U.S. Open: Expect a massacre this week at Winged Foot

Winged Foot Golf Club will test the world’s best this week at the U.S. Open.

In 1973 at Oakmont, Johnny Miller shocked the golf world with a final-round score of 63, the lowest in major championship history, and walked away with the U.S. Open trophy. A year later, the United States Golf Association got its revenge.

The 1974 U.S. Open, played at Winged Foot Golf Club, wasn’t just tough. It was hellish. Hale Irwin won with a 72-hole score of seven-over, a winning score that hasn’t been equaled at the tournament since. Legendary journalist Dick Schaap wrote the classic account of the tournament and gave it a moniker that has become synonymous with the course: the Massacre at Winged Foot. “We’re not trying to embarrass the best players in the world; we’re trying to identify them,” USGA competition committee chairman Sandy Tatum famously said at the time.

Forty-six years later, and the world’s best golfers are back at Winged Foot competing for the title of U.S. Open champion. Many of them had never seen the course until a few weeks ago. But just ask them what their first impression of it was.

World No. 3 Justin Thomas: “It is probably the hardest golf course I’ve ever played, I think.”

Reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year and pre-tournament favorite Dustin Johnson: “Haven’t played it in a tournament yet but so far it seems very, very hard. One of the harder ones I’ve ever played.”

Tiger Woods, 15-time major champion: “I think it’s right up there next to Oakmont and Carnoustie as far as just sheer difficulty without even doing anything to it.”

What makes Winged Foot such a difficult course?

Winged Foot is a beast. Located in the tiny village of Mamaroneck, 20 miles north of New York City, It plays nearly 7,500 yards with tight fairways. Miss the short grass off the tee and your day will quickly become a nightmare. The rough is six inches long in some places, and there won’t be spectators to trample it down this week. It is so thick a player could easily walk right past their ball without noticing it. There is no chance of hitting a good approach shot after missing the fairway.

Then there are the greens, which are protected by a series of false fronts, ridges, and sharp undulations. Jack Nicklaus once putted his ball on the first hole completely off the green. A player will need to be in close to have a realistic chance of holing a birdie putt.

The last five holes at Winged Foot are par-fours, all but one of them longer than 450 yards. Herbert Warren Wind, the Sports Illustrated columnist who gave Augusta National the Amen Corner, termed the final three holes The Three Witches, from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Woods is one of the few players in the field this week who played the last time the U.S. Open was held here, in 2006. But it’s not a happy memory. He shot 76-76 and missed the cut at 12-over, the first time in his professional career he failed to make the cut in a major championship.

That tournament is most remembered for Phil Mickelson’s stunning collapse on the 18th hole. Needing only a par to win his first U.S. Open, he instead made double-bogey and finished a shot behind. Geoff Ogilvy was the champion at five-over, despite not shooting a round under-par the entire week. In the five U.S. Opens held at Winged Foot, only Fuzzy Zoeller in 1984 finished under-par (Greg Norman tied Zoeller at four-under but shot a five-over 75 in the playoff).

Expect the same thing the happen this week. There won’t be a repeat of last year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach when Gary Woodland won at 13-under. Even-par will be a good score. What makes Winged Foot so treacherous is, despite its difficulty, it’s a relatively simple course. The players know how to play it. “It’s fair. There’s nothing really tricky about it. You just got to hit good shots,” Johnson said this week.

If only it was that easy. There will be plenty of hand-wringing, exasperated sighs, and shocked expressions among the world’s best players this week. Whoever wins on Sunday will not only walk away knowing they beat the top players, they conquered a beast.