Interview Curtis Strange

Curtis Strange expected someone to emulate his back-to-back wins in the last 25 years

Tiger Woods has won The Masters, The Open Championship, and the US PGA in successive years.

But you have to go back 25 years to find the last player to win US Opens back to back.

Curtis Strange was that man, and Ben Hogan way back in 1951 was the last player to accomplish it before him.

Even today, Strange finds it an odd record to hold.

“I don’t root against the holder every year,” he insists. “But I think the longer it goes on, the more fortunate I think I was because of those who haven’t done it.

“You know, the greats of the game the true greats of the game. Then obviously Tiger Woods in the early 2000s.

“We certainly thought he would do everything that’s ever been known to man, and that every record was going to be broken by him. But as every year passes, the more proud I get of it, and it’s nice to talk about it every year.

“I was very, very fortunate. I was in the right place at the right time.”

Strange beat Nick Faldo in an 18-hole play-off to win in 1988 and followed up with a one-shot win the following year, with exactly the same 72-hole total of 278.

The US Open comes every year, all wrapped up in a ‘Thou-shalt-not-break-par’ set-up that endears it to those who detest the week-to-week menu served up on the US Tour where birdies are plentiful, those who believe that if you don’t hit the fairway from the tee, then the rough should be penal enough to give the player lots to think about with his next shot.

“We’re talking about trying to win the national championship, and it’s never easy,” Strange says. “Nobody is going to go around Pinehurst this weekend, or any week for that matter, and play perfect golf.

“I played it last week, and it was fantastic to start with. The tees and the routing of the fairways are all the same as they’ve always been, and the greens were just impeccable. They were quite firm, and as we know, they’re smallish in size anyway.

“With the upside down bowl shapes of these perched greens, they play so much smaller than they actually are. So they’re going to have to be so right on and so exact with some of these longer shots.

“But what really caught our attention was that I anticipated sand and wiregrass outside of the fairways. It is that and much more. It is what they want to call undergrowth I call it weeds!

“It is everything that you have seen in the worst-kept lawn you’ve ever seen in your life! There are dandelions growing up to 12-15 inches, and also low-growing weeds. In some cases, it’s actually difficult to find your golf ball.

“So it’s still going to be penal, but it’s a different type of rough and a different type of penalty. So good luck if you miss the fairway!”