yards. An interesting feature this year is that Holes #1 and #18 alternate parrage; if one plays as a par 5, the other plays as a par 4 and vise versa. Their lengths will also change as a result of this. The greens also don't have any fringes; all that exists is a seamless blend between fairway and green, which has already received some complaints. In fact, to distinguish fairway from green, a line of white dots will be marked around the green; one side fairway, the other green.
Majors, especially the British and US Open, always have a unique playing field. You pretty much have every level of competitive golf amongst it. Aside from your regular Tour players and world-class elite golfers, you also have amateurs and qualified players. Qualified players are professionals and/or amateurs who have gone through a qualifying process via a series of rounds. All that's required of these players is to be a PGA professional or have a minimum handicap of 1.4 for amateurs. This is one of the reason's why I love country Opens, if you can play well you have a chance to play in it. Given this depth of field though, I found making my picks this week easier this week, since I see some clear favourites in the field. My picks for the US Open are:
1) Phil Mickelson: We could write an entire post on why Phil is always a favourite in the US Open. To start, he's finished runner up at the US Open six times and it's the only major preventing him from achieving the Grand Slam. He's also shown us that he's a really great links golfer, winning both the Scottish Open and Open Championship. And to top it off, he's in great form coming into the week, having finished T3 at last week's FedEx St Jude Classic and T2 at the Masters this year. With the way Chambers Bay is set up, the title just might be his this week.
2) Rickie Fowler: Rickie is also a great links golfer and understands what's required to do well on a links course. He seems to love the majors too as he hasn't finished under T20 in one since the 2013 Open Championship and finished T5 or higher in all majors last year. He's had several good finishes this year including the win at The Players. Hopefully Rickie can ride that wave of momentum this week.
3) Justin Rose: I'd go and say that Rose is probably playing the best and most consistent golf in the world right now. He's finished T2 or higher in his last three of five starts including a win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He's played a few practice rounds at Chambers Bay too; one in which his playing partner was the course architect. This, along with the fact that he's won the tournament before in 2012, makes him our final pick this week.
Play starts tomorrow at 10AM Eastern time and is bound to be full of exciting golf. Since this is a major, we'll be having daily coverage of it with posts recapping the day's action. The posts will usually be posted the morning after the round, due to the time zone difference at Chambers Bay. Be sure to check them out!
-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews
The majestic Chambers Bay set on the coast of Washington
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