OAKMONT

Today, I'll be blogging about the final round of the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, outside of Pittsburgh. Aaron Baddeley, a young twenty-something Australian, currently leads the field at 2-over, with some guy named Tiger Woods only two strokes behind at 4-over. This course has proven to be one of the toughest challenges in U.S. Open history...although as one who lives only blocks away from last year's host course, I will still contend that it is not quite as difficult a challenge as Winged Foot poses. Nevertheless, Oakmont has yet to be completely mastered by the field, and that's been the recent norm for a U.S. Open course; Oakmont has definitely lived up to its reputation as one of the most demanding challenges in all of golf.

As much as I like Tiger, and was impressed by his perfomance in the third round yesterday, I'm gonna go out on a limb and choose England's Paul Casey as this year's Open champion. He's played consistently well all week, including the tournament low 66 in yesterday's round. Although it would be tough to assume that Casey will equal or surpass that score, I feel that aside from Tiger, he seems to be playing the best golf of any contender, and unlike the young Baddeley, he is a contender who has Major tournament experience. I'll go with Paul Casey winning with a score of 4-over.

It's currently 1:30 pm on Sunday, and I'll be following the contenders as they tee off in the coming hours and minutes. Should be an interesting final day...lets see if it can come close to equalling the drama of last year's final round at Winged Foot in glorious Mamaroneck, New York.

--Katastrophic