Shinnecock Requires an Open Mind-Set

There is a typical U.S. Open setup, which we’ve known for years. It has narrow fairways, tall rough and firm and fast greens.

There may be a typical U.S. Open champion too, somebody who can play his way through the conditions, handle the pressure and end the week holding up a silver trophy.

Or is there? You can’t say that Tiger Woods, who won in 2002, is the same kind of player as Jim Furyk, who won in 2003.

Handicapping the field in next week’s Open at Shinnecock Hills Country Club, on the eastern edge of Long Island, is not a simple task. One person who says he knows the makeup of the player who will win is Tom Meeks of the USGA, who established the setup at Shinnecock for the Open.

Meeks says the winner is going to be somebody who is patient, who hits the ball on the fairway, who makes some putts and who doesn’t get frazzled when he discovers that the winning score probably will be over par.

That doesn’t make it any easier to try to figure out the winner, although a few items narrow the field slightly. At 6,996 yards, Shinnecock isn’t long and the USGA is banking on the wind to make this links course a heartbreaker.

Plus, those fairways that are only 26 to 28 yards wide are going to look like ribbons if the wind blows. It’s all by design, according to Meeks.

This is the 104th U.S. Open, which means that for the 104th consecutive time, no one is going to say it’s easy for them.

Of course, in the last few weeks, Ernie Els had made it look simple, and that makes him the favorite next week. He has company, although none of his peers have followed the same globetrotting schedule that Els has seen. He’s playing this week at Westchester, where Tiger Woods and Retief Goosen are the only players ranked in the top 10 who are absent.

It’s also Els’ fourth consecutive tournament in a stretch that will have reached five when he arrives at Shinnecock. Els has been in the top 10 in six European Tour events this year, including a victory at the Heineken Classic, and on the PGA Tour, he has won at Sony and now the Memorial. In his three tournaments before that, he was second at the Masters, tied for third at the MCI Heritage and tied for seventh at the Byron Nelson.

No one is playing better than Els, who already has two U.S. Open triumphs, in 1994 at Oakmont and 1997 at Congressional, to go with his 2002 British Open title.

Woods, with two U.S. Open victories, is the obvious top choice to be pushing Els. After his worst finish at the Masters since he was an amateur, a tie for 22nd, Woods tied for third at the Wachovia, tied for fourth at the Nelson and was third at the Memorial.

Most expect Woods to be in contention at the end, along with Els, which is natural, but so were the expectations that were placed on the players who have won tournaments recently and not all of them are playing like Els -- or Woods, for that matter.

Adam Scott, who won the Players Championship and was quickly hailed as the newest challenger to Woods, hasn’t made a cut on the PGA Tour since. Vijay Singh won twice in a row, at Houston and at New Orleans, and then tied for 10th at Wachovia. But Singh tied for 59th at the Nelson and tied for 24th at Memorial.

Mike Weir won at Riviera for the second consecutive year, but he has been struggling since. He lost in the second round at La Costa, missed the cut at the Players and at the Masters and except for a tie for 21st at the Wachovia, his best result is a tie for 45th at the BellSouth.

Much was made of Sergio Garcia’s victory at the Byron Nelson, that he was rebounding in commanding style, but that faded quickly when Garcia tied for 35th at the Colonial and tied for 24th at the Memorial.

Davis Love III was sixth at the Masters and hasn’t been better than 16th since.

Not everyone who could win at Shinnecock is treading water. Stephen Ames has five consecutive top 10s, including a third at the Colonial and a tie for sixth at the Memorial. Chad Campbell, who won at Bay Hill, was second at Colonial and tied for 24th at the Memorial.

Masters champion Phil Mickelson tied for second at New Orleans and tied for fifth at the Wachovia, before missing the cut at the Nelson and tying for 35th at the Colonial. There is also David Toms, who missed five cuts in a seven-tournament stretch before he won at Memphis.

Everyone that’s mentioned is at Westchester this week, except for Woods, where there will be no time to measure what Els has done lately. Beginning with his runner-up to Mickelson at the Masters, Els has not finished lower than seventh in six tournaments and he’s a total of 66 under.

He might not turn out to be the winner at Shinnecock, but he sure looks ready.