Spieth: Oakmont is golf’s hardest test

Associated Press

OAKMONT, Pa.

Jordan Spieth briefly weighed the request, then politely declined.

Sorry, Spieth just doesn’t feel comfortable posing with the U.S. Open Trophy he won last June at Chambers Bay. That was a year ago on the other side of the country. No need to tempt fate following his initial visit to Oakmont, which will host the national championship for the ninth time next month.

“Maybe on Sunday (after the final round),” Spieth said with a smile.

Judging by what he saw during a brief stop at the iconic test tucked in the western Pennsylvania hills on Tuesday and Wednesday, getting his hands on the silver jug isn’t going to be easy. There are the bunkers that look like they’ve been ripped out of a links course in the United Kingdom. The rough deep enough to swallow even the slightest wayward shot. The greens so fast it’s like trying to make a putt on the hood of a car, though at least the hood of a car is relatively flat.

“I know that if you win a U.S. Open at Oakmont, you can go ahead and say that you’ve conquered the hardest test in all of golf,” Spieth said. “Because this is arguably the hardest course in America day to day.”

One that’s unlikely to be as benign in mid-June as it was on Wednesday, when Spieth walked all 18 holes trying to get a feel for a place that has crowned some of the game’s greats. The list of champions crowned at Oakmont — which has also hosted the PGA Championship and the U.S. Amateur, among others — includes Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. Spieth is well aware of the history, even if it never crossed his mind during the last time he competed in the area at the Sunnehanna Amateur in nearby Johnstown as a teenager.

“I was looking more forward to college than anything else,” Spieth said.

Plenty has changed in the interim. The 22-year-old already has pulled off a pair of majors, dominating the Masters last spring, then edging Dustin Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen by a shot outside of Seattle.

Yet Spieth begins his final prep before defending his Open title trying to get past an uncharacteristic and unforgettable collapse at Augusta National last month. He built a five-shot lead in the final round only to see it disappear during a three-hole stretch between No. 10-12 that saw him go bogey, bogey, quadruple bogey and led to an awkward ceremony in Butler Cabin in which he helped winner Danny Willett into a green jacket that seemed to be firmly in Spieth’s grasp only hours before.

Spieth has spent the last month decompressing, joining Rickie Fowler, Smylie Kaufman and Justin Thomas for a trip to the Bahamas. He’ll return to work at the Players Championship next week, where he’ll start to put the most difficult chapter of his still very young — and very successful — career behind him.