US Open 2015: Complete Guide to This Year's Tournament at Chambers Bay
To understand why this U.S. Open is poised to be one of the most unique, entertaining major golf tournaments in recent memory, you have to look beyond all the great players.
Sure, it's going to be a blast to see if Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, fresh off the first of what should be many major triumphs at the Masters, live up to their enormous potential on the same weekend and stage a duel for the ages.
Then there is Tiger Woods. Which Tiger will show up? The one with teeth, or the one who posted the worst four-round score of his long and distinguished professional career at the Memorial in his last outing?
Many other players and their games swirl in a virtual kaleidoscope of subplot possibilities. But none stands out as much as the course itself, which remains a mystery even to the few who have already played it much.
"Every hole seems like it is uphill," Woods told USA Today's Steve DiMeglio after playing a practice round.
"It's just hard," Brooks Koepka told Golf Digest's Alex Myers. "You can't relax on one shot. You can't take a shot off. You can't take a second off."
And finally, there is this from ESPN.com senior golf analyst Michael Collins: "Half of the players will be cool with the setup and half will hate it. Quite honestly I think the USGA would be ecstatic with that too. They want guys to be psyched out by it before the tournament even starts."
Chambers Bay not only is the first course to host a U.S. Open in the great Pacific Northwest, but also is the first course ever built specifically with hosting this tournament in mind. Here, we've teed up for you more about that and everything else you need to know about this year's U.S. Open.
About Chambers Bay
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Located on the outskirts of Tacoma, Washington, Chambers Bay rose up out of an old sand-and-gravel pit and wasn't even open for business a decade ago. In fact, it won't even celebrate its eighth birthday until June 23, two days after this tournament concludes (unless there is a Monday playoff).
According to Golf Digest's Ron Whitten, the site first opened in the 1890s as a sand-and-gravel mining pit. "Over the next century it's said to have provided 90 percent of the material used to create the skyline of Seattle, 40 miles north," Whitten wrote. It remained operational until as recently as 2001.
Eventually, a local politician named John Ladenburg "decided the waterfront property should be redeveloped for public recreation," per Whitten, including a golf course. But not just any golf course. Ladenburg and an advisory committee made it clear they wanted a course built that could host a U.S. Open, according to Whitten, and sooner rather than later.
So they hired the company headed up by noted golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. to get it done, and here we are. The course consists of 18 challenging holes built on sandy soil, dotted by massive bunkers and sandy waste areas, with wide fairways that nonetheless are tricky because there aren't many flat lies. In fact, some of the tee boxes aren't even flat.
To underscore the quirky nature of the course, the first hole and the 18th hole will be set up differently each day, with them alternating between playing as a par four and a par five. (On days when the first hole is set up as a long par four, the 18th will be set up as a par five, and vice versa).
To understand how tough it likely will play, the scoring average over the two rounds of stroke play when it hosted the 2010 U.S. Amateur was a robust 79.25. This is likely to be a U.S. Open where even par will be a good score and could even win it.
Where to Watch
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Here is the television schedule for daily coverage on Fox Sports and Fox Sports 1 (all times Eastern):
Thursday, June 18
12 p.m. to 8 p.m., Fox Sports 1
8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Fox Sports
Friday, June 19
12 p.m. to 8 p.m., Fox Sports 1
8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Fox Sports
Saturday, June 20
2 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fox Sports
Sunday, June 21
2 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Fox Sports
Also, FoxSportsGo.com will have three live-streaming channels (featured group, featured holes and U.S. Open 360) from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 2 p.m. to TBD on Saturday and Sunday.
Biggest Storylines
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Which Tiger will show up?
Will it be the Tiger Woods who looked more than a little like his old self while at least injecting himself into the conversation at the Masters? Or will it be the guy who shot a career-worst 85 on Saturday at the Memorial, putting him on the path that led to the worst four-round finish of his storied career? Odds are he'll land somewhere in between, which likely won't be good enough to contend on this difficult course.
Will the players hate the course?
Speaking of the course, Ian Poulter already has tweeted that fellow players who have braved it proclaim it "a complete farce." Let the haters hate. You know those who struggle here will have plenty of negative stuff to say, and someone with a prominent name might very well shoot 85 again. But who cares? For the fans, sometimes there is nothing better than to watch a professional golfer have to work hard on every shot, tooth and nail, just to shoot par.
Whatever happened to defending champion Martin Kaymer?
Kaymer hasn't seemed the same since blowing a 10-shot lead over the final 14 holes to lose the Abu Dhabi Championship in the United Arab Emirates in January. In his last seven PGA Tour events, Kaymer has missed three cuts and finished tied for 31st, 34th, 44th and 56th in the others, with an average final-round score, when he made it that far, of 73. Don't count on him to put up much of a defense of his surprising wire-to-wire 2014 U.S. Open title.
Will new Rory vs. Spieth rivalry take flight?
These two players have clearly established themselves as the best in the game at the present time. Could this tournament be the beginning of a long, fascinating rivalry between the two that will stretch over many majors to come? It could be, and we'll examine more on this one later.
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The Top Pairings
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There are some notable pairings for Thursday and Friday at this year's U.S. Open. Here are just a few (all tee times are Eastern Time).
