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Olympic Test for US Open Hopefuls
Memorial Win Boosts Woods for US Open
McIlroy Seeks Form Ahead of US Open
Olympic Test for US Open Hopefuls
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, June 8, 2012 (AFP) - Tiger Woods expects the Olympic Club to provide "one heck of a test" when the 112th US Open tees off next Thursday on the San Francisco course that has provided plenty of surprises in the US national championship.
In four prior editions of the US Open at Olympic, only four players have finished under par.
While no obvious monster lurks on Olympic's 7,170-yard Lake Course, which will play to a par of 70 for the championship, a plethora of doglegs, elevation changes, hilly lies and small, sloping greens offer plenty of challenges.
"It's just one of those courses," said American Steve Stricker. "There's not a lot of trouble as in water. There is no water.
"But it's just slight little doglegs all the time. The fairways slope ... you've got to work the ball back against the hill sometimes."
It's the kind of challenge that US Golf Association executive director Mike Davis considers perfect for the tournament that the USGA likes call the most rigorous test in golf.
"We are incredibly bullish on how good a test we think this is going to be," Davis said, noting that "eight of the 14 holes with approach shots, you're playing from an uphill, downhill, side-hill lie.
"And even for the world's best, that tests you more."
Just who will be up to the challenge remains to be seen. While Woods delighted fans with his Memorial triumph, he has endured an up-and-down year. After his win at Bay Hill to end a 17-month victory drought, Woods was a non-factor at the Masters.
Three consecutive missed cuts had McIlroy teeing it up in Memphis the week before the Open in hopes of sorting out his game. He opened there with an encouraging 68 on Thursday
England's Luke Donald, who has battled with McIlroy this year for the world number one ranking, has regained the top spot and will again be seeking a first major title to go with it.
Bubba Watson, who broke through for a first major at Augusta National, has opted out of two tournaments since then preferring to spend time with his wife and new baby son.
Jason Dufner, who won his first US tour title in his 163rd try on April 29 in New Orleans, won again at the Byron Nelson Classic and then just missed out on a third victory as he finished runner-up to Zach Johnson at Colonial.
As to whether that makes him a US Open favorite, Dufner says: "I'm not too worried about any of that.
"It's just golf."
Olympic has a history of producing unexpected US Open champions.
In 1955, Jack Fleck defeated four-time Open champion Ben Hogan in a playoff after both finished regulation at seven-over par.
In 1966, Billy Casper won his second US Open in a playoff with Arnold Palmer. Casper trailed by seven strokes with nine holes to play in the final round, but rallied to match Palmer at two-under-par 278.
In 1987, Scott Simpson birdied the 14th, 15th and 16th holes of the final round to overtake Tom Watson with a three-under total of 277. Watson finished second one shot back, the only other player under par.
And in the last US Open at Olympic, Lee Janzen made four birdies and no bogeys over the final 15 holes to capture his second title, coming from seven strokes behind Payne Stewart for a one-shot win at even par.
Woods, the 14-time major champion whose victory at The Memorial sparked anticipation that he could at last make more headway in his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major titles with a US Open victory, said his recent practice rounds there showed him significant changes in the layout, including fewer of the cypress trees that line the greens and rebuilt greens.
In 1998, the second-round pin position at the back left of the sloping 18th green wreaked havoc on a stream of golfers, including Stewart -- who saw an eight-foot birdie attempt roll 25 feet below the hole.
Tom Lehman four-putted the hole and Kirk Triplett's putt uphill toward the cup rolled back down to him.
Now the back of the green has been widened, and the slope made less radical.
Two par-fives in the last three holes -- 16 and 17 -- could make for some late-round fireworks.
But the first six holes, starting with the 520-yard, par-four first, will be a daunting test.
Woods called them "The toughest six holes to start out any championship that I've ever played."
Nor is the course set-up likely to make them play any easier. After Rory McIlroy's triumph at Congressional last year on 16-under 268, the lowest winning total in US Open history, Stricker expects the USGA to act.
"I expect Olympic Club to be tougher than Congressional," Stricker said. "They're both very difficult courses, but I have a feeling that they didn't really want to see that many under, and that many guys under par last year."
Memorial Win Boosts Woods for US Open
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, June 8, 2012 (AFP) - With his long victory drought behind him, Tiger Woods arrives at the 112th US Open at The Olympic Club seeking to end yet another dry spell -- four years without a major championship title.
A victory at The Memorial in his final US Open tuneup had fans atwitter, but after an erratic season that has included two USPGA Tour victories, a disappointing Masters and a whiff of injury, Woods said he'll leave it to others to make the definitive statement "Tiger's back".
"I won," Woods said of the significance of his Memorial triumph, drawing a laugh.
"I'm sure by Tuesday I'll be retired and done, and then by the time I tee it up at the US Open it might be something different. I'll let you guys figure that out."
