By Dave Shedloski
The course looked familiar. The course of action not so much.

Hale Irwin watched portions of the 120th U.S. Open with a mixture of appreciation and apprehension. Irwin was what you might call a prototypical U.S. Open player, one who adhered to a formula of precision and patience, and he won the championship three times, including the 1974 edition at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Irwin was the last man standing that year, surviving the famed “Massacre at Winged Foot” with a seven-over 287 total.

On Sunday, Irwin observed a different kind of massacre. Bryson DeChambeau, swinging all out and eschewing caution, pummeled the venerable West Course at Winged Foot and won by six strokes over another bomber, Matthew Wolff, with a six-under-par 274 total.

The perceived casualty, Irwin thought, was some of the essence of the game.

He wasn’t trying to sound curmudgeonly or be critical of DeChambeau. In fact, he commended him on the victory. “It was a dominant performance, absolutely,” Irwin said by phone from his home in St. Louis. “How could you not be impressed? Far and away he played the best.”

But how far DeChambeau and many of the top contenders hit it, without, apparently, a copious amount of concern for direction, had the Hall of Famer shaking his head a bit. DeChambeau won while hitting just 23 fairways, fewest by a U.S. Open champion since 1981.

Hale Irwin, shown competing at Winged Foot in 1974, says the premium placed on accuracy has been lost in the modern game. (John D. Hanlon)

Like the late Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, Irwin, 75, has long been a proponent of rolling back the golf ball.

“That’s one of the most staggering things I think I took away from this week, was that hitting fairways didn’t seem like a concern,” he said. “By comparison, hitting the fairway was everything in 1974 or you paid the price.

“The rough looked serious enough this week, but obviously wasn’t because everybody’s getting the ball out and on the greens. It’s just such a strange feeling to see that accuracy is kind of out the window. There’s only two ingredients in the game of golf, and it’s distance and direction. And distance has all but displaced direction, big time.”

Irwin, who won 20 PGA Tour titles and a record 45 more on the PGA Tour Champions, isn’t against technology. But he believes there has to be limits, “or we’re going to lose our connection to the previous eras,” he said. “I take nothing away from Bryson. I commend him on the win. I’ll be among the first to write him a letter of congratulations … and then I’m going to ask him who his trainer is. What he’s done fitness-wise is just mind-boggling.

“But I think he’s got everybody shaking their heads as to where we are going with the game of golf now,” Irwin added. “Have we lost our traditional comparisons of eras? I always thought that’s been a part of the allure of the game is that regardless of technology, you could compare Bobby Jones to Ben Hogan to Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods. I’d hate to see us lose that connection with players of this era and beyond.

“We need to maybe stop and think about what we want the future to be. And what’s the best thing for the game. I’m not saying I have the answers. I just think we should be asking those questions.”

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By Joel Beall
Seven amateurs have been added to the 2020 U.S. Open field.

The USGA’s flagship event, which will be comprised solely of exempt players due to the cancellation of local and sectional qualifying in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, bestowed exemptions to the top seven in the World Amateur Golf Ranking on Wednesday. The seven are Takumi Kanaya, Ricky Castillo, Chun An Yu, Davis Thompson, Eduard Rousaud, Sandy Scott, John Pak.

Kanaya, 22, is the World No. 1 amateur, who won the Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2018 and finished runner-up in the event last year. He also tied for third in December’s Australian Open. Castillo was a first-team All-American at Florida in his freshman campaign, with Thompson also earning first-team honours at Georgia. Scott and Pak both competed in the Walker Cup in 2019. Yu will be playing in his third straight U.S. Open, while Rousaud won two events in Spain this year.

The addition of these seven brings the U.S. Open amateur pool to 13, joining Andy Ogletree and John Augenstein (the 2019 U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up, respectively), Preston Summerhays (U.S. Junior Amateur), Lukas Michel (U.S. Mid-Amateur), Cole Hammer (Mark H. McCormack Medal as the world’s top-ranked amateur in 2019) and James Sugrue (2019 Amateur Championship).

The 120th U.S. Open begins on Sept. 17 at Winged Foot Golf Club West Course in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Gary Woodland is the defending champ.

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USGA officials had hoped to hold the reschedule major at Winged Foot in September with a limited number of spectators, but decided not to for health and safety reasons amid the continued COVID-19 pandemic. (Dom Furore)

By Brian Wacker
The U.S. Open is still on schedule to be played at Winged Foot Golf Club in suburban New York, Sept 17-20, but as previously reported will take place without fans in attendance.

