All eyes turn to US Open as big guns turn their aim towards Erin Hills
Sergio Garcia’s victory at the Masters earlier this month was surprising on many levels.
Surprising because the 37-year-old Spaniard had, as recently as 2012, gone on record as saying that he couldn’t see himself ever winning at Augusta, or for that matter, any one of the other three Majors. His spirit seemed almost broken by so many near misses.
As a right-hander who fades the ball, Garcia said he felt that his game didn’t suit a course that has historically favoured those that are able to draw the ball off the tee and into Augusta’s tight pin positions, while he also hinted that he didn’t have the patience, or the technique, to putt well enough on the Georgia course’s lightning quick greens to prevail.
So it was perhaps no surprise then that the bookmakers had priced the Spaniard at 50-1 to break his duck at Augusta at the 17th time of asking.
And those long odds looked like being justified during the middle part of the final round on Sunday, when Garcia turned a three-shot lead into a one-shot deficit as fellow Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose mounted a final round charge.
The 2013 US Open champion looked to hold the upper hand as the pairing headed to the 15th tee, but Garcia, ever the man for the grand gesture, turned the match on its head at Augusta’s final par five, firing in a towering 8-iron approach to set up a game-changing eagle. Rose managed a birdie of his own at the same hole, but with Garcia’s tail now up, there seemed to be no stopping the fiery Spaniard, who seemed to be channeling his inner Seve on what would have been the great man’s 60th birthday,
The match – and it was a match by this time – with the rest of the field several shots adrift – took another twist at the par-3 16th where, in a classic match play scenario, Rose rammed home a 10-footer for birdie, while Garcia missed a much shorter putt to fall behind by one shot again.
Unbowed, Garcia bounced back at the 17th, holing out from four foot for par, while Rose could only manage a bogey after finding the front bunker with his approach, to leave the game tied at nine under par.
Nerves took their toll on both players at the 72nd hole, Rose missing a 15-footer across the 18th green for his birdie, while Garcia, with a five-foot putt to win the tournament, pushed his tension-filled effort wide to set up a play-off hole, which, as history now records, Garcia won with a bold birdie to Rose’s bogey.
A major victory at the 74th attempt was just reward for a man who had endured heartbreak on more than one occasion in golf’s biggest events in years gone by – most obviously at US PGA Championship in 1999 and The Open in 2007 – and his win was almost certainly as warmly celebrated by golf fans around the world as any achieved by his compatriot, and childhood hero, Seve Ballesteros.
And while Garcia’s faithful backers were finally rewarded with a healthy payday after years of sticking with their man, those that supported Jordan Speith, the pre-tournament favourite, were left wondering if Augusta had got inside the head of the young Texan, after he once again failed to get out of second gear on Sunday, when in contention to add to the green jacket he captured so authoritatively in 2015.
While there was to be no Sunday meltdown on the scale witnessed in 2016 – when he quadruple-bogeyed the 12th – the four-over-par nine Speith took on the 15th during the first round put him on the back foot from the start, while a lacklustre 75 on the final day, which included another trip to the water on 12, spoke of a young man who is perhaps getting in the way of himself mentally, rather than letting the natural game that has already earned him two major titles, take the lead.
And while the cheers from Augusta’s 18th green are still ringing in our ears, the three remaining Majors of the season will soon be fast upon his, with the US Open at Erin Hills coming up in just seven weeks (June 15-18), followed by The Open Championship’s long-awaited return to the magnificent links at Royal Birkdale (July 20-23), and then the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow (August 10-13).
One man who will be keen to get back into Major action is world no.1 Dustin Johnson, whose run for the green jacket suffered a painful, and abrupt, end, when he injured his back when slipping on a step at the house he was staying at near Augusta on the eve of the tournament.
Arriving at the season’s first major in the form of his life, Johnson will be hungry to add to his major haul, following his breakthrough at the US Open at Oakmont last year, and judging by the odds listed by leading bookmakers think he is clearly best-placed to do so, with 7-1 being the best odds currently on offer. Erin Hills, will, in particular, play into the big man’s hands, with the 8,000-yard course likely to set up as the longest in US Open history. If you fancy investing in DJ, it’s certainly worth checking out the range of free sports bets on offer to ensure maximum returns.
Just a month later, the Open Championship returns to Birkdale for the first time since Padraig Harrington won his second Open back in 2008 by four shots over Ian Poulter. Birkdale has produced some great champions over the years – Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino all won here, and although it is not a long track, at just over 7,000 yards, each of the last two winners have failed to shoot scores under par, so it certainly seems to favour those who make the fewest mistakes, rather than shoot the most birdies.
The engraver of the Wannamaker Trophy, which is given to the winner of the US PGA Championship, should just get a head start and begin carving the ‘R-O-R’ on the trophy already. Rory McIlroy has won the Wells Fargo Championship at this course twice, and must have had ‘August 2017’ circled in his diary for a long time. Although yet to find top form following his enforced injury lay-off earlier in the season, the four-time Major champion is sure to have his game tuned up for his return to his favoured hunting grounds. Although the course has been significantly renovated in recent months, Rory should remember enough of it to get himself round in seriously red figures.
But let’s not write off the chances of some of the game’s newer talents just yet – the bookmakers certainly aren’t. It would certainly be unwise to discount the chances of the likes of Spanish sensation Jon Rahm or Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama getting their names in the history books, while Spieth is still too good a player not to add further to his Major tally. And what are the odds on Garcia doubling his major tally at his very next attempt? Well, they’re 20-1, if you want to know.
So strap yourself in for what promises to be a Major ride to remember in 2017. Sergio got the ball rolling in dramatic fashion at Augusta, but there looks certain to be plenty more heroics in store as the season gets into its stride.