Why British Open-US Open Double Is Among Golf’s Toughest Feats

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: July 14, 2014

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All 156 players in this week's British Open have a chance to hoist the champion's Claret Jug, but only one has a shot at completing a feat that has been accomplished by only six players in the history of golf.

That's Martin Kaymer, who's seeking to join legends Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods as the only players to win the U.S. Open and British Open in the same year.

Jack Nicklaus never did it, nor did Arnold Palmer, and in the last 80 years, it's been done only four times.

If Germany's Kaymer does manage the U.S.-Brit double, he will become the first non-American to sweep these two rigorous tests back-to-back a month apart. But don't hold your breath.



What makes this double so rare? For starters, both of golf's marquee Opens strive to rank as the stiffest challenge on the golfing calendar year after year. Their predatory courses typically are filled with more potential disasters than an end-of-the-world movie, and one catastrophic hole can ambush anyone in the field.

At the U.S. Open, the governing USGA makes no apologies for fairways that are as slim as a supermodel's waist, nor for hole positions that might as well be on cliff edges.

Kaymer had to win his title last month on a Pinehurst No. 2 course that was cruelly remodeled with vast stretches of sand and rock. And does anything more need to be said about the difficulty of winning a U.S. Open than the fact Phil Mickelson has six second-place finishes but no championship?

But whoever survives atop the leaderboard at the U.S. Open immediately faces the task of doing it all again at the Brit. And it's the second half of the double that's the dream-crusher, as Kaymer likely will discover this week at Royal Liverpool.

The British Open traditionally is an exercise in golfing sadism, where it's considered a kindness if the rough is only knee-high.


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Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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