The USGA, which runs the championship, made the decision official on Wednesday, in accordance with state and local officials.

“After months of going through scenario planning from everything to a full U.S. Open, to having no fans, to asking if we can play in Westchester County given that it was the epicentre for a while for COVID-19, to thinking about what other courses we could play and when we might be able to play and how to work through a very crowded fall calendar in terms of sports broadcasting, we got the thumbs up from [New York] Governor [Andrew] Cuomo this week,” USGA CEO Mike Davis told Golf Digest. “Our whole goal is that we want to conduct a U.S. Open and want to do it in a safe way, and we consider it a bonus that we’re able to still do it at Winged Foot. If done safely, we see it as something that can be uplifting. We’re elated that we can conduct the U.S. Open.”

The championship, which was originally scheduled for June 18-21 but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, becomes the second major championship in 2020 to announce that it will take place without spectators in attendance. Last month, the PGA Championship, which will take place next week at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, said that it will be held without fans.

“We have come a long way in the fight against COVID-19, and I am so proud of New Yorkers, who rose to the occasion and bent the curve,” Gov. Cuomo said. “While the tournament will look different this year with no fans and enhanced safety protocols, this event is a welcome sight for sports fans across the country and will help restore a sense of normalcy as we build back better than before.”

Beyond no spectators there also will be other strict guidelines and limitations at the U.S. Open, according to Davis. The most significant being that everyone who will be on site at Winged Foot must undergo a COVID-19 test upon arrival.

RELATED: The 15 best U.S. Opens, ranked

Testing will involve a nasal or saliva swab and be conducted off-site nearby. No one will be permitted on the grounds of the event until receiving a negative result. That includes Davis, who said that he will undergo a saliva swab before attending next week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur in Maryland. Temperature checks and questionnaires also will be issued daily for everyone on the grounds.

Anyone who tests positive, save for players and caddies who have already gone through 10 days of isolation and 72 hours without any fever or respiratory symptoms, as per PGA Tour guidelines, also would be isolated.

Also, under state guidelines issued by the Department of Health earlier this month, players, caddies and all others who are on site will be deemed as essential personnel and therefore will be exempt from having to quarantine 14 days after arrival in New York. This is a key element given current restrictions on visitors from a number of states and countries to New York.

There will be other limitations at the event as well.

Fans watch on the 18th hole at Winged Foot as Geoff Ogilvy closes out his final round en route to victory at the 2006 U.S. Open. (Robert Beck)

Rules officials, which typically number around 75 for a U.S. Open, will be reduced to roughly 25 percent of that. The number of media credentialed, usually in the 800 to 900 range for a New York City area U.S. Open, will be cut down significantly as well.

In all, there are expected to be approximately 2,000 people in all on the grounds during the tournament, between players, caddies, staff, officials, media and family members of players. That’s compared to what would ordinarily be around 40,000.

“This will not be a typical U.S. Open in several respects,” said John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director of championships. “Would it have been easier to simply cancel or even move the 2020 championship rather than play it in what has been the epicentre of the virus in our country? Possibly. But all of us at the USGA know how much the U.S. Open matters, and we weren’t willing to give up on playing it at Winged Foot Golf Club so easily. We are very proud to give our competitors and champions a platform to chase their dreams. Their perseverance motivates us, in a year when such tenacity means so much.”

“I think the big deal is that they didn’t cancel it,” said Gary Woodland, last year’s winner at Pebble Beach. “I would have loved my family and friends to be there. And the NYC crowds are great. But I’m excited to be able to defend, and to do it at Winged Foot. That’s a big-boy golf course. A ball-striker’s paradise.”

At one point, the USGA had discussed the possibility of moving its biggest tournament to another location as the New York City area was a hotspot for coronavirus early on in the pandemic. However cases of the virus in the region have declined significantly and the curve has flattened over the last two months.

Still, cases of coronavirus in many parts of the country and world have continued to rise and it became clear to Davis in late June when New York imposed a two-week quarantine for visitors from certain parts of the world that there was no way the tournament could move forward with fans.

“We realized the chances of conducting a U.S. Open even with limited fans was quickly going away,” Davis told Golf Digest. “Once we knew that we couldn’t play in June, at that point we looked at having a limited number of fans, maybe 5,000 or 10,000. But it was about then that state officials said things are changing and we had to think of it as essential personnel only.”

