We’re in for a wide-open Open.
“It’s a pretty good year because there’s lots of guys who are playing well at the same time,” Tiger Woods said.
For once going into a major, Woods isn’t the favorite. Forget nostalgia and the ridiculously short odds betting houses are offering. He hasn’t shown enough game to deserve favoritism.
That heavy crown instead lies upon the heads of Lee Westwood, who won last week in Memphis, and Phil Mickelson, the Masters champion, who’s desperate to win a U.S. Open after so many heartbreaking losses.
“It’s a special tournament for me,” Mickelson said Tuesday at Pebble Beach. “This is where I played my first event as a professional (in) 1992.
“Having (finished) second in five of the last 11 years and coming so close, this is a tournament I’d very much like to win.”
Westwood, meanwhile, is looking to make his own history.
Not only has he never won a major -- like Mickelson, he’s come tantalizingly close without getting the cigar -- but no one has ever gone on to claim a U.S. Open after winning the week before.
In fact, only eight players in history have ever won a tour event and then followed up by winning a major.
But Westwood didn’t sound despondent about winning in Memphis.
“It gives you a lot of confidence,” he said Tuesday, “playing under pressure and having to make putts when it counts.”
To boot, he revealed that Pebble Beach is his favorite course in the world.
“When I first got here in 2000, it became my favorite golf course,” he said.
“It’s an amazing stretch of land and a dramatic coastline. And … no two holes are the same. I don’t think it’s a golf course you can ever tire of playing.
“If you have a bad day, you can have a look around and it cheers you up a bit.”
Woods seemed a little more cheerful as he faced the media Tuesday.
Perhaps predictably, the only time he appeared annoyed was when he was asked about the state of his marriage.
“Can you tell us if you’ve got any resolution one way or the other with Elin?” asked Mark Reason, of the London Telegraph.
Woods responded, shall we say, curtly: “That’s none of your business.”
He appeared buoyant, however, about the state of his game, which he was happy to talk about at length though it has been languishing at historical lows since the tie for fourth at Augusta.
“I’m very excited about how it’s progressed,” he said. “The more I’ve been able to practice and play, it’s starting to solidify, and I’m actually really excited to tee it up Thursday.”
Woods, who doesn’t usually play much the day before a major, marched out for his third straight 7 a.m. practice round Wednesday, which tells me his game is not solidifying as quickly as he’d like.
Although he seems to be hitting his irons well, it’s still a crapshoot when he’s on the tee, which is never a good sign at a U.S. Open, where accuracy is not negotiable.
Now that he seems mortal -- ironic timing in the narrative, given that we’ve returned to the scene of his greatest triumph, the 15-shot U.S. Open victory -- several questioners asked, in different ways, about how long he thinks he can remain the king of golf.
“I’ve probably got another week in me,” Woods joked.
“I love it, I love playing. And I love practicing, and once that starts going away, when I start not wanting to go get ready or I’m not ready to play, then I’ve got to get the hell out.”
Golf, he said, was still fun for him.
“When you come out here and you play for long enough, it’s a grind. It starts to become a little bit like work. And it’s not. It’s a game. Granted, it’s what we do, it’s how we make our living, but in the end it’s still just a game.”
Many of the savants, including Jack Nicklaus, have circled 2010 as a big year for Woods in his pursuit of Jack’s record of 18 majors.
Pebble Beach and St Andrews -- venues at which Woods is 3-for-3 in majors -- are in this year’s rotation, but the man himself doesn’t agree they’re “must-wins.”
“I think every year’s a big year,” he said, “Certainly the venues do set up well and some years they don’t, but it doesn’t mean you can’t win on them.”
Though much has been made of his need to win this week, I think next month’s British Open is far more crucial to Woods.
St Andrews is his favorite course. Indeed, when he was asked to choose the four major venues where he’d like to play a season, he responded pithily that he’d “probably pick St Andrews all four times.”
If he has circled the 2010 calendar, that’s the week I think he has chosen.
This marks the first major Woods has played in since parting with swing coach Hank Haney.
Woods didn’t think it meant much.
“There’s lots of guys out here who don’t have swing coaches,” he said, “Some guys bounce around from coach to coach, week to week; other guys don’t ever use one.
“But for some reason, people are very curious about my life.”
