Europe's 40-year U.S. Open slump could end at Pebble
By Craig Dolch, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
There are certain streaks in golf that defy reason.
Who can explain, for instance, why no Australian has won the Masters?
Or how Europe went through a 78-year drought in having one of its own win the PGA Championship?
The Europeans are involved in another inexplicably long victory skid: No European player has won the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970.
That could change this week at Pebble Beach.
Not only do the Europeans -- specifically, the Brits -- have plenty of players in the 156-man field, they have quality to go with the quantity.
It all starts with Lee Westwood, the No. 3 ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking who has done everything the last three years but win his first major. He held the 54-hole lead two months ago at the Masters, before Phil Mickelson roared past him on Sunday. Westwood was T3 at last year's PGA Championship, a month after a par at the 72nd hole would have landed him in the Tom Watson-Stewart Cink playoff at the British Open.
And don't forget about how Westwood missed another memorable playoff at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines when he failed to birdie the 72nd hole. Westwood hasn't.
This week marks Westwood's 50th career major, and he already comes in with plenty of momentum after Sunday's back-door, playoff victory over Robert Karlsson -- thanks to Robert Garrigus' triple-bogey on the 72nd hole -- to win the St. Jude Classic presented by Smith & Nephew.
How's this for an omen: Westwood's victory was the first by a European in the tournament's 52-year history.
"The closer I get to winning these major championships, the more I want the next one to come around," Westwood recently said. "Obviously, when you've come close, there's a tinge of disappointment straight off. But if you sat me down at the start of the year and asked me to rate which of the first three majors this year suit me (St Andrews hosts the British Open next month), I would probably put the Masters last. So to finish second is obviously a massive boost for the rest of the year and I've just got to keep doing the things I'm doing."
Westwood is far from Europe's only hope. Fact is, he's just one of four Englishmen in the top nine in the latest world rankings. Luke Donald is No. 6, Ian Poulter is No. 8 and Paul Casey is No. 9. Fact is, there are as many Europeans (seven) in the top 14 as the rest of the world: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is No. 11, Martin Kaymer of Germany is 12 and Padraig Harrington of Ireland is No. 14.
Harrington has to serve as motivation for the others: Once he won his first major (2007 British Open), he then won two of his next five.
Donald's straight-as-an-arrow game seems an ideal fit for the U.S. Open, and he finally appears completely healed from a wrist injury that knocked him out of the 2008 championship at Torrey Pines. Donald has four top-10s in just 11 starts this year on the PGA TOUR, including a second at Riviera and a third at Hilton Head. In Europe, he also won the recent Madrid Masters, a week after finishing runner-up in the BMW PGA Championship, so maybe he's found a cure for the so-called "Luke Donald Disease" of making bundles of money without winning championships.
Poulter started the year with a bang by winning the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. But after finishing 10th at the Masters, he has missed two of his last three cuts on the PGA TOUR. Plus, he's never had a top-10 finish in the U.S. Open.
McIlroy electrified the golf world last month when his final-round 62 won the Quail Hollow Championship. In just six career starts in the majors, he has two top-10s, including a T3 in last year's PGA at Hazeltine.
Casey and Kaymer seem more like long-shots. Casey has never finished better than sixth in 28 career majors starts; Kaymer was T6 at last year's PGA, but still seems bothered by a go-kart accident suffered last fall.
There's also a second layer of European hopefuls, including No. 23 Karlsson, No. 26 Henrik Stenson, No. 35 Alvaro Quiros, No. 36 Sergio Garcia, No. 37 Graeme McDowell, No. 39 Ross Fisher, the Molinari brothers (No. 42 Edoardo and No. 43 Francesco), No. 44 Miguel Angel Jimenez, No. 45 Rhys Davis and No. 48 Peter Hanson.
All told, there are 18 Europeans in the 50 top in the world rankings (not counting Memorial winner Justin Rose, who didn't qualify). They will have to battle their nerves, Pebble Beach's hazards and 155 other players to win the 110th U.S. Open.
They also have to deal with 40 years of European disappointment.
Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
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