Séamus Power bracing himself for ‘brutal’ US Open test

With Shane Lowry overheard on the range telling a neighbour “I forgot how f***ing hard this place is” and three-time US Open champion Tiger Woods foreseeing players playing “ping-pong” back and forth across the fiendishly domed and sloping greens, Power fears players could end up being made to look foolish.

“I’ll play the front nine tomorrow, but that is brutal,” Power said after teeing off on the back nine at 6:45 am, just ahead of USGA workers syringing the greens.

“As I was saying to [my caddie] Simon, it is either fairway or that stuff, whatever you call it, the fescue rough stuff – so if you are not on the fairway, you are hacking out, and if you are not in the middle of the green, you are really struggling.

“It’s going to be tough and it is only going to get tougher. I mean, I was following the guy that was watering, so it’s going to be some fun.

“It is a gorgeous course. Visually, it is unique, certainly unique to this area, and it will be fun but different.”

With no rain forecast and the wind drying out the course quickly, Power reckons the USGA will have to be careful to keep the course in check.

“I think so, especially with the forecast,” said the West Waterford man, who qualified last Monday week and went on to see green shoots of form with a tied 27th finish in the demanding Memorial Tournament on Sunday.

“The sand underneath is going to dry really fast. I know we got rain on Sunday, but I don’t know if there is much else coming and it is going to get hot, and it is going to bake the place out.”

Myriad false fronts shrink the targets considerably and with so much slope on the greens, Power predicts players could be made look foolish.

“I have played these courses, not this one but in this area, in the summer time, and it can really get going,” he said.

​He added: “You are going to have a couple of moments where you are going to look like a bit of an idiot out there. Players have already started complaining about the difficulty of the course, which differs from a place like Muirfield Village, where there were still ‘easy’ birdies to be had.

“I was talking to Bob MacIntyre and the thing is, where are you going to make birdies?” Power revealed. “We were just looking at each other as if to say, where are you going to hit it?

“But it happens in practice rounds where all the tees are hanging off the back edge, the pins are in weird spots and they are putting the pins in the four worst places, so not every pin is going to play hard.”

Power finished 12th on his US Open debut at Brookline two years ago. After missing the cut in LA last year, he feels far better physically this time and hopes a 6:56 am tee time alongside South Africa’s Dean Burmester and Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino will be a help.

“There are going to be chances,” he said. “It is just the fact you’re seeing it for the first time. It is one of those courses that has that ominous kind of feel to it.”

After struggling with his hip last season, the Tooraneena man has slowly regained form and sees good things ahead.

“My game is in a pretty good spot,” he said. “My putter was very, very cold out of the gate at the start of the year, which is odd for me. That’s usually the strongest part, but my iron play so far has been the best it’s been on tour and now my putter is finally coming along. So I’m actually excited about it.”

He hopes topping US Open qualifying in Ohio could prove a watershed moment in his season.

“Yep, that’s how it has felt,” he said. “There’s been a lot of good stuff and then a poor round here and there kills you. You just don’t get away with that any more. Three good rounds isn’t going to get you much.

“That was loads of fun last week, but it ended up being a tiring week. It was worth it to be here and I am looking forward to giving it another good shot this week. Yeah, two tough courses in a row.”