Thursday 10:33 a.m./Friday 4:33 p.m.: Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Angel Cabrera
Mickelson and Watson, two of golf's most famous (and obviously best) lefties, will tee off together. And although the 45-year-old Cabrera is getting older, he has made a habit during his career of playing his best on the big stage. Together, this threesome has claimed nine majors throughout their careers. But Cabrera is the only one to have won a U.S. Open, having done so in 2007 at Oakmont.
Thursday 11:17 a.m./Friday 5:17 p.m.: Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia
Johnson has been playing some great golf recently and should definitely be considered a top contender. There is some slight concern, however, about his recent unexpected withdrawal from the FedEx St. Jude Classic, citing "illness" that CBSSports.com's Kyle Porter suggested was more likely merely boredom after a poor start. Scott always is a threat to contend, as is Garcia, although Sergio's difficulties in closing the deal in big tournaments has been well-documented.
Thursday 5:17 p.m./Friday 11:17 a.m.: Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Justin Rose
Spieth, the runaway Masters champion earlier this year, enters as a favorite again. Day has long been considered one of the best golfers who has yet to win a major championship, having finished runner-up in three of them (including his very first U.S. Open in 2011 at Congressional). Rose only became the first English player to win a U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970 when he captured the 2013 top prize at Merion Golf Club, beating out Mickelson.
Thursday 5:28 p.m./Friday 11:28 a.m.: Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Louis Oosthuizen
While whether Tiger can pull his game together in time to contend remains an Open question—see what we did there?—Fowler is playing some of the best golf of his career and is likely to have model girlfriend Alexis Randock following him around the course. (Their lingering kiss after he won the Players Championship recently was, uh, quite memorable). Oosthuizen? His name is fun to say and his game is underrated.
Top Contenders
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Rickie Fowler
Speaking of that winning kiss from his girlfriend, Fowler would love to have another delivered on the 18th green Sunday at Chambers Bay. And the fact is, it could happen. Even though he missed the cut in two of his last four tournaments, in between he finished ninth at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Match Play and won the Players. Randock should plan on standing by, just in case.
Phil Mickelson
Just when you think maybe it's time to start writing Lefty off, he comes up with a solid tournament that makes you hold off. Mickelson missed the cut at The Players and wasn't much better than Tiger at the Memorial, finishing in a tie for 65th. But he finished tied for second at the Masters, tied for fourth at the Wells Fargo Championship and tied for third last week at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, including a final-round 65. That should give him hope and momentum heading into the tournament where he has finished second a record six times but never won.
Justin Rose
Rose isn't always flashy, but he sure is efficient most of the time. He also missed the cut at The Players, but in his four other most recent PGA Tour events, he finished tied for second at The Masters, won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, finished tied for 17th at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play and tied for second at the Memorial. He's playing well, and this is a links course where he might be more comfortable than most.
The Dark Horses
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Brooks Koepka finished tied for third after leading much of last weekend's FedEx St. Jude Classic and could be one to watch at Chambers Bay.
For one thing, he has played the course previously under big-time competitive auspices. He didn't necessarily play well, shooting an 81 and failing to qualify for match play there in the 2010 U.S. Amateur. But he did learn that you can't take any shots off mentally at the course, and he also feels better about his game after playing well last weekend.
"It was important to me," Koepka told Teresa M. Walker of The Associated Press about playing a final tuneup tournament before hitting Chambers Bay again. "I needed a few more rounds to help to try to find the confidence, find my good play. I've been playing well, just don't feel like I'm getting the results. And I felt like I just needed another week to really figure it out."
Another guy who had it figured out even a little better than Koepka at TPC Southwind in Memphis last weekend was Fabian Gomez, who won his first PGA tournament by shooting four rounds of 68 or better for a 13-under total of 267. He also is a possible dark horse in this wide-open U.S. Open.
Brandt Snedeker, Hideki Matsuyama, Jimmy Walker, Patrick Reed and Matt Kuchar are other dark horses who bear close watching.
The Favorite(s)
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Do we really have to pick one favorite? Can't we pick two?
McIlroy and Spieth are the obvious favorites heading into this one—McIlroy is going off at 7-1 and Spieth at 8-1, according to Odds Shark. But as the oddsmakers have noted, the edge might just go to McIlroy, who likely is to be more familiar and comfortable with the uncomfortable nature of playing a course like Chambers Bay.
Like Koepka, Spieth also played the course in the 2010 U.S. Amateur, when he shot an 83 and failed to advance to match play. That was light-years ago in Spieth's golf life (or even his real life, as he was only 16 at the time), so it may mean little heading into this event.
Here's to hoping that is the case and these two giants duel it out, fueling a rivalry that could play out time and again in future major championships. That not only would be great for this weekend, but fantastic for golf over the long haul as well.
With Tiger Woods' game clearly fading, Phil Mickelson getting older and no one else seeming ready to ascend to golf's throne like McIlroy and Spieth, their youthful vigor, booming drives and clutch shot-making make them the perfect couple to forge a rivalry that could fuel interest in future majors for more than a decade.
Joe Menzer, who has covered all sorts of sports for more than three decades and has written six sports-related books, now writes about golf and other sports for Bleacher Report, as well as working as a Digital Content Producer for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
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