The news also comes after the PGA Tour last month said that it would not have fans for the rest of this season, which concludes in mid-September, though it will allow a small number of sponsor guests at some of its remaining events as well as spouses and significant others. The 2020-21 season opener, the Safeway Open, which is scheduled for the week before the U.S. Open, also will not have spectators.

Meanwhile, the USGA said it will offer refunds for those who purchased tickets in advance.

Still to be determined is whether fans will be allowed at the Masters, which was rescheduled from April 9-12 to Nov. 12-15. Augusta National has been silent since April 6 when it announced the new date for the tournament. It’s also unclear if fans will be allowed at any tournaments on the PGA Tour for the rest of 2020, though commissioner Jay Monahan has said he remains hopeful to have fans by the end of the year.

 

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By Max Adler
All four golf majors have been affected this year, but not equally. To consider the emotional pain of the host club, Augusta National’s is softened by the fact it always gets to have the Masters. TPC Harding Park has never held a major and so doesn’t quite know what it’s missing with the PGA Championship, and besides, the pride of this city-owned daily-fee is dispersed through a structure where it’s run by a private Chicago management firm yet San Francisco parks and rec cuts the grass. As for The Open, the R&A cancelled quickly to collect on an insurance policy and the members of Royal St. George’s should wake up next July as if from a dream, essentially identical dates a year later being a deferment rather than a disruption to the flow of club life.

Winged Foot Golf Club, one the other hand, is in a strange limbo. Today was supposed to be the first round of its sixth U.S. Open, and the forecast is so good it hurts. Low 80s and sunny all week throughout the New York area, dropping into the mid-60s at night, continuing through the weekend. Goddamn perfect weather for swollen rough, fairways that run 60 miles an hour and the way a summer drink would taste under blue skies while watching today’s best golfers interpret the same West Course where Bobby Jones, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin, Fuzzy Zoeller and Davis Love III (PGA Championship) won. Even when Geoff Ogilvy (almost Phil Mickelson) survived the field in 2006, golf was a different game. There aren’t any pros built like Colin Montgomerie anymore, who also coughed it away on the 72nd hole that year.

How will The Foot hold up against the new breed of bombers? Will Dustin Johnson be able to fit his cut-drive over the trees on the dogleg-left fifth hole, which has been converted to a par 4. Who will take on the new Shamrock bunker from the back tees at the 14th? Who has the touch for the knuckled greens, which were soggy and slow in 2006. We’ll have to wait for the unusual date of Sept. 17-20, likely without fans, to find out. Three months might not seem like much, but these answers are pressing because a lot has happened at Winged Foot in the past decade, including a major restoration by Gil Hanse and the tenure of superintendent Steve Rabideau, who is as brilliant a grassman as anyone in the grill room can remember.

Rabideau is also a bit ornery. The tuning of the golf course for this specific week has been his priority numero uno since he took the job. The rough on the West, a blend of rye and bluegrass and poa annua, just popped. Like magic, it’s twice as thick as the rough on the neighbouring East Course. How will it survive the hot summer? Sitting in a cart, Rabideau exhales smoke from his cigar with a faraway look. Come fall, the grass blades will inevitably thin to produce both good lies and bad lies in the rough. Right now, they’re all bad, which is good, even at two inches height.

The members of Winged Foot are a prideful bunch and everyone agrees the course would’ve looked awesome on TV this week (I happen to be one of these members; I’ve overachieved in the club department). But September can be glorious, too, albeit in a different way, with crisp mornings and the foliage just starting to turn.

Will Mickelson be there to avenge his 2006 meltdown? The USGA now faces the unenviable job of creating a U.S. Open field without qualifying. Mickelson is ranked 66th in the world this week and has said he won’t accept a special invitation. So maybe top 70 get in instead of top 60 sounds appropriate?

Other than two minor staging platforms, there is no stadia or much of anything currently built at Winged Foot. Just two empty courses and a variable breeze of feelings coming from many directions. While the prospect of no fans means a deflated atmosphere and a serious financial blow from the loss of corporate-tent sales, a silver lining is the East Course will be spared its usual damage from tractor-trailers, port-a-johns and other notorious feet-draggers. And like any golf course in the country, the regulars are simply happy to have a place to play coming out of quarantine. For the first time in the club’s nearly 100-year history, a strict online tee-time reservation system is in place to prevent the traditional method of groups social gathering around the first tee to establish play order. And with the weather so good and people working from home, you better believe the tee sheet is stacked.

