General / Editor / 03 June 2007 /

The eyes of the golfing world will fall on Oakmont next week and they are likely to witness one of the stiffest course examinations put before the world's elite players in a recent Major championship.

Oakmont will play host to the US Open for a record eighth time and all indications are that the tournament's organising committee will mark the occasion by setting the par-70 course at its ultimate test.

The Pennsylvania venue, voted the fifth best course in America by Golf Digest magazine, is already reputed to be the hardest in the whole of North America and that reputation is well deserved.

On the previous seven occasions it has hosted the USGA's flagship event, the best winning score is only five-under-par - by Ben Hogan, Johnny Miller and Ernie Els the last time it was played in 1994 - while, amazingly, only 23 golfers have finished under par at the end of 72 holes.

The hard and lightning-quick greens are acknowledged as being even harder and faster than the legendary putting surfaces at Augusta while some 180 deep bunkers will be waiting to swallow up the shots not perfectly hit.

Little wonder, then, that world number one Tiger Woods took the trouble to play three rounds on a fact-finding mission to Oakmont near the end of April while his nearest rival Phil Mickelson spent three days studying the course in detail two weeks ago.

Measuring 7,230 yards off the back tees - 284 yards longer than when the US Open was last played there - Oakmont's par of 70 is one of, if not, the toughest to be found anywhere in the world.

And one glance at the roll of honour of previous winners makes you realise that only the best tend to come out on top at the course, which was designed by Henry C Fownes in 1903.

Bobby Jones, Tommy Armour, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan all figure in the list of players to win major titles on the demanding lay-out while Jack Nicklaus won the first of his 18 Majors at Oakmont after an epic battle with Arnold Palmer in 1962.

The course that the players encounter next week will be very different from the one that Els - available at 24 to win next week- triumphed on 13 years ago when he beat Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie in a play-off - with some 5,000 trees having been removed in a move to return Oakmont to how Fownes wanted it to be played.

The field will also encounter the longest par three in the tournament's history with the eighth hole measuring a staggering 288 yards.

But all the other features of a traditional US Open course will be on display in abundance, with the fairways set to be tighter, the rough higher and the greens faster than ever before.

The putting surfaces are expected to be running at between 13 to 13.5 feet on the stimpmeter while the fairways will be just 22 yards wide in some places and rough between 1 ¾ inches and 5 inches long will be waiting for any stray shots hit off line.

After the success of the short par-four sixth hole at Winged Foot last year, three risk-and-reward par fours have been included in the 2007 test to create more excitement and offer the field some respite.

But the 667-yard 12th hole is a monster while the 484-yard par 4 final hole is one of the hardest finishing holes in golf. And, when you consider that many of the players' approach shots must be hit blind to greens which could be shaved to as close to unplayable as they can, it's easy to see why many golf observers are forecasting some cricket scores at the second Major of the year.

Mickelson, anxious to erase the memory of his final-hole collapse at the event last year and 11 to win next week, spent one of his three days simply playing approach shots with a selection of wedges as part of his preparation.

And the three-time Major winner believes that a score over-par will be good enough to win unless rain arrives to make the course more playable - with the difficult stretch of holes from the seventh to the tenth likely to decide the final outcome.

Woods, who was making his first visit to Oakmont six weeks ago and is trading at 3.95 to win, managed to reduce the par-three eighth to a three wood and two putts.

But conditions next week are likely to be very different from the soft, holding ones he experienced and it will be interesting to see how Woods fares in his first competitive tournament on the lay-out.

Woods missed the 1994 US Open as he didn't qualify as an amateur and there are only nine players from then who are exempt this year, with Montgomerie, Jim Furyk, Paul Goydos, Lee Janzen, Davis Love III, Jose Maria Olazabal and Scott Verplank joining Els and Mickelson.

All will be keen to get in as much practice as they can between now and next Thursday when the US Open starts but one thing seems certain, they will all begin their challenges with a fair degree of trepidation at one of the toughest tests ever in the history of the game.

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