Tiger Woods: So many options could result in 'brutal' U.S. Open

Steve DiMeglio | USA TODAY Sports

DUBLIN, Ohio — Tiger Woods isn't sure if he likes Chambers Bay.

"Depends how it's set up," Woods said Wednesday of the site of the 115th U.S. Open beginning June 18. Woods made his first visit to the course outside of Tacoma, Wash., and played practice rounds Monday and Tuesday ahead of playing in The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Woods said the course could be "brutal" or acceptable.

The setup will be at the mercy of Mike Davis, executive director of the U.S. Golf Association, which conducts the event. In April, Davis said players would have to see and play the venue several times in advance of the U.S. Open week or they would have no chance to win the national championship.

Davis also said he will consider using tee areas that will be home to flat areas as well as downhill, side-hill and uphill lies. Another unique feature of the U.S. Open will be the course itself, which is wall-to-wall fescue grass. It is a links course hard by the Puget Sound and features some of the largest, sloping greens in the game that will surely drive players batty.

"When Mike says something like that, you've got to pay attention to it, because he's an extremely bright man," Woods said. "And we got out there and it was like, 'Oh, my God, there's so many different options here.' I don't take a long time in practice rounds, but we played in three and a half hours, just the front nine, had lunch, kind of sat down there and talked about it and played another three and a half on the back. And the next day was a little bit quicker, because we knew what to expect, what lines to take."

Woods, 39, missed last year's U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina while recovering from back surgery. He has won the U.S. Open three times, the last coming in 2008 on a broken leg. That was his last major win. He hasn't won since 2013 and has fallen to No. 172 in the world rankings.

Winning at Chambers Bay will be a tall order for Woods — or anyone.

"It's very challenging in the sense that Mike has so many options that he can present us as challenges off the tees or into the greens," Woods said. "There are so many different numbers that you have to know off the tees and how that's going to play. There's just so many options.

"Generally you look at old school U.S. Opens, and it is narrow fairways, high rough, miss it, hack out, try and make a par from the fairway. At Chambers Bay, there's so many different landing areas and aggressive or passive lines. You can run the ball up, 40 feet, 50 feet, even sometimes 30 yards right of the green or left of the green, and it comes back to 10 feet. It's a different type of golf course. We don't even see this in British Opens because (the greens) aren't banked like those at Chambers Bay."

The course can play extremely long, too, coming in at just over 7,900 yards if all the back tees would be in play. There's a downhill 546-yard par-4 and uphill par-4s longer than 500 yards. There are also three par-4s that can be reached with a solid drive.

"Obviously it's not going to be (7,900 yards). So what combinations is Mike going to present us?" Woods said. " … Mike could make it to where it's just brutal or he can make it to where it's pretty easy and give us a combination of both, and then switch it up on every other hole. That's going to be the interesting part, just trying to figure that out."

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