Of course, the fortunate membership of Winged Foot Golf Club knows that concern over matters like rough height and green firmness is a trivial privilege amid everything else going on in our country. Many are in positions to help solve the inequities that exist in society, especially when the hiring freezes begin to thaw.

Today was supposed to be the first round of the U.S. Open. But there’s really only one way you might know. The American flag by the clubhouse is flying at full staff for the first time in many months.

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By Ryan Herrington
PINEHURST, N.C. — The U.S. Open is getting a brand new look—emphasis on brand.

At the USGA Annual Meeting on Saturday at Pinehurst Resort, the governing body’s leadership debuted a marketing campaign, dubbed “From Many, One,” that aims to strengthen the communication and messaging of its most prominent—and lucrative—championship around a handful of core principles and traits that best exemplify the spirit of the event.

More than a year ago, the USGA began surveying fans, players, volunteers, sponsors, representatives of host courses and media members to identify key attributes that uniquely define the championship. Many of them are familiar to knowledgeable golf fans: The U.S. Open is seen as the toughest tournament in the world. It’s also one that’s uniquely open to any top amateur or professional who wants to enter. It’s played on America’s greatest courses. And its run by the USGA, a point that seems obvious but isn’t always understood by casual golf fans. (Yearly USGA research says that only 20-30 percent of fans understand who runs any of the four majors.)

From this, the association enlisted Zambezi, a California-based company, to help create a brand platform that incorporated these themes. “From Many, One” plays off the American motto “E Pluribus Unum”, and tries to crystalize the idea that out of the nearly 10,000 hopeful golfers who enter the event, each with their own unique stories and dreams of one day being the lone champion who emerges each year.

To launch the brand initiative the USGA is using actor Don Cheadle in a series of promotional videos that attempt to drive home the “From Many, One” theme. Additionally, past Open champions Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods, among others, have filmed spots that discuss their perspectives on what it takes to win the U.S. Open.

The campaign will extend into print and digital advertisements and will be a jumping-off point for the association’s social and digital offerings. It also will be prominent on-site at Winged Foot Golf Club for this year’s U.S. Open in June, according to Craig Annis, chief brand officer of the USGA.

“Our goal was to develop a distinct and powerful brand platform that allows us to celebrate what makes our championship unique and to tell the stories that drive our audiences to attend, watch and engage with the U.S. Open year-round,” Annis said.

“The U.S. Open is more than a golf event, it’s more than a test or evaluation, it’s an experience that brings people together to share in the electricity that comes from players pushing themselves beyond their limits to achieve their dreams,” said Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA. The new program will allow the association to share this and celebrate the players, fans and courses involved.

Among those surveyed were 44 tour pros, including 13 past U.S. Open and Women’s Open champions. “We heard good things, bad things, things we should improve upon and things they love,” Annis said.

According to Annis, this is the first time the association has embarked on a brand campaign outside of ticket-sales initiatives for individual USGA events. But there is a clear reason behind putting time and resources toward bolstering the U.S. Open: The championship generates nearly 75 percent of the USGA’s overall revenue, roughly $165 million. Of that money, $80 million goes to the conduct of the championship, $15 million to the players with the remaining $70 million used to fund other USGA golf research and initiatives.

“The success of the championship,” Annis said, “directly impacts the work we do to support millions of golfers who enjoy the game.”

The hope, then, is that a little investment now will pay off down the road.

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By John Feinstein
Mike Davis, the CEO of the United States Golf Association, has heard all the rumours, reports and speculation about the changes that are coming to the U.S. Open specifically in the selection of venues.

“Some of them are simply untrue,” Davis says. “Some, I understand where they came from, even if they’re inaccurate. And some might happen down the road, but probably not while I’m still on the job.”

After the success of this year’s Open at Pebble Beach, the rumours began:

• The USGA was thinking of establishing a regular rotation of courses, much like the rota that the R&A has used for years to pick Open Championship sites.
• The USGA was thinking of going into business with a handful of clubs, even establishing an LLC with some of those clubs.
• The USGA was done looking for new golf courses for future Opens.

As with most rumours, there is a degree of truth in some, if not all, of what was being said.

According to Davis, there will be no rota, but, as the schedule from now through 2027 makes clear, there are a handful of courses the USGA will return to on a frequent basis.

