Treading softly for a rough ride

Colin Byrne Caddie's RoleThe Barclays Classic tournament was held at Westchester, just north of Manhattan, last week. But it was too close for comfort to be considered its own event, with the US Open being held just six miles down the Hutchinson Parkway at Winged Foot. The talk may well have been about Westchester, but the minds were truly fixed on the second major of the season.

Preparation is the key for a major and there are many ways to approach a big event. Some do as they always do, arrive on a Monday, play a couple of practice rounds and get ready for competition on Thursday. Others will pay special visits to the venue well in advance and get a sneak preview of what is in store. Phil Mickelson played a round early last week and reported the rough was that thick you would lose your clubs in it if you were not paying attention.

Tiger had his preview to the Tillinghast-designed Winged Foot venue for the 106th US Open the week before the Memorial event. He apparently was asked what he thought would toughen the course up. His suggestion was to make the 640-yard par-five 12th even more difficult. Naturally this will make it tougher for the shorter hitter, thus eliminating half the field. If the wind blows into you it may be a huge task for those less gifted in long hitting.

AW Tillinghast was a prominent course architect in the US, and particularly in the New York area. He designed the Black at Bethpage on Long Island, where Tiger won the US Open in 2002. He also created Baltusrol in New Jersey, where Phil Mickelson won the PGA last year.

It is hard to see the art of the great Tillinghast design with the way the USGA set up their Open venues. This year will be no different. The fairways are about 25 yards wide on average. There is a couple of yards of a harmless first-cut bordering the short grass. Then you start to tickle your ankles with the next layer of rough, and adjacent to that you are in danger of not only losing your golf ball but also your bag.

The grading of the rough varies depending on the length of the hole. The shorter par fours, which are very clever designs and subsequently will test the US Open champion's strategy to its limits, have just the first cut and then the calf-deep rough. The longer holes have got the three cuts of rough.The rough is thick and verdant and unless the ball spotters are really paying attention there is a big risk of losing plenty of balls in it, even if you have a fair idea where it was last sighted.

There is an added risk of a player or caddie standing on their ball. It will definitely be a case of treading softly because you may be treading on your ball and any dreams you had of winning the US Open.

Ironically, for those of us from the eastern side of the Atlantic the weather was not what one would expect of New York in June. Tales of balmy Irish temperatures made many of us feel homesick, especially as it was so wet for so long over here, having endured a soaking in Ohio the previous week.

Some players had decided to arrive at the local White Plains airport mid last week in order to play some quiet practice rounds at Winged Foot. After the rain relented, they finally got to hit some balls off a mat on the range by Friday afternoon - you couldn't think of worse preparation. Half a week away from home in a venue where all you can do is think about the competition and not actually prepare for it. By Saturday the course was still closed. The quiet practice for some never happened.

As a caddie and player your life is reduced to one-venue pockets of seven-day periods. You fly on Monday, practise on Tuesday, play the pro-am on Wednesday and the tournament from Thursday to the seventh day, Sunday, which is hopefully payday. Then you continue the pattern all over again. The big difference this week is that most of us will stay in the same house or hotel for the two weeks. To have 14 days in the one place, to a caddie or player, is tantamount to taking up residence. This is about as permanent and stable as our lives can be in our roaming existence.

Many of those who played Westchester broke the weeks up by a trip to Manhattan and a change of scenery from the leafy environs of the effective suburbs of New York city. Those with a title on their mind skipped the trip to the metropolis and began their diligent preparation for the national Open even after playing the fourth round of the Barclays event last Sunday.

We all have different ways of tuning up for a big event. There is no doubt the quality of course such as Winged Foot demands even the most astute golfer's full attention. Despite the original designer's intentions being somewhat negated by the modern set-up of rough that can only be escaped from with a shovel, some extra homework around the greens will always stand to the top golfers' ultimate performance.

The relatively big and extremely sloping greens, with their poa annua grass, looked particularly unappealing as I wandered around the course in the revealing evening light last Sunday. It was the same type of grass we had the confusing pleasure of putting on at Westchester last week.

So if you were to pick a winner for the 106th US Open you could do worse than choose a player who had endured the unpredictable nature of the poa annua greens at Westchester. The reason the scoring was not low there was because of the difficulty of holing putts on that surface. It is as much a test of patience as skill. Anyone who has a US Open title has an abundance of both.