Anticipation and Grass Growing as Open Nears

BY HOWARD WARD: Golf Writer, The Pilot

Those noises you hear coming from Pinehurst are the clock ticking for the 2005 U.S. Open and the grass growing on the famed No. 2 Course.

The week of the Open officially begins June 13, now less than a month a way. On that Monday, the course that Donald Ross made his legacy will be crowded with young men preparing their strategies for seeking the world's most prestigious golf championship.

A group of 16 PGA Tour professionals visited the course a week ago and went away impressed and a little wiser.

The grand old lady wasn't wearing her best gown for the occasion because it was just a casual drop-in. But the men hoping to woo her affections in June have no misgivings about her beauty and grace under fire.

The golfers seemed almost embarrassed to say anything negative about the course, but they did talk about the lack of grass in some areas.

Not to worry. When they come back next month, they'll find plenty of grass in all the right places, resort officials say. And if the golfers are unlucky or inaccurate enough off the tees, they'll see a lot of grass in some wrong places.

Course Superintendent Paul Jett, who made such a deep impression on United States Golf Association officials in 1999, doesn't even blink when someone points out a few brown spots here and there. He knows what happens to Bermuda grass when the temperatures soar.

"We'll get it there one way or another," Jett said during a recent interview. "We're a little anxious about growing three inches of rough, but we were able to do it in about three weeks in 1999."

Again, not to worry. Should the rough not be quite as ferocious as USGA officials are hoping for, they'll make up for it by allowing those upside-down saucer greens to get just a little firmer.

As the championship nears, speculation grows as to who the winner will be. Will it be Tiger Woods, who comes in seeking the second leg of the elusive Grand Slam of Golf? He won the Masters in April.

Will it be Phil Mickelson, who certainly has the game and took Payne Stewart to the final putt on the final hole in 1999 before losing by a stroke?

Will it be Ernie Els, who seems to be playing everywhere these days? Els has already proved his mettle on Open courses with two victories, but he seems to be stretching himself a little thin these days while logging all those frequent flyer miles.

Will it be Retief Goosen, the quiet South African who won Open titles in 2001 and 2004?

Or will it be a human version of Giacomo, the 50-1 long shot that won the Kentucky Derby last week?

One thing you know in a U.S. Open is that there will be a couple of strange names on the leaderboard after the first round. You also know that those strange names are usually teeing off in early groups for Sunday's final round.

It's the nature of the beast. Suspect games don't make the headlines after a couple of rounds on a U.S. Open course.

So who's it going to be? Ask a dozen people and get almost a dozen different names. Every-body has a favorite horse for the course, and their reasons vary as much as their selections.

Reid Spencer, a resident of Davidson and publisher of golf publications in North and South Carolina, goes with the favorite.

"I'm not sure Mickelson has the concentration to win on an Open course, especially at Pinehurst," Spencer said. "My choice is Tiger. Look for him to win it going away."

Tom Dorsel, a sports psychologist who lives in Florence, S.C., thinks we're going to have a repeat champion.

"I think Retief Goosen has the perfect mental makeup to win a U.S. Open," Dorsel said. "He's a steady player in the mold of other Open champions such as Andy North and Lee Janzen."

North won the championship in 1978 and 1985, while Janzen picked up his titles in 1993 and 1998.

J.W. Farquahr, a golf photographer from Charlotte, takes a different tack.

"I'm going with Joey Sindelar," he said. "Because I like him."

Ed Dupree, a freelance golf writer and former sports editor from Salisbury, likes what he sees from Vijay Singh.

"I've gotta go with Vijay," Dupree said. "With his length, he's going to birdie a lot of par-5s, and he's probably going to make fewer mistakes than most of the other guys."

Of the 12 people polled, four picked Tiger Woods, making him the odds-on favorite. Two chose Mickelson, one chose Els, and one went with Chris DiMarco.

Funny, nobody picked John Daly.

Chances are that the winner will come from that group, but don't bet on it. The U.S. Open is one tough championship to win, and Pinehurst No. 2 can be one cranky old dame.

There are a lot of guys on the PGA Tour with the ability to shoot under par on even the No. 2 Course. But when you put them in U.S. Open conditions and under the pressure that accompanies it, most of them will go away from Pinehurst hoping for better luck next year.

The answer will come during those four days in June, and the chances are excellent that not only will Jett have plenty of green grass, but also that the winner will be no more than a couple of strokes under par.

If the weather is hot and the greens are hard, don't look for anyone to be in red numbers when NBC rolls its closing credits on June 19.