“It’s pretty clear that we love Pebble Beach, Pinehurst, Oakmont and Shinnecock,” Davis says. “Those four meet all our criteria: They’re great tests of golf, they set up logistically either very well or well enough, and—being honest—we’re going to make money when we go there. We’re a nonprofit, but the U.S. Open financially supports everything else we do—all our other championships and all the golf programs we sponsor—among other things.”

Photo by Dom Furore
An aerial view of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.

Davis concedes that the logistics at Shinnecock Hills—notably the traffic that plagued the 2018 event—aren’t perfect. “But the golf course is such a wonderful test, we think it’s worth that inconvenience,” he says. “We know it’s very tough getting there and leaving there, but once you’re there, it’s spectacular.”

The Open is scheduled to go back to Pinehurst in 2024, Oakmont in 2025, Shinnecock in 2026 and Pebble Beach in 2027. That means it will be 10 years between visits to Pinehurst, nine years since the 2016 Open at Oakmont, and an eight-year gap for Shinnecock and Pebble.

Davis thinks Winged Foot has the potential to join the core four, depending on how the Open fares there next year.

“Again, it’s not just the golf course,” he says. “We haven’t been at Winged Foot since 2006. A lot has changed around there since then. If all goes well with traffic, with the neighbourhood, with how the club likes having us there, with how we like being there again, Winged Foot could move into that category.”

But a rota of, say, five courses? No.

“I remember when I first got to the USGA [in 1990], we had constant discussion about things like, ‘How often do we go to Pebble Beach? What about Oakmont?’ We still talk about things like that. At private clubs, there’s always the question, ‘How often do they want us?’

“I also remember P.J. Boatwright [former USGA executive director of rules and competitions] saying back then we couldn’t possibly go to Pinehurst because there was no way to keep the grasses alive in the June heat down there. Now, with all the advances that have been made in grass technology, that’s not a problem for us anymore. We’ve even been able to hold the Amateur there in August.

“There are also some courses where we regularly took the Open in the past where we don’t go anymore. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever go there again, but, in recent years, we’ve gone in different directions.”

Dom Furore
The church pew bunker between the third and fourth holes at Oakmont Country Club.

Much of that different direction came from David Fay, Davis’ predecessor. It was Fay who championed the notion of taking the Open to Bethpage Black, clearing the way to go to other truly public golf courses: Torrey Pines, Chambers Bay and Erin Hills. Torrey Pines worked in 2008 (and will host the Open again in 2021); Chambers Bay and Erin Hills, not so much.

“I think we made a mistake going to two new venues that were also relatively new golf courses in three years,” Davis says of Chambers Bay (2015) and Erin Hills (2017). “The first time you go to a venue, there are almost certainly going to be issues. When the golf courses are almost new, that can add to the problems.”

Bethpage Black—which was not a new golf course—was a big success in 2002, so much so that the USGA returned seven years later. That Open didn’t go as well, drowned by constant rain. But that’s not why the USGA hasn’t returned.

“We wanted to go back,” Davis says, “but the state of New York had basically said it was going to cut funding to maintain the golf course without a hard-and-fast commitment to go back again very soon. We just didn’t feel we could make that kind of commitment. When we hesitated, they went to the [PGA] tour and the PGA [of America], both of whom were willing to commit right away,” for FedEx Cup events, the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup.

As for the rumours of going into business with perhaps four or five courses? “Let me be honest: We don’t have to go into business with anyone,” Davis says. “We want to play the Open on the best possible golf courses, but there are very few places that might turn us away. We will always have options.”

Photo by Dom Furore
The 17th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

There have been difficult negotiations in the past. After the 2004 debacle with final-day course conditions at Shinnecock, club members were so upset that they wouldn’t even discuss hosting another Open for several years. When Mike Butz, who was Fay’s No. 2 man at the time (and had the same role with Davis) finally began to negotiate with the club, its opening gambit was: Give us a share of your television revenue, and we can talk. That shut down negotiations for another few years until the deal for 2018 was worked out. The club did not get any TV revenue.

Fay also walked away from The Country Club in Chestnut Hill, Mass., while trying to make a deal for 2013—the 100th anniversary of Francis Ouimet’s historic Open victory there. In the end, the USGA went to another historic club—Merion—that year.

The relationship with The Country Club also has been repaired, and the club will host the Open in 2022—34 years after Curtis Strange beat Nick Faldo in a playoff, the last time it hosted an Open.

