| 2007 US Open at Oakmont Country Club |
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| Written by Robert Johnson | |||||||
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Wednesday, 13 June 2007
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 Point-Spreads.com believes that the 2007 US Open will be hard pressed to living up to the Phil Mickelson drama that played out on the final holes at Winged Foot last year. The 2006 US Open will likely be remembered more for Mickelson’s meltdown than it will be for Geoff Ogilvy’s win. WagerWeb.com has Mickelson at +450 odds to win at Oakmont.Mickelson had a two-shot lead with three holes left to play. He bogeyed 16 and pulled out a par on 17 to still hold a one-shot lead with only the 18th left to play. Anything that could have gone wrong for Mickelson on that hole did, as he mucked up his drive, ripped his approach off a tree, buried his second approach in the sand and the flew over the green while attempting an escape from the beach. The whole embarrassing travesty resulted in a double bogey and handed Ogilvy his first major victory. Ogilvy finished the tournament at five-over par, while the impressive trio of Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Colin Montgomerie were all one stroke back at +6. The scores should not be as high in the 2007 US Open, but it won’t be a walk in the park for the top PGA tour golfers at Oakmont Country Club on June 11th-17th. Oakmont Country Club is known for its extremely fast and large greens and the famous “Churchpews Bunker.” The huge sand trap is nearly 100 yards long and 40 yards wide and comes into play on the 3rd and 4th hole. This will be the eighth time that Oakmont will host the US Open. Ernie Els won his first major after defeating Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie in a Monday playoff the last time the major was held there back in 1994. Woods will be looking for his third US Open career win, after winning in 2002 at Bethpage and in 2000 at Pebble Beach. Last year at Winged Foot, Woods missed the cut and delivered one of his worst performances ever in a major tournament. Tiger lacked focus in the Masters with so much on his mind (a pregnant wife and his new AT&T National tournament), he may miss out on another one if he can’t focus on the task at hand. If Mickelson or Tiger can’t get into major-winning form then the favorites in this tournament are likely Els, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh. Again, Els has won at Oakmont before while Furyk has a U.S. Open title to his name from 2003 and has come close on numerous other occasions. Singh is still looking for his first U.S. Open win, but has posted back-to-back Top 10 finishes in the majors and is a threat to win any tournament he enters. One other golfer to keep your eye on is Masters champ Zach Johnson. Despite winning a green jacket Johnson is still appearing quite low on the U.S. Open odds sheet. Johnson also won the AT&T Classic in mid-May, so he’s not just a flash in the pan.                        |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 June 2007 ) | |||||||