Tour Insider: A heavyweight showdown?

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Will it be Tiger vs Phil or will a lurker steal the show?

A Woods-Mickelson showdown?

Will Oakmont produce a battle among the giants or be won by a giant killer?

By Tim Rosaforte
GolfDigest.com
June 13, 2007

OAKMONT, Pa. -- The last time we passed this way, O.J. Simpson was in Bronco, Arnold Palmer bid a tearful goodbye to the U.S. Open, a lean Ernie Els had his breakout moment, and Tiger Woods was in California, watching the steam bath on TV. A little-known fact is that Phil Mickelson played that week, shot 13 over, most of the damage coming with a final-round 79. Thirteen years have passed. But it’s still the same Oakmont.

That means double trouble for the contestants, Mickelson especially, with his wrist in a bandage and a thicket of Open rough and these dastardly Oakmont greens waiting. How long can Mickelson last one-armed against this beast? That’s the question leading into the year’s second major. It's not about Arnie's sentiments regarding the course that broke his heart, or Ernie's comeback from knee surgery and the scar tissue brought by Woods -- or how Tiger is going to drive the ball this week. It's about Phil, the inflammation, and all that momentum he lost coming off The Players as Butch Harmon's new sidekick.

The hope is that this turns into Palmer-Nicklaus 45 years later, that it comes down to Woods and Mickelson on Sunday, or even Monday, in an epochal duel between the game's two giants. But after looking at the golf course, hearing the reviews, and checking out the forecast, this may be another week like The Masters.

Is there a Zach Johnson waiting in the wings to have Oakmont define his career? History says no, that Oakmont is where Ben Hogan won his fourth Open (1953), where Jack stole the throne from Arnie (1962), where Johnny Miller shot 63 (in'73) and where Ernie laid his claim to greatness (1994). One of the top players who shall remain nameless took one look at Oakmont and said it could be a Scott Simpson kind of year. I'm thinking more of a Larry Nelson kind of year. Nelson won the Open at Oakmont in 1983, over Tom Watson. Nelson won three majors, but he wasn't a giant. He was a bulldog. Here's a list of five Larry Nelson types who could at Oakmont.

Jim Furyk
Winless in 2007, and coming off a playoff loss at The Colonial, the 2003 Open champion is both peaking and due. Plus, he's got Western Pennsylvania roots, the look of Bill Cowher and is ranked second in driving accuracy at 75 percent.
Bulldog Factor: 5

Zach Johnson
On a hard-and-fast golf course, Johnson showed at both The Masters and the AT&T Classic that he is among the best at ball and mind control. The only problem, Oakmont is not in Georgia. The big difference for Zach is reading bentgrass or a Bermuda vs. the poa annua of Western Pa.
Bulldog Factor: 4

Luke Donald
Trying to become the first European winner of an Open since Tony Jacklin in 1969, the Englishman drives it well enough (21st in accuracy), has two top-20s in this tournament and has two second-place finishes this year -- plus a T-3 in last year's PGA.
Bulldog Factor: 2 1/2

K.J Choi
Seeking to become the first Asian to win a major, the Korean showed he's capable of winning an Open by hitting 84 percent of his fairways at Muirfield Village. Just to give his victory a sense of time, Choi was 9 when Nicklaus beat Isao Aoki for his fourth Open title at Baltusrol.
Bulldog Factor: 3

Scott Verplank
For a guy who hits it straight, the Nelson winner doesn't have a very good Open record, with just one top-10 (T-10 in 2003) to show for 19 appearances. But Verplank is in a good patch with his golf, finishing T-7, T-8 in his last two tournaments on hard-and-fast courses (Colonial and the TPC-Southwind).
Bulldog Factor: 4

Tim Clark
The South African is nursing a bad neck, but he's still 13th in driving accuracy, sixth in putts per round and showed at the 2006 Masters that he can make the hybrids dance. Clark is coming off a T-12 at Colonial and has a third-place Open finish, at Pinehurst in 2005, on his playing record.
Bulldog Factor: 4
Tim Rosaforte is a senior writer for Golf World magazine