Golf Central

On this day in 1950, Andy North, a two-time US Open champion, was born in Thorp, Wisconsin and became one of the oddest statistical anomalies in modern golf history.

Why was North such an improbable champion? Because the 6-foot-4 journeyman only won three times on the PGA Tour in total. The only other golfer since World War II who has won two US Opens - arguably the toughest of golf's four majors - and not reach double figures in PGA Tour wins is Lee Janzen, who has won eight times on tour ...

The backward exploits of Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els carding sextuples and quads aplenty this week will almost certainly make you feel a lot better about your own game. That’s right, the world’s best have their embarrassing moments and it’s only fair we revel in their lapses that remind us they are human after all. So to give you that extra boost by showing you that even the world’s best golfers have bad days at the office, here are some other high scores on holes for you to snigger at. “Fore!”

Oh, what a beauty! ... The US Golf Association, more than 100 years old now, is starting to show some sense. Here's the latest announcement from USGA HQ: The practically brand-spanking-new Chambers Bay (above pic) on Puget Sound, Washington state, a daily-fee stunner which has only been open since last June, will be the site of the 2015 US Open. The course will also host the 2010 US Amateur.

The links course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr with its old-school Scottish feel in the hopes of attracting a major championship, is the latest in a line of courses accessible to the public which have found their way onto the US Open rota, following Bethpage Black (New York) and Torrey Pines South (California). It's also rated the best new course of 2007 by Golfweek and Travel & Leisure Golf Magazine.

But what a honey this is. The former sand and gravel quarry costs anywhere from $75-171 to play 18 holes, but Chambers Bay will have no problem attracting spectators or players ... the seaside links is only 20 minutes from Tacoma, Washington, and only an hour's drive from grunge-capital Seattle. The course only has one mature tree, but when the tree looks like Chambers Bay's does, who cares?

Which leaves us only one question: When can we go, boss? When can we go? (OK, that's the same question twice, but the point remains the same).

On this day and two years apart, two of the most dominating golfers of the 1980s and 1990s were born, and between them they own four US Open championships and 28 PGA Tour titles combined: Curtis Strange and Payne Stewart.

Strange was born on this day in 1955 in Norfolk, Virginia. Ill-fated in Ryder Cups as a player in 1995 and as captain in 2001, Strange was much more successful when US Open time came around. In fact, he won twice in golf's toughest major, and in back-to-back years to boot, in 1988 and 1989. In '88, Strange also was the first player to transcend the $1 million mark in year on the PGA Tour. Not only that, but Strange's 17 tour victories secure his legacy.

Stewart, born this day in 1957 in Springfield, Missouri, won more majors than Strange: he nabbed the 1989 PGA Championship as well as the '91 and '99 US Opens. During his 11-victory PGA Tour career, Stewart was known for his kind demeanor and shoot-from-the-lip manner, as well as his habit of wearing outrageous combinations of colour-coordinated plus-fours. But what a player he was, and Stewart's 1999 US Open win is remembered bittersweetly as his last: He died on October 25 of that year in strange circumstances in an out-of-control charter jet ...

Tiger Woods’ decimation of Torrey Pines South this weekend - his sixth Buick Invitational triumph - has already made June’s US Open headline material in the American sports-pages. The South Course will also stage the US Open, which is notoriously one of golf’s toughest tests with unrivalled numbers of high scores and players missing cuts. Modifications will be made but the problem with making it tighter, longer and faster, is that the competition is effectively shortened.
 
Former British Open champion, Justin Leonard, tied for fourth but 11 shots back, conceded there were two tournaments going on and summed up his season’s objectives, “I'm going to try to win the tournament that Tiger Woods isn't playing in."

But the best quote about Torrey Pines' US Open future came from our very favourite quote master and quote mangler, Fred Couples, who said: "What he's going to do is screw up the U.S. Open for everybody."

Couples, who doesn't really have a bad bone in his body, really meant that had Woods scored higher at the Buick, then the USGA might bring the course set-up back into the field's range. "They may have to regroup a little. He's just that much better," said Couples.

Common knowledge really. You want to win a golf tournament, go see Tiger. If you want a golf quote, no matter how bizarre, go see Freddie.