As for the rumours about setting up an LLC, Davis said there was a bit of truth in that. “There have been times in the past when we thought we needed a nearby piece of land for something logistical, and we’ve talked to clubs about perhaps buying the land together,” he said. “That probably would have involved setting up an LLC. But it’s never actually happened.”

Here’s what is probably a certainty: As long as Davis, who is 54, is in charge, the Open will go to the core four every seven to 10 years, and Winged Foot could make it a core five. Other golf courses will be considered—just less often. Los Angeles Country Club will be a new venue in 2023. Merion is likely to get the Open in 2030, the 100th anniversary of Bob Jones’ U.S. Amateur win there to conclude the Grand Slam.

Dom Furore
The 7th hole at Pinehurt No. 2.

Davis recently made a trip to Erin Hills, because giving the course another try isn’t out of the question. The same is true for Chambers Bay. If the chance to return to Bethpage Black comes up, that, too, might be a possibility.

“Ten or 15 years down the road, when there’s new leadership, the approach might be completely different,” Davis says. “Again, go back 25 or 30 years and look at all the courses that we went to that we don’t go to anymore. What we do is always evolving. But I don’t ever see a day when we limit ourselves to a handful of courses on a permanent basis, no matter how much we love them. I think that would be a mistake.”

Lee Janzen, a two-time U.S. Open champion, sat in the locker room at Shinnecock in 1995 after seeing the golf course for the first time and said this: “The USGA ought to go to Pebble Beach one year and here the next year. Period.”

It wasn’t a bad thought then—or now. But it isn’t going to happen.

• • •

FUTURE U.S. OPEN SITES
2020: Winged Foot G.C. (West), Mamaroneck, N.Y.
2021: Torrey Pines G. Cse. (South), La Jolla, Calif.
2022: The Country Club, Chestnut Hill, Mass.
2023: L.A.C.C. (North)
2024: Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort & C.C. (No. 2)
2025: Oakmont (Pa.) C.C.
2026: Shinnecock Hills G.C., Southampton, N.Y.
2027: Pebble Beach G. Links

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By Dave Shedloski

“I got a rock.” —Charlie Brown, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”

Phil Mickelson can relate to Charlie Brown. The lovable loser from the Peanuts comics repeats the above lament throughout his disappointing trick-or-treat sojourn in the long-running animated Halloween television special. But Mickelson, with six second-place heartbreaks in the U.S. Open weighing him down, has held his tongue for 14 years when those same four words easily could have spilt from his lips.

Only Fred Funk, his playing partner in the final round of the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, has known Mickelson’s secret. He distinctly heard the clunky, discordant sound emanating from the front left bunker as Mickelson played his second shot at the par-3 17th hole. Instantly, he knew what had happened and solemnly watched the predictable result as Mickelson’s ball raced past the cup—above it, in fact—to a place on the oil-slick green where the left-hander easily could three-putt.

Which he did.

The wayward misadventure on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot Golf Club two years later remains the most indelible disappointment of Mickelson’s six near misses in the national championship. But the fate that befell him on the spuriously seducing shoulders of Shinnecock Hills in 2004 gives him the most nightmares.

Mickelson and his caddie Jim Mackay entered the 2004 U.S. Open with plenty of confidence after winning his first career major two months earlier at Augusta. (A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

There were rocks in the bunkers at Shinnecock, and when Mickelson arrived at his ball, he found one about a half-inch in diameter behind it, in the most perfect place to cause the game’s most proficient bunker player to hit the most imperfect shot at the most inopportune time. Having grappled to his first lead over Retief Goosen on the previous hole, Mickelson all of a sudden was trailing again after the double-bogey 5. It was too late to make up the deficit.

At two-under-par 278, he finished with the lowest aggregate score in history at a U.S. Open at Shinnecock only to watch Goosen better it a few minutes later by two strokes.

Of the ill-fated bunker shot, all Mickelson had to say that day was, “I really don’t know what to say.”

Funk simply couldn’t believe what his playing partner left unsaid.

