US Open: Danny Willett not expecting calendar grand slam of majors
By Keith Jackson
Last Updated: 15/06/16 10:16am
Danny Willett believes the strength in depth in world golf will make it almost impossible for anyone to achieve a calendar grand slam.
Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods are the only professionals to have won three majors in the same year, while Jordan Spieth won the Masters and the US Open last season but then fell just a shot short of making the play-off at the Open Championship.
Hogan was denied a chance to win all four in 1953 as the PGA Championship clashed with the Open, and although Woods did manage to complete his "Tiger Slam" when he followed his three major wins in 2000 by winning the 2001 Masters.
Willett arrives at Oakmont this week as the only man in the field who can complete a grand slam, but he has played down his chances due to the immense strength of the US Open field.
At his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday afternoon, the Masters champion said: "What Jordan did last year was awesome. We've not seen that for a while, obviously since Tiger's days.
"I am relatively surprised that no one has done it, but saying that, for the rest of the time that I'm going to be playing golf, I honestly can't see it happening too much, just purely because of the strength and depth of the field.
"If Rosie (Justin Rose) is fit, it's projected that all the world's 50 are going to play this week, which hasn't happened that much over the last 10. You look at the strength of the field and it would be fantastic to even be somewhere thereabouts come Sunday.
I honestly can't see it happening too much, just purely because of the strength and depth of the field.
Danny Willett
"You have got to keep breaking it down. You can't look at it as a whole. It's just nice that we have got that chance. What comes of that you don't really know. Hopefully come Sunday we're somewhere there or thereabouts to give you that little bit of a feeling that, yeah, this is actually possible.
"It's easier a little bit in the sense that you've already won a major so you're not trying to push massively hard. It's just the things we try to tell ourselves, I guess, to distract from how big these occasions are when you're at major championships and you compete and you've got chances to win.
"In your own head, you're trying to play it down as well to try to make it easier to let yourself play the golf that you know you can play and free it up a little bit. It's nice that you've already got one, but because you've already got one, you want another one and another one and another one."
Many have described Oakmont as a "brutal" golf course, but Willett insisted it was "great fun" although he conceded that he had played only nine holes during practice.
"It's a great golf course, great fun," he added. "There's a lot of different shots you can play. I actually remember watching Cabrera a little bit back in '07, and he obviously took it relatively aggressive off the tee. We played it slightly different on Monday.
"I think it gives you a lot of options off the tee depending upon how aggressive you want to play, but then you have to be really careful on where you place your ball around the green. I think the onus is on fairways and greens this week, definitely, to try to give yourself the easiest way of making par.
"A lot depends on how comfortable you are either laying back off the tee or trying to get a wedge in your hands and trying to spin out with these firm greens. I think you're going to see a lot of different plays around this golf course, which I think is great."
