week the second half of the one of golf’s boldest experiments plays out over refreshingly brown and burned-out Pinehurst No.2. It is now the turn of the best women to play the U.S Open over Donald Ross’ venerable old course so perfectly restored (despite the Twitter ranting last week of Donald Trump) by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
On the men’s tour there is a debate as to which of The Masters, the US Open or The Open Championship is the most significant championship and each has its supporters. On the women’s tour however there is no question the U.S Open is the most significant championship to win.
Of the five women’s major championships only two, the US and British Opens are routinely played in first-class courses and the quality of the course has be a determining factor in the measuring of the worth of a championship.
The men’s Open last week was an absolute rout by Martin Kaymer who put in the most dominant major championship performance since Tiger Woods' extraordinary wins at Pebble Beach and St Andrews in 2000.
Rory McIlroy blew a field away at Congressional a few years ago but that was on a course softened by rain and whilst difficult, asked none of the sophisticated questions posed by Pinehurst. Kaymer not only had to worry about what his ball did in the air but also, and more importantly, what it did once it was on the ground and he played it a level unimagined by the entirety of the rest of the field.
Not a single player drove out the gate on Sunday night lamenting a lost chance. Kaymer gave them none.
The course will obviously be much shorter for the women and presumably the greens will have been watered in order to make the difficult approach shots more manageable.
It was Suzann Pettersen, the brilliant Norwegian who said recently ‘we might hit the ball the same distance as the guys did 20 years ago, but we can’t spin the ball the same.’
Those who can, will have an insurmountable advantage this week and thus we look at the most powerful as likely winners.
Michelle Wie is finally playing the golf she looked capable of as a thirteen year old almost a dozen years ago. She has arguably the best swing on the tour and she was second in the first major of the season in Palm Springs. There, she lost out to Lexi Thompson who plays with equal power but little of the technical sophistication.
In Palm Springs the predictable ‘greens surrounded by thick, green rough’ set up saved many shots from running far off the greens and that makes th resulting chips ‘easy’ shots played out of awful lies. At Pinehurst, and the Melbourne sandbelt, (hence the comparisons of last week) the balls feed far off the greens and the resulting recovery shots are incredibly difficult yet they are most often played off perfect, clean lies.
It hardly takes a great leap to determine which is the more interesting way to play the game.
The other young star resurrecting the women’s game in America is 2012 Australian Open champion, Jessica Korda. Like Wie and Thompson, Korda is an incredibly talented athlete, long of limb and strong, and she plays the requisite game demanded by difficult championship courses.
She won at Royal Melbourne on a week when the greens were typically hard and fast and was able to spin the ball effectively enough to keep the irons near the hole.
The defending champion is the Korean Inbee Park and last season she dominated the major championships winning in Palm Springs, the U.S Open at Sebonack and the LPGA Championship.
Park is the most effective putter in the women’s game and she won her last start in Canada, finishing with a 61.
No one will be shooting 61s at Pinehurst this week the course is simply too demanding. Mind you who would have imagined anyone opening up with a pair of 65s last week?