Accuracy the key to Olympic standards

IF HE wants to take a positive from his snap-hook off the 18th tee on Sunday in the FedEx St Jude Classic, then Rory McIlroy at least avoided carrying one jinx into this week’s US Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco – no player has won a regular tour event in the week before this particular Major and gone on to win! Dustin Johnson’s task is to amend that.

As for McIlroy? The 23-year-old Ulsterman moved on from Memphis to San Francisco on the back of a first made cut in four appearances. Not only did he stop the rot (following missed cuts at The Players, the BMW PGA and the Memorial), but the world number two got into a position to win the St Jude until his old troublesome hook chose his tee-shot on the 18th to reappear.

To put it into perspective, McIlroy wasn’t alone in going into the water on the last hole on Sunday. So too did Chad Campbell and Nick O’Hern – who also each had a chance to win – and, in all, there were 10 water balls on the finishing par four hole. What’s more, McIlroy would have needed a birdie to force a play-off with Johnson.

McIlroy, who is seeking to become the first player since Curtis Strange in 1989 to claim back-to-back wins in the championship, heads a four-strong Irish contingent here that also includes Graeme McDowell, his predecessor as US Open champion, Pádraig Harrington and Peter Lawrie.

Although he professed to being “disappointed” not to have added to his winning CV on the US Tour, McIlroy said, “overall, a decent week” in terms of what he could take with him from St Jude to the Olympic club where the demands on accuracy off the tee – on a shortish course with plenty of doglegs – would be at a premium.

He won’t want a repeat of that three-wood tee-shot, though. “To be honest, I wasn’t really that comfortable with it . . . but I knew it was the shot I needed to play. I just tried to hook it and turned it a little too much.”

The thing is, McIlroy will probably need that three-wood here this week more often than the driver which proved to be such an imposing weapon in his armoury when he achieved a record-breaking win in last year’s event at Congressional.

This is McIlroy’s fourth appearance in the US Open. In his previous outings, he had a tied-10th finish on his debut at Bethpage in 2009 followed by a missed cut at Pebble Beach and, then, his hugely impressive breakthrough Major win a year ago.

McDowell is making his ninth appearance in the championship, his only top-10 finish coming in 2010 when he won the only Major so far of his career.

Harrington – who finished tied-13th in the St Jude, where he had his “practice guru” Dave Alred with him all week – is making his 15th appearance in the US Open, his best finishes coming in 2000 and 2006 when he finished fifth.

Lawrie, meanwhile, is making his debut in the championship.

Although McDowell, who missed the cut in Memphis, started his serious practice here at the Olympic Club on Sunday, Harrington and Lawrie got theirs under way when they played a practice round yesterday.

McIlroy has been grouped with Luke Donald and Lee Westwood – putting the three top-ranked players in the world out together for the first two rounds – while McDowell has Sergio Garcia and Jim Furyk for company. Harrington is with fellow PGA winners David Toms and Davis Love, while Lawrie has been grouped with Soren Kjeldsen and American Chez Reavie.

Having failed to earn a spot through sectional qualifying, American tour player Spencer Levin yesterday managed to get into the US Open field through the vagaries of the official world rankings. Although he missed the cut in Memphis, Levin still moved up one spot – from 61st to 60th – in the latest world rankings announced yesterday and, so, secured a place in the field for the season’s second Major.

The USGA had left five places free for those in the world’s top-60 not already qualified, and Levin along with South African Branden Grace benefited. Because only two players required this late route in, three alternates also got called-up: Justin Kicks, Kyle Thompson and Colt Knost.