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Olympia Fields a mystery even to Illinois residents

Everyone thinks Jeff Sluman has an edge this week at the US Open as the only guy in the field who lives in Chicago.

Care to guess how many times he has played Olympia Fields? Including two trips to the course over the weekend, and a practice round Monday, Sluman has played four rounds in the last 10 years.

"A buddy was in town and wanted to play," Sluman said. "Everyone assumes I've played it a lot. Actually, I had to call my home course [Hinsdale Golf Club] on Saturday to get directions, because I forgot how to get here."

Truth is, nobody knows much about the 80-year-old suburban course about 40km south of downtown Chicago.

The last US Open at Olympia Fields was in 1928, when Johnny Farrell outlasted Bobby Jones by one stroke in a 36-hole playoff. The last major at Olympia was in 1961, when Jerry Barber won the PGA Championship in an 18-hole playoff over Don January.

So, Angel Cabrera felt just as much at home Monday as Sluman, who lives a lot closer than Argentina. Cabrera sized up Olympia Fields with words like mas corto (shorter) than last year's Bethpage Black, mucho peligro (trouble everywhere) and campo duro (tough course).

In other words, it's a typical US Open. While Olympia Fields is largely unknown, some people are just as clueless about Sluman's career on the PGA Tour.

That much was clear a few years ago at the Kemper Open, when a reporter was looking ahead to the US Open the following week and asked Sluman, "Do you think you have the game to win a major?"

"I thought, `Is this a trick question?'" Sluman said. "Either this guy hasn't done his homework, or he's trying to pull my string."

Sluman has won more majors than Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia combined (1).

It came 15 years ago in the PGA Championship at Oak Tree in Oklahoma, and it was no fluke. Trailing Paul Azinger by three shots going into the final round, Sluman closed with a 6-under 65 and won by three for his first career victory.

"If you look at how I played that week, I believe I led the field in fairways hit and greens hit, and that's what you need to do at a PGA and a US Open," he said. "Do those things and stay away from a huge number, and you've got a pretty good chance to win."

He did the same thing at Pebble Beach and nearly won the 1992 US Open, closing with a 1-under 71 in vicious winds to finish two strokes behind Tom Kite.

Sluman's name never tops the list of favorites because he went nine years between that PGA Championship victory and his next PGA Tour victory at Tucson in 1997, and his other four wins have not caused much of a stir -- twice in Milwaukee, the Sony Open in Hawaii and the BC Open two years ago, his first playoff victory in seven tries.

A look beyond the numbers reveals a steady, consistent career. Sluman, 45, has played nine times in the Tour Championship, for the top 30 players on the money list -- only six golfers have played more.

And while his playoff record is "abysmal," he has contended at some of the best courses and top tournaments -- Riviera, Pebble Beach, Harbour Town and Sawgrass. In two of those losses (Pebble in 1992, Players Championship in 1987), he birdied the 18th to get into a playoff.

"You'd like to have won them all," Sluman said. "If I had won those, plus a major ... my peers understand that. They know you were there a lot.

"It's like getting to the Final Four and losing on a last-second 3-pointer.
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