Rory McIlroy will defend his US Open title in June on a course he has never played in a major championship that has not surrendered a repeat crown to the same player since Curtis Strange in 1989.
McIlroy, dethroned as World No. 1 on Monday by England’s Luke Donald after his second two-week stay atop the rankings in as many months, said on Monday he is excited to see San Francisco’s Olympic Club, where the 112th US Open tees off on June 14.
“I’ll go up there the week before and familiarise myself with the place,” McIlroy said. “From what I’ve heard, it’s a really good setup. I’m excited to get up there and see what it’s like.
“It’s the toughest test that we face all year and I’m not sure why there hasn’t been a repeat champion (in so long) but obviously I’m going to try my hardest to make that happen this year.”
McIlroy won last year at Congressional Country Club near Washington in wet conditions with a 16-under par 268 total. The usual narrow fairways, dense rough and fast greens were muted somewhat by conditions.
“It was pretty wet and the course played pretty soft,” McIlroy said. “The only thing that made the scores so low at Congressional last year was the fact that they just got so much rain beforehand and they were never able to dry the course out the way they would like.
“I’m expecting this year … it will be fast and running. It won’t necessarily be a long ball hitter that will play well. You just really need to control your ball.
“If the weather permits this year in San Francisco, we’ll get the golf course firm and fast and it will be tricky. You’ll really have to think about where you need to land your ball on the fairways and on the greens and I’m expecting it to be a really tough and tricky test this year.” The 7,170-yard, par-70 Olympic layout features a 16th hole that is a 670-yard par-5, the longest par-5 in US Open history. A long and difficult test is in order for whichever of the more than 9,000 entrants get to play.
“You just really have to mentally prepare yourself for the type of golf that you’re going to have to play,” McIlroy said.