“I saw him a few weeks later,” Funk recalled, “and I had read all of the post-round comments and the things he said after that. And not once did he mention the rock. I knew what had happened. The sound of the shot was weird, and the ball came out with no spin. So I asked him about it, and all he said to me was, ‘I should never have been in the bunker in the first place.’ ”

• • •

If the U.S. Open is the unrequited love of Phil Mickelson’s career, then Shinnecock Hills has been the most seductive siren—and biggest betrayer—to him in his quest. Not only in 2004, but also in 1995, when he stood no lower than T-4 after any of the four rounds, Mickelson departed the storied sand hills in Southampton, N.Y., with nothing but disappointment after playing himself into contention. He will turn 48 years old Saturday of this year’s 118th U.S. Open, and only the late Julius Boros has won a major championship at that age. Yet Mickelson expects that he will retire that evening with one more shot at the only major that eludes him.

“Yeah, this year is a great chance for me, first of all, because I am playing well,” Mickelson, winner of five majors, agreed. “Second, I love the setup. I think it’s one of the best setups I’ve ever seen. The fairways are a fair width. They’re as wide as I’ve ever seen them.”

Mickelson hits his approach to the 16th hole during the final round. His birdie there gave him the outright lead with two holes remaining. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

No, they are not as wide as what the USGA allowed last year at Erin Hills. But, remember, Mickelson did not play in the 2017 championship because it conflicted with the high-school graduation of his daughter Amanda.

“I love the shaved areas around the holes that can take the ball much farther from the green as opposed to having to hack it out of uncontrollable rough,” Mickelson added. “Now you have a shot that is more in your control. I feel like skill is being brought into play.

“And, this is a golf course I love.”

One of five men who competed in the previous two championships at Shinnecock (Ernie Els, Kenny Perry, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods are the others), Mickelson has prepared as diligently as ever for the year’s second major. And he has always been among the most prepared for the championship. The world’s 20th-ranked player has made two separate scouting trips to Long Island wrapped around the Memorial, and he reached out in recent days to Shinnecock course superintendent Jon Jennings for further insights.

‘That is the one I should have won more than any other. “Winged Foot, I played terrible all week. But my short game had never been better in my career. … But Shinnecock, I played phenomenal that last day. Given the difficulty of the course, I would say that I have not played better in a U.S. Open in my life.’ —Phil Mickelson

Mickelson does his homework. And all he has gotten for his efforts thus far is a seat next to Sam Snead as the most prominent American Hall of Famer without a national title. Fortunately, the hourglass has not yet emptied. Mickelson recognizes that a two-year glimmer presents itself with Shinnecock and next year’s U.S. Open venue, Pebble Beach, where he has captured four of his 43 career PGA Tour titles. And there is Winged Foot in 2020, offering an outside chance as he turns 50.

“If I don’t win it in the next two to three years, with the courses we’re playing, then I have to think it’s not going to happen,” he admitted.

In addition to his admiration for the William Flynn-designed course and the USGA’s setup this year, which he perceives as giving him an advantage because of his vaunted short game, two other factors could contribute to his bid next week in what will be his 27th U.S. Open start and 25th as a professional.

The first is momentum. Although as wayward off the tee as ever—he is ranked 202nd in driving accuracy on the PGA Tour in 2018—Mickelson has displayed solid golf this season. More importantly, he registered his first win since his 2013 British Open victory at Muirfield when he defeated Justin Thomas in a playoff three months ago in the WGC-Mexico Championship. There was talk last week at the Memorial about Tiger Woods learning how to win again. Mickelson beat him there.

“Winning a tournament this year is a massive thing for me, going into the U.S. Open, where I didn’t have that going into the U.S. Open the last few years,” averred the left-hander, who is also fifth in the FedEx Cup standings. “So this feels different for me. I feel different about where my game is because I have won recently.”

“The marvellous thing about Phil Mickelson [is] you don’t put anything beyond him and his talents,” said Golf Channel analyst David Duval, who missed the cut in ’04 at Shinnecock. “I think his victory in Mexico this year was obviously huge for him, re-establishing himself as one of the names in the game and one of the top players.”

Mickelson putts under the watchful eyes of many spectators on the 18th green during the final round of the 104th U.S. Open. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Second, there is the New York crowd, which has lavished unparalleled affection on the California native. The loud locals should be in full throat for their adopted son. And they won’t be alone in their support. His peers will be watching closely when they are not engrossed in their own affairs.

“If I can’t win, I want one of my buddies to win. I would absolutely, 100 percent love to see Phil win. I think a lot of guys would, honestly,” said two-time major winner Zach Johnson. “Is it going to sway his legacy? I would say no. Would he have all four majors at that point? Yes, but he’s already one of the best players ever to play the game. I would just like to see him win it because he’s been close so many times. He’s been a great U.S. Open player.”

