PINEHURST: Justin Rose, trying to become the first golfer in 25 years to defend the US Open title, would be a fantastic repeat winner, says the last man to do it.
Curtis Strange, who captured US Open titles in 1988 at The Country Club and 1989 at Oak Hill, said on Monday he would not be cheering against the British standout who won last year at Merion to repeat the feat this week at Pinehurst.
“Do I want to see somebody do it? Not particularly. But I’m not rooting against him,” Strange said.
“If Justin would happen to win Sunday night, I would be the first phone call to congratulate him. That would be fantastic.
“I don’t want to see anybody do it, but I’m not rooting against them.”
The 114th US Open tees off tomorrow with England’s Rose saying the scrub brush and lightning-fast greens of Pinehurst are as welcome a challenge as the dense rough and tight shotmaking areas of Merion were last year when he took his first major title.
“The different test doesn’t make it any less of an opportunity for me,” Rose said. “I like to play tough courses. Typically that’s where I’ve done my best relative to the rest of the field.
“The test is different, so there’s probably a physical aspect to it, for sure. You have to learn a whole new golf course and that’s important.
“So my preparation is going to be key. It’s developing and designing a game plan you believe will hold up over 72 holes that you can execute that suits your game and that will produce the winning score.
“It’s what I did at Merion. I produced a game plan to shoot even par, and that held up. So I need to do the same at Pinehurst.”
Every other major has featured back-to-back winners more recently than the US Open, but Strange can offer no reason why no one has been able to match his feat since then.
“The longer it goes, the more fortunate I realise I was,” Strange said.
“You can go the obvious reasons: it’s a year removed, a different golf course. The talent level has always been deep. You have to be at the right time at the right time. Be fortunate. You can play well and still lose. I don’t know.”
Strange, now a television commentator, adores Pinehurst, declaring, “If I had two rounds of golf left in my life, I would come here to play them.”
Strange said he expects around level par to be the winning score.
“There are some very hard hole locations out there. These greens are as difficult as they come,” he said.
“There are so many ebbs and flows in one round of a US Open let alone four. If you are one of the better players, you hope to be part of the game on Sunday. You still have to perform.” AFP
