91Èȱ¬

The following year at they introduced their gradual mowing of the rough, with the grass progressively getting longer the further you hit it off line. I think this is a great idea as it is extremely frustrating when you hit a pretty good drive that just runs through a fairway and into the rough and you have the same lie as a playing partner who hit it way off line.

When I played last year at I really liked the course set-up. Even with the ridiculous amount of rain we got that week if you drove it barely into the rough you still had a chance to advance the ball either on the green or close enough.

But if you sprayed one more than five yards into the rough you were met by the same old cabbage there was at Oakmont.

Since the started to do this with the rough I have not heard one complaint from any player and I think it really does make it fairer.

US Open courses are already ridiculously long and difficult, with very tough pin positions, so you don't need it to be as extreme as it used to be.

I think that these changes will make a huge difference at next week and I can guarantee two things; no one will win by 15 shots and the runner-up will not be 12 over par!

The course will be a lot different from when the PGA Tour goes there in February for the AT&T Pro-Am, with the fairways and greens being a lot firmer.

Due to this and the warmer weather the course will play a little shorter, with the exception of the holes where the USGA has built new 'US Open' tees.

But the course playing shorter does not automatically mean easier, as there are a lot of fairways at Pebble Beach that have significant tilt to them, so the firmer they get the narrower they effectively get.

A perfect example of this will be holes 9 and 10, two long par fours and two of the most spectacular holes you will ever see, right along the cliff edge.

Both of those fairways are sloped big time from left to right so you will only really have the left half of the fairway to land your ball if you want to avoid running down into the rough.

When courses are designed like this it puts a premium on driving the ball well and you have to shape your drives both ways to maximise the width of the fairways. I think that whoever does well will be someone that is working the ball well off the tee and can get the ball on the fairway, as that is the only chance you have at finding the flags.

If I stick to that theory, I should count out Tiger and Phil since they are not the type of players to split the fairway off the tee most times. But I just can't do that.

How can you not have Tiger as one of the favourites? He has to have great memories of winning in 2000 by 15 shots and he putts greens better than anyone else in the world.

Also Phil seems to be gradually getting his game back and his record at the US Open is amazing so I am sure he will be there or there about too.

And then you have to have Lee Westwood as a contender as it has been almost a given over the last few years that he will have a chance on Sunday in majors.

Aside from those three guys I would look for players who drive the ball well and can move it right to left easily to have a chance, as most of the hard holes require a draw off the tee.

Unfortunately, I will be watching from my sofa as I had to withdraw from the qualifier with a niggling rib injury.

I have a huge stretch of tournaments coming up over the next couple of months and did not want to risk making it any worse playing 36 holes in one day and then not getting any time off if I managed to qualify.

I will definitely be watching (between any good games!) and look forward to seeing how cruel the USGA decided to be!