115th U.S. Open Championship Preview

The 115th U.S. Open Championship heads to the great northwest and the great unknown, Chambers Bay.

The 8-year-old course is hosting its second USGA championship, but first major. The course hosted the 2010 U.S. Amateur, where Peter Uihlein, the top- ranked amateur in the world at the time, beat David Chung.

Eleven players that are qualified for this U.S. Open also played in that U.S. Amateur. Topping that list is Masters champion Jordan Spieth, who failed to make it to the match play portion of that championship.

Spieth, like the others from that 2010 Amateur, have seen Chambers Bay in tournament conditions and will have a little bit of a leg up on their competition. Spieth has a little greater advantage than some since his caddie, Michael Greller, used to loop it at Chambers Bay.

That's just what the rest of the field needs - the Masters champion and world No. 2 with an advantage like that.

All kidding aside, Spieth isn't the only possible contender that competed at that Amateur. Brooks Koepka, who shared third place last week in Memphis, also didn't make it to match play.

Patrick Reed fell in the second round of match play, while Byeong-Hun An advanced the furthest of the 11, reaching the semifinals. An would go on to win the Amateur the following year at Southern Hills, and he won his first European Tour title a few weeks back at the BMW PGA Championship, the tour's flagship event.

While that group played in a championship at Chambers Bay, Ryan Moore has played the course, maybe, more times than the rest of the field combined. The Washington native has played the course countless times.

Moore will need to rely on those memories if he is to improve on his major championship record this week. He has posted only two top-10 finishes in 28 major championship starts. He tied for 10th at the 2004 U.S. Open and shared 12th last year at the Open Championship.

That is an important note since many believe Chambers Bay, a links course, will play like an Open Championship.

Spieth will be a solid pick this week, not only because he won at Augusta National, but also because he is playing well of late. He shared second at Colonial and tied for third at the Memorial after a closing 65.

While Spieth enters the season's second major championship with some momentum, the same cannot be said for world No. 1 Rory McIlroy or defending champion Martin Kaymer.

McIlroy played five straight weeks, and you could tell by the end as he missed the cut in his last two starts. With two weeks off to rest and scout Chambers Bay, the reigning Open Championship and PGA Championship winner should be able to bounce back, but with the unpredictable nature of links golf, no one knows for sure if McIlroy can do it this week.

While McIlroy missed his last two cuts, Kaymer has four missed cuts and cracked the top-20 just once in his last nine worldwide starts. Kaymer has shot 74 or worse in seven of his last 16 stroke-play rounds.

Spieth leads the PGA Tour in top-5 and top-10 finishes this year, while Hideki Matsuyama ranks second on both those lists. Matsuyama, who has made the cut in nine of his 10 major championship starts, has six top-5 and eight top-10 finishes in 16 tournaments this season on the PGA Tour. He will start contending in majors on a regular basis sooner rather than later.

Dustin Johnson, who withdrew in Memphis last week due to illness, is always an intriguing player in majors. He has the length to make any course seem smaller than it really is, but he has also stumbled late in two majors.

Johnson led by three after 54 holes of the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but struggled to an 82 in the final round. Later that year, he cost himself a chance at winning the PGA Championship with a late penalty.

The WGC-Cadillac Championship winner has finished inside the top-10 in two of the last three majors he competed in. Johnson missed last year's PGA Championship at the beginning of a leave of absence from the tour.

While Johnson withdrew in Memphis, Phil Mickelson battled to tie for third at TPC Southwind. Mickelson broke par in three of the four rounds in his warm-up for Chambers Bay.

The six-time runner-up has just three top-10 finishes this year, but all three have come in his last five starts. The second-place finish at Augusta was Mickelson's second straight runner-up in a major as he lost to McIlroy in the dark at the PGA Championship last August.

While Mickelson has started to come on, the same can't be said for three-time champion Tiger Woods. The former world No. 1 has completed 14 rounds over four PGA Tour events this year and has broken par in four of them.

Woods struggled to an 85 in the third round at the Memorial. That was his highest score on the PGA Tour, which led to his highest four-day total on tour as well.

The 14-time major champion hasn't had a top-10 finish in a major since sharing sixth at the 2013 Open Championship. His last top-10 at the U.S. Open was a tie for fourth in 2010.

Woods won five events in 2013, but hasn't won a major since he beat Rocco Mediate on a broken leg in 2008 at Torrey Pines. He shared sixth and fourth the next two years at the U.S. Open. Woods has played just two of the last four Opens and finished outside the top-20 both times.

While many players entering the second major of the season with question marks surrounding their games, the biggest question marks will be about Chambers Bay.

There are many unique characteristics about Chambers Bay, none more so than the fact that the first and 18th holes can be played as either a par-4 or a par-5. The first can be stretched to 598 yards or used as a par-4 measuring 496 yards. The 18th could be a 525-yard par-4, or a brute of a par-5 at 604 yards.

Eight other holes could vary in length by 30 yards or more depending on the tee box used and placement of the pin on the putting surface.

The USGA loves to tinker with the setup from round to round, so there is no telling what they will do with some of these holes. Another interesting characteristic is the grass on the course - it is all fescue grass.

This will mark the first time a major is played on fescue greens. The putting surfaces may look shoddy on television, but that is their natural look.

Those are a few of the things players will battle this week along with the pressure of winning a major. Chambers Bay will play around 7,400 yards most days, so one would think a bomber is a better choice than a short hitter.

However, conditions are likely to be firm and fast, so that could take length out as advantage. The winner this week will be someone with a strong short game, like Kaymer showed at Pinehurst last year or Spieth showed at Augusta in April.

[SportsNetwork.com]