If you didn’t already know, golf is tough. Perhaps a large part of the infatuation with golf comes down to how much skill you need to play well. If anything, you’re always on the road to improvement and forever chasing perfection.
Needless to say, this is also the same for the pros who make the sport look easy. However, they too have moments when their world seems to be crashing down around them as they appear to forget how to hold a golf club. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have the pleasure of hearing a few wisecracks courtesy of some close friends on an empty course when it goes wrong, given that millions are watching them fall apart on TV.
With this in mind, and now that we are on the eve of the major season, as the latest Masters tips will confirm with Jon Rahm predicted to win this iconic event in early spring, which major championship is the hardest to win?
Jean Van de Velde still smiling despite finding the Barry Burn with his third shot on the final hole of @TheOpen at Carnoustie. The Frenchman finished with a triple bogey seven and lost his three shot lead (1999). pic.twitter.com/XRE0pQVIZZ
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) April 30, 2020
To recap, there are four majors played every year between early April and mid-July. They go in order of the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open, and The Open Championship. The Masters is, without a doubt, the most picturesque as it is played on the site of a former horticultural nursery, which means that when the world’s cameras arrive in early spring, the course, Augusta National, produces one of the most breathtaking spectacles in the sporting world.
As for whether it is the most challenging major to win, you would probably have to say that it comes second, as players can attack the course and score well when it rains, which it often does. Nonetheless, there is always the psychological aspect to winning an elusive green jacket, which does strange things to a golfer’s mind at the Masters…
Next on the calendar is the PGA Championship and this is undoubtedly the easier major to win, according to general consensus. Although, when one says it’s the easiest to win, it’s a bit like pointing out that summiting Mount Kilimanjaro is more doable than Everest. In essence, they’re all frighteningly difficult, but this is the major where the setup for the players encourages competitive scoring.
When I hear tour pros complain about the rough I think about this photo of Ben Hogan on the 18th at Olympic making a double bogey and losing the playoff to Jack Fleck in the 1955 US Open. Olympic is a beautiful monster. pic.twitter.com/wURxKrmhZl
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) June 2, 2021
Following the PGA Championship in May is the US Open in June and this is reputed to be the hardest major to win. Many actually believe that USGA’s sole intention is to make the players cry. In short, it is a nightmare as the rough is as long as the grass you will find on a safari.
In addition, when it comes to putting, it is easier to hole a putt on your car’s windscreen than it is to find the bottom of the cup at the US Open. Of course, there will be those out there who feel that the year’s final major, The Open Championship, is indeed the hardest to win and that is true to a certain extent.
Some decent rough for US Open this week…I love this place! 😍 pic.twitter.com/TuMbXSRr8j
— Edoardo Molinari (@DodoMolinari) June 14, 2021
The Open’s greatest defence of its courses on the current rota is the howling coastal winds of the UK, but if they don’t blow, then the challenge becomes a lot tamer with players able to attack flags at will.
With this being the case, the conclusion has to be that there is no greater challenge in golf than climbing the highest peak of the sport by winning the US Open.