• • •

Arguably, Mickelson was never better in the Open than on that sun-drenched Father’s Day in ’04, when course conditions spilt over the edge from extreme to nearly unplayable, particularly on the dried out, crusty, brick-hard greens that repelled shots and made every putt a nerve-jangling exercise in uncertainty. The scoring average that day was 78.727, more than five strokes higher than the average for the first three rounds combined and the highest in a final round since 1972 at Pebble Beach. No player broke par, the first time that had occurred in the final round since the 1963 Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and only one (Robert Allenby) equaled it.

After opening 68-66 for a share of the 36-hole lead with Shigeki Maruyama, Mickelson had slipped into a share of second place with two-time U.S. Open winner Ernie Els when he posted a third-round 73 on Saturday that included a hint of what was to come for the field the final day. He and Maruyama each saw their respective first putt at the par-3 seventh hole roll off the green, leading to a double bogey and bogey, respectively.

Mickelson double-bogeyed the famed Redan hole again on Sunday, after watching the maintenance crew, under direction from USGA officials, water the green for the twosome in front (Maruyama and Tim Clark) but not for him and Funk. “Total crap,” Mickelson recalls thinking at the time. Nevertheless, he held his nerve, and he was able to make a change on the inward nine.

“Shot after shot, I hit just about as well as I could have expected,” Mickelson recalled.

“It was a brutal day, but other than shooting 77 I don’t remember that much about my day,” said Funk, who began three strokes behind Goosen but ended up solo sixth. “Honestly, the thing that sticks out in my mind the most was the excitement from the crowd with Phil. It was an atmosphere you can’t describe. He was playing great. … I mean absolutely as well as I ever saw him play. And when he knocked it to a foot on 16, the place went crazy. It was an amazing day.”

That birdie was Mickelson’s third in a four-hole stretch, and it gave him the outright lead. Two months earlier, Mickelson had broken through at the Masters for his first major title. And here he was in control of his game and emotions when he stepped on the 17th tee. His 7-iron drifted into the left bunker, but it wasn’t the worst leave on that hole.

Then his world got rocked.

Mickelson hits out of the bunker Sunday on the 17th hole. Until now, he never spoke publicly about the rock that was sitting behind his ball. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

“I tried to go behind the rock and underneath it, and it took all the spin off it. It had over-spin on it,” Mickelson said. “It shot past the hole in the one spot I couldn’t go, downhill, downwind. It was not a hard shot—basic uphill bunker shot into the wind. Couldn’t have been easier. But that one thing changed everything.”

Mickelson paused for effect. He was grinning but shaking his head.

“All because of that fricking rock.”

In the group behind, Goosen also birdied No. 16 by holing from 12 feet and then got up-and-down for par at 17 from the same spot that slew Mickelson, sneaking a three-footer in the left corner to remain two ahead.

“It was like a morgue going up 18,” Funk said. “We went from this incredible theatre with the possibility of a playoff or Phil winning outright to now he is two behind and there’s nothing. That was a screw job on that 17th hole. And he never mentioned it to anyone. It was probably one of the worst breaks I ever saw.”

And that is why it’s the toughest U.S. Open loss for him to swallow.

“That is the one I should have won more than any other,” Mickelson said, gauging the myriad disappointments he has endured, which includes not only all of the runner-up medals but 10 top-10 finishes overall in the championship. “Winged Foot, I played terrible all week. But my short game had never been better in my career. I hit shots that week that were ridiculous. But I missed fairways all week. It wasn’t like all of a sudden I couldn’t hit a fairway [like on the final hole, where he made double bogey from the left rough to lose to Geoff Ogilvy]. And even then I probably should have won. I certainly could have won.

“But Shinnecock,” he added, “I played phenomenal that last day. Given the difficulty of the course, I would say that I have not played better in a U.S. Open in my life.”

It would be a stretch to say that the break on 17 haunts him. Throughout 72 holes of championship golf there are always breaks, good and bad, opportunities lost, strokes surrendered or squandered. Mickelson pointed out that in 1995 he played the par-5 16th hole in six over par. “Had I played it in even par, I’d have won by two [over Corey Pavin],” he said.

Still, the rock.

“That frigging rock,” Mickelson muttered again.

It was the cruellest irony for a man who has strived so mightily to win his national championship and has left no stone unturned in the attempt.

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