SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — A sense of history often helps in major championships. For 24-year-old Jordan Spieth at Shinnecock Hills, that’s not part of the equation.
Asked if he’d studied much from the previous two U.S. Opens held at the course, in 1995 and 2004, Spieth grinned.
“I was 1-year-old in the first, and I was 10 in the second,” said the three-time major winner and 2015 U.S. Open champ. “So I haven’t. The only thing I have from the ’04 was a couple of replays I’ve seen in the last couple weeks, like No. 7, you know, the wind kind of blowing the ball off the green. That’s about it.
“… And it’s 14 years ago, so with technology and the changes in the golf course anyways, I think it will be a totally different experience from any previous Opens here.”
What kind of experience?
“It’s the toughest test in golf,” Spieth said. “The Masters is the Masters. The Open Championship, the oldest championship, typically links golf course, a different style of golf altogether, really playing in conditions.
“The U.S. Open has that hardest test of golf to it, where you have the tallest rough, you get guys who are advancing full swings like six feet. I did it last year. I have done it multiple times in a U.S. Open. That’s just what the U.S. Open is. It’s very different from any other golf tournament and any other major.”