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Sporting Life
Rough, tough and testing: Golf’s US Open is how sport should be
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The thick, deep, ball-grabbing rough is one of the major tests of the first round of the US Open.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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Bryson DeChambeau’s US Open starts at just about half-past seven on a Thursday morning with a loud call of “fore left”. The American has the muscle to audition for the Reacher series, but this course doesn’t care about power – only precision engineering. “Every shot you’re on a knife edge,” says Robert MacIntyre. This course cuts.
“These guys are good” is the old US PGA Tour line and they most certainly are, but Oakmont Country Club, with a sneer, is asking: but how good? The rough in this acreage is exactly as advertised: it gulps the ball, snags clubs, covers shoes, mangles skill, inflames moods.
