Facts and figures on the national championship:
The essentials
When: Thursday-Sunday
Where: University Place, Wash.
Course: Chambers Bay (par 70; will play between 7,200 and 7,600 yards each day)
Playoff (if necessary): 18 holes next Monday
Field: 156 players
Purse: TBA ($9 million in 2014)
TV: Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Fox Sports 1; 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Ch.9. Saturday, 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Ch. 9. Sunday, 1 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Ch. 9.
Last year: Martin Kaymer of Germany became only the seventh wire-to-wire winner in U.S. Open history with an eight-shot victory at Pinehurst No. 2.
Yes, it's an 8-year-old public course located south of Seattle along the Puget Sound on what used to be a sand and gravel pit, and was built specifically to attract a U.S. Open. Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed the course, a majestic site played among dunes with severe elevation changes, a sandy base and fescue grass that requires less water and allows the ball to roll faster. The only tree on the course is a Douglas fir above the 15th green.
Europeans have won four of the past five U.S. Opens.
Par could be two numbers on No. 1 and No. 18. For the first time, the USGA plans to change par on two holes during the course of the championship. On the days that No. 1 is a par 5, then No. 18 will be a par 4. And when No. 1 is a par 4, the closing hole will be a par 5. Either way, it adds to a par 70. And what hasn't changed is that the low score wins.
Fox Sports, in the first year of a 12-year television deal, will makes its debut in golf — with prime-time coverage no less. There will be different graphics and gadgets, but what's seen isn't the biggest difference. Johnny Miller and his blunt analysis were a big part of the U.S. Open show when it was on NBC for the past 20 years. Those duties now fall to Greg Norman. Norman's partner will be Joe Buck.
Associated Press
