Olazabal aiming for back to back Majors

Jose Maria Olazabal starts his attempt to go where only four golfers have gone before on Thursday.

Two months after winning his second Masters title Olazabal tries to add the US Open at a Pinehurst course which appears to offer him a real chance.

The only men to win the first two Majors of the season have been Jack Nicklaus in 1972, Arnold Palmer in 1960, Ben Hogan in 1951 and 1953 and Craig Wood back in 1941.

Nick Faldo has made three attempts to join them and failed, Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer two each and Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam - and Olazabal, of course - one each. In fact, no European has won the US Open since 1970.

But this time Olazabal has arrived in North Carolina straight from a brilliant closing 62 in Memphis on Monday - it gave him a share of fourth place - and finds himself one of the favourites.

That is rare, possibly unique, for the 33-year-old Spaniard at the US Open. But the main reason for that is not that round but the fact that for once there is not knee-high rough everywhere and accuracy is not everything.

"I cannot deny that the short game plays a part in this tournament," said Olazabal, known for his chipping and putting wizardry.

"This is a US Open which is going to be more fair for the Europeans in the sense that the rough is not all that thick off the tee."

What the course does have is run-off areas around the upturned saucer-type greens, so that the skills displayed at Augusta, where Europeans have won 11 of the last 20 Masters, will be on display again.

Twice runner-up Colin Montgomerie agrees that there are more potential winners this week as a result - he still counts himself amongst them - but he also agrees that Olazabal has a golden opportunity.

"He might not hit the ball as straight as some off the tee, but he can use his enormous talent and imagination around the greens," said Montgomerie.

Olazabal does not want to set his hopes too high. After all, he won the Masters this year after missing the cut the previous week.

But when it came to the crunch his determination and ability combined to complete an emotional return from the injury which threatened his career.

Asked this week if his head or his heart was his greater asset he showed his sense of humour by replying at first: "My nose. Look at it."

But then he continued: "I think you need both of them. I think they have to go together.

"I think you saw that at the US Masters this year. There was a lot of heart in it and there was a lot of head. I don't think you can do certain things if both of them are not working well together."

His main concern remains his driving and it is his opinion that "driving still plays a very important part.

"You need to be on the fairway to really have a chance to put the ball on the green and leave yourself a makeable put.

"You still have to be a very mechanical player. It's important to go from point A to point B, from point B to point C and I think the Americans are better at that than the Europeans - with the possible exception of Monty."

Montgomerie contends that he would like to see "not five-inch rough, but five-feet rough". But there is still a spring in the step of the man who is currently on course to win an unbelievable seventh successive European Order of Merit.

He leads the challenge as he has since Faldo, loser of a play-off to Curtis Strange in 1988, started his slide down the world rankings to his current 155th place.

Montgomerie is seventh, Lee Westwood eighth and Darren Clarke 17th - they are the only three British players in the top 70 now.

Westwood believes he is emerging from a mini-slump - two missed cuts in his last three starts - and Clarke did so emphatically only two weeks ago by winning the English Open at Hanbury Manor.

But it is not only the course which is much stiffer this time. So is the opposition.

World number two Tiger Woods is seeking a third successive tournament victory and number one David Duval believes he will not be troubled by the second-degree burns he suffered on the important thumb and forefinger of his right hand last week picking up a teapot.

Ernie Els badly wants a third US Open - he has twice denied Montgomerie and would be the last person the Scot wants to see in contention - and so does defending champion Lee Janzen.

The list does not end there, but if Olazabal has a chance come Sunday afternoon then nobody would be surprised if he joins the famous four of Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan and Wood - and keeps alive the ultimate dream of a grand slam of all four Majors in one season.

"I think that's the closest thing to impossible," he says. "I might be wrong - and I'd like to be proved wrong this year."