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OAKMONT, Pa. -- The U.S. Open is known as the toughest test in golf, and it usually lives up to its reputation.
Some years more than others.
Oakmont proved to be downright painful to Phil Mickelson. He injured his left wrist during long practice rounds chipping out of the rough. A lasting image of the U.S. Open is players in the rough with grass covering the tops of their shoes, and sometimes the cuffs on their pants. The rock-hard greens. The narrow fairways. Geoff Ogilvy once said the hardest part of the U.S. Open was going over par early in the round and wondering if you'll ever get back to even.
An even tougher test is trying to narrow down the five toughest U.S. Opens held in its 121-year history.
Which year was the toughest U.S. Open at Myopia Hunt? All of them. The course north of Boston hosted the U.S. Open in four of the first 14 years until it was deemed to be too difficult. That alone is enough for Myopia Hunt to be considered on any list of ''toughest'' U.S. Opens. It went to 72 holes in 1898 when the U.S. Open first was held there, and Fred Herd won at 328. The next two Opens were won with scores of 315 and 313, and when it returned to Myopia Hunt in 1901, Willie Anderson and Alex Smith tied at 331. Anderson won the playoff. He shot 85. The final U.S. Open at Myopia Hunt was in 1908. Fred McLeod won at 322, 20 shots higher than the winning score a year earlier at Philadelphia Cricket Club.
Oakmont renewed its reputation as among the toughest tracks in America with its combination of thick grass and the fastest greens around.
How severe was it? Tiger Woods said a person with a 10 handicap could not break 100. The average score Friday was 76.93, the highest before the cut in more than 10 years. Overnight rain before it started allowed two players, Nick Dougherty and Angel Cabrera, to break par Thursday. No one else was under par the rest of the week. Aaron Baddeley had a two-shot lead going into the final round and made triple bogey on the first hole on his way to an 80. Cabrera showed his mettle with two key drives on the back nine and a 69 to finish at 5-over 285 and win the title.
Angel Cabrera with his winner's trophy after the 2007 U.S. Open.
With due respect to Johnny Miller and his 63 at Oakmont, one can make an argument that the greatest closing round in U.S. Open history belongs to Ben Hogan at Oakland Hills. Hogan didn't mince words, and his comment upon winning his second straight U.S. Open gave the course its nickname. ''I'm glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees,'' he said. This was the first year the U.S. Open began the practice of converting par 5s into par 4s, and Hogan won at 7-over 287. He opened with rounds of 76-73, and at 9 over was still only five shots behind Bobby Locke. He shot 71-67 on the final day to win by two shots over Clayton Heafner.
The 1955 U.S. Open is best known for how unheralded Jack Fleck took down Ben Hogan in one of golf's great upsets. What gets overlooked is how difficult Olympic played that year. There were only seven rounds under par all week, and Fleck had three of them, including the playoff. Fleck had to birdie two of the last four holes to force a playoff with Hogan at 7-over 287. And they were five shots clear of Tommy Bolt and Sam Snead in third place. Most telling about the difficulty of Olympic Club that year were images of Hogan chopping his way to double bogey on the final hole of the playoff. The grass was so thick that he could barely advance his ball, and it was so deep that the cuffs on his pants are covered. Combine that with narrow fairways and tiny, firm greens, and it became a test of Olympic proportions.
A year earlier, on an Oakmont course softened by overnight rain, Johnny Miller became the first player to shoot 63 in the U.S. Open, and he remains the only player with a 63 in the final round of golf's toughest test. The USGA made sure that didn't happen at Winged Foot. It was so difficult that no one was under par after any of the four rounds. The low score of the tournament was 67 by Hubert Green, and that was after he opened with an 81. Hale Irwin closed with a 73 to capture the first of his three U.S. Open titles. Irwin won at 7-over 287. There has not been a higher winning score in relation to par at any major since then.
Jack Fleck warms up before a playoff with Ben Hogan for the U.S. Open golf tournament title in San Francisco in 1955.