A first major triumph since he hobbled to victory at the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines on an injured left leg would settle the question.
Woods snapped a 17-month win drought in March at Bay Hill. But two weeks later he finished only 40th in the Masters, his worst performance at Augusta National as a professional and the first time he had finished outside the top 25 in two straight majors as a pro.
Woods missed the cut at the US PGA Championship last August after missing both the US Open and British Open in 2011 with left knee and Achilles injuries.
Woods said his win at The Memorial gave him more reason for optimism than his Bay Hill victory.
"At Bay Hill I played well on that Sunday, but I just didn't quite have the control. That was different," he said. "I'm able to hit the ball, I think, compressing it higher than I did at Bay Hill.
"As I said at Augusta, I got exposed, wasn't able to get the ball up in the air comfortably, and it showed."
He'll need all of that at The Olympic Club's Lake Course, a par-70 layout that features numerous elevation changes and awkward sloping lies.
If Woods can conquer it, he'll remain ahead of the pace Jack Nicklaus set in winning his 18 majors -- a record Woods has long aimed to surpass.
Woods has played 57 major championships as a professional, while Nicklaus claimed his 15th major title in his 67th attempt, at the British Open at St. Andrews in 1978.
It once seemed inevitable that Woods would break Nicklaus's record. But a whirlwind of personal scandal in 2009 disrupted his professional as well as his personal life and the road back has been anything but smooth.
His glossy reputation took a hit, and as the wins evaporated his world ranking plummeted.
Woods, who has quietly climbed back to fourth in the world, insists the record remains within his reach.
"I figure it's going to take a career," Woods told fans in an on-line chat last month. "It took Jack 24 years. This is my 17th year into it.
"I still feel like I've got plenty of time. It's about giving myself the most amount of opportunities to win them on the back nine on Sunday.
"The more chances I give myself, I figure I'm going to clip a few of them."
McIlroy Seeks Form Ahead of US Open
PARIS, June 8, 2012 (AFP) - Three missed cuts in a row have cast a dark cloud over Rory McIlroy's preparations to defend his US Open crown at San Francisco's Olympic Club next week.
It was at last year's US Open at Congressional in Washington DC that McIlroy stunned the golfing world with his eight-stroke victory, the second biggest winning margin in the tournament since 1921, behind only Tiger Woods' famed 15-stroke victory at Pebble Beach in 2000.
He has not won another major since then, but his form remained good through the rest of last year and for the early part of this year, hoisting him to the world number one ranking.
Then, suddenly, and for no apparent reason, it all went pear-shaped.
It all started with rounds of 72 and 76 that saw him miss the Players Championship cut at Sawgrass in early May.
Then he failed to make the weekend after firing 74 and 79 at the PGA Championship at Wentworth followed by an early exit at the Memorial last week where Woods won again to get back to fourth in the world rankings.
It has all been very puzzling - even for McIlroy.
"I don't feel like the scores are actually reflecting how I'm hitting the ball," he said at Muirfield Village, host course for the Memorial.
"I hit some good shots. It just seems like every time I go out there I make one or two big numbers and that sort of throws me.
"I just need to keep working on it and try and string 18 good holes together, then two days, three days and ultimately four.
"I'm definitely hitting the ball better than I did last week so I can see an improvement there, but I've still got a long way to go."
With a tough US Open course like the Olympic Club no place for competitive experimentation, McIlroy decided to tee off at this week's St Jude Classic in Memphis.
He opened there with an encouraging round of 68 on Thursday saying it was "the best round of golf I played in a while."
First though he did fly out to California to test a course that will be holding the US Open for the first time since 1998 when Lee Janzen was the winner.
"I went out and played a little at Olympic Saturday evening, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. So I got three good days there, three full days and flew in here last night. So it was good. It was good to play a couple of rounds there and get a feel for the golf course," he said Wednesday in Memphis.
Now, he said, the key was to put himself back in contention in a tournament where he is the only one of the world top 10 signed up to play.
"I just need to get some more competitive rounds in. I feel like that's just what I need going into next week," he said.
"I would love to play well here and obviously try and win the tournament and that would give me a great confidence boost going into next week."
Encouragement for McIlroy has come from various sources and most notably from the legendary Jack Nicklaus, who also had words of advice for the Northern Irishman following his final round meltdown at last year's Masters when he led by four strokes going into the final round.
Nicklaus, who won an all-time best 18 majors during his career, said that in the end it all came down to hard work and getting the best of possible preparations.
"Rory right now is worrying how he is going to put that (his form) back together, but we all go through it," he said in an interview with CNN.
"I had the same problems. I went from 1967 to 1970 right in the prime of my career without winning a major. And I just found that I was probably lazy, I had too much success, I hadn't worked hard enough to prepare myself.
"I just worked myself out of it, then in 1970 I had success at the British Open and I was back again."