Golf history expected at the US Open

Venturi, then a 33-year-old struggling pro and now a television commentator, and others — including most of Congressional’s members, many of them members of Congress — protested against using the course’s regular 18th hole, a par-3 over water, to conclude the championship.

It is the first time since 1909 that the US Open has ended on a one-shot hole. When Venturi won here, part of Congressional’s second course was used and the championship ended on the 480-yard hole that will be the 17th this year.

“All we are doing is playing the course the way the members play it,” explains David Fay, executive director of the very traditionally minded US Golf Association, which organises the Open.

The 156 players in the open field, however, are very lucky they won’t have to play two rounds in one day. Congressional’s blue course is the longest in Open history at 7,213 yards, but plays to only par 70 because two par-5s have been turned into daunting par-4s.

With Congressional’s lush rough cut to no less than five inches (13 cm) and its sloping greens shaved until they glisten, no one can expect to have a lot of fun this week, although the weather is not expected to add to the misery as it did in 1964.

When the championship starts on Thursday all eyes will be on the 21-year-old Woods, who, as the Masters champion, has the opportunity to become the first golfer in history to win the modern Grand Slam — the Masters, US and British Opens and the US PGA Championship.

While some argue that the three-time US Amateur champion’s extraordinary length should make him a favourite at ultra-long Congressional, history says differently.US Opens are won with accuracy — off the tee and onto the green — and Woods will need his famous `A game’ if he is going to avoid Congressional’s thick rough and other hazards, like water guarding at least four greens.

The difficult conditions should prevent Woods, or anyone else, from running away with the Open, as Woods did in the Masters, winning with a record total score.

That means that the championship, like last year and the year before, may not be decided until the final hole — that benign 190-yarder that’s all carry over water.

Indeed, this Open could have a truly historic ending — a hole in one to win the championship.