Fresh from a top three finish on home soil at last week’s Nordea Masters, in-form Swede Peter Hanson is confident of reinforcing his Major credentials at the US Open Championship.
Hanson proved he could more than compete with the world’s best players when he led this year’s Masters Tournament going into the final round, thanks largely to a sparkling 63 on the third day, only for a closing round of 73 to drop him back into a share of third place.
Having previously finished inside the top five of the WGC-Cadillac Championship and reached the quarter-finals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, Hanson’s stock is on the rise across the Atlantic, and the genial Swede has high hopes of impressing the American audiences again this week.
He said: “It was nice to find a bit of form in Sweden after a couple of slow weeks, so that gave me a lot of confidence to take into this week. I’m feeling better about the way I’m hitting it, and with a bit of fine tuning in practice this afternoon I’ll be ready to go. It’s always nice to play in these big events and it’s even nicer to play well in them, so hopefully I can give another good account of myself.”
His highly impressive showing at the Masters Tournament has led many to make the understated Swede a dark horse to win the 112th edition of the US Open Championship, but Hanson himself is expecting the Olympic Club to serve up a very different change to the one he faced at Augusta National.
He said: “I haven’t made many birdies during practice, so I think par is definitely going to be your friend – especially on the front nine. Obviously I took a lot of positives from how I played at the Masters, but this is completely different to Augusta, which is much more playable.
“Here you’re not going to find many fairways or greens – probably 12 would be the maximum, no matter how well you hit it. So it’ll all come down to chipping – how well you can control the ball out of the rough round the greens will determine how well you score this week.
“Overall it’s going to be a brutal test of golf, and you need to be mentally strong. It’s hard to know if level par will win it, but you won’t be far away if you can shoot 70 on all four days. You need to make a lot of ups and downs, and if you can do that then you’ll have a chance.”
What is clear is that Hanson will not be phased by the experience, having thrived in the Ryder Cup cauldron at the Celtic Manor Resort two years ago.
Hanson is currently in fourth place in the European Points List, and a bold showing in San Francisco would virtually cement his place in José María Olazábal’s Team.
He said: “Other than winning a Major, qualifying for the Ryder Cup was probably my biggest goal for the season. I loved every minute of it in Wales two years ago, and I’m desperate to be on that plane to Chicago in September. Obviously a good week here would help my cause, so hopefully I can seal my place soon and then concentrate on climbing the World Ranking.”
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