(MENAFN- Gulf Times) A host of the world's elite golfers are preparing to take on the 115th US Open at Chambers Bay, teeing tomorrow in the year's second major golf championship.
The 156-player field includes reigning 2014 US Open champion Martin Kaymer of Germany, current Masters champion Jordan Spieth and world number one Rory McIlroy. Northern Ireland's McIlroy, who won the tournament in 2011, and Spieth are most favoured to triumph, with oddsmakers putting their early chances at 7-1 and 8-1 respectively.
Spieth is seeking to win the second title necessary to complete a Grand Slam of the Masters, the US Open, Open Championship (British Open) and PGA Championship. A victory in the US Open would make him the first player to win a Masters and a US Open in the same year since Tiger Woods in 2002.
"I have a chance to make history in many ways," the 21-year-old Spieth said this week. "But in order to do that, I have to really focus on this week, focus on the major championships and how I'm going to prepare for them."
Woods will return to the US Open after missing the championship last year due to a back injury.
The three-time winner (2000, 2002 and 2008) is on the heels of a last place finish in the Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village, at which he shot a career worst round of 85.
"I did not win, and I wasn't even close," he said at a press conference following that defeat. "So hopefully in two weeks time things will be a lot better and I'll be ready to try to win a US Open."
The sprawling Chambers Bay course on Puget Sound welcomes the US Open to the Pacific Northwest for the first time.
Though dry weather is forecasted to last through the final rounds, "unpredictable coastal winds" can rush through the complex's wide fairways and towering bunkers, according to the championship website.
And the course, which will play between 7,200 to 7,600 yards, has quirks. Holes number 1 and 18 will shift between par-4 and par-5 to keep the overall par for the course at 70.
Golfers will face the three longest par-4s in US Open history, including the downhill 14th hole listed at 546 yards. The setup has faced mixed reviews, with Ian Poulter tweeting last month that golfers were declaring it a "farce."
Phil Mickelson, making his 25th attempt at collecting US Open title that has eluded him, played the course in preparation a few weeks ago.
"The first time you play it, you don't know (what to do)," he told the Golf Channel. "I can see why the first impression isn't as favourable for some. But I think the more you play it, the more you like it."
Mickelson has been US Open runner-up six times but going one better would complete a career slam of all four majors, making him just the sixth player in the modern era to do so.
The US Open received 9,882 entries this year, shrinking through months
of qualifying rounds to the pool of 156, which will be narrowed to 60 after the first 36 holes.
The first US Open was played in 1895, and has taken place every year since
then except for two years during World War One, and four years during World War Two.
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