Steve Bergum: Prugh’s first Open a sweet milestone

For the first time in three years, Alex Prugh doesn’t have to look back and agonize over a loose swing or lip-out putt that might have cost him a coveted spot in the United States Open Championship.

This time, the former Ferris High School and University of Washington golf standout got it right, shooting a 4-under-par 140 in Monday’s 36-hole sectional qualifier at Gold Mountain Golf Course in Bremerton.

The effort was good enough to keep Prugh three strokes clear of the rest of the field and earn him the sectional’s sole berth in the 2007 U.S. Open that will play out next week at famed Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Penn.

It also helped ease the sting of the previous two years when, in 2005, he qualified as an alternate to play at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., but didn’t get in, and, in 2006, when he missed getting into a playoff at the sectional qualifier by a single stroke.

“That definitely makes this even more satisfying,” said the 22-year-old Prugh in reference to his back-to-back qualifying disappointments. “I seems like I’ve been a shot away the last two times, and it’s been frustrating. It’s like you can always look back and find a shot on the course that you gave away.

“Luckily, this time, I didn’t make it as stressful.”

The stress, this year, won’t come until Thursday when Prugh tees it up at 9:41 (PDT), along with Scotland’s Martin Laird and Todd Fischer, from Pleasanton, Calif., as part of a 156-player field that will test an Oakmont course expected to be as demanding as any on the planet.

USGA officials have once again gone overboard to protect par by narrowing fairways, growing the rough to unruly lengths and firming up the tricky, back-sloped greens on the 7,255-yard, par-70 layout that will host its eighth U.S. Open.

The course, which was designed by Henry Fownes and opened in 1903, features six par-4s that measure upward of 460 yards and a par-3 that stretches to 288 yards from the tips.

Still, Prugh has a couple of things working in his favor.

For openers, his father Steve, who is the head professional at Manito Country Club, is familiar with the course, having caddied there for his oldest son, Corey, during the 2003 U.S. Amateur.

And UW assistant coach Jon Reehoorn, who will caddy for Prugh at Oakmont this week, has a brother who played the course on several occasions.

“So they’ve been talking a lot lately,” Prugh said.

No less authorities than Tiger Woods and defending U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy have indicated they would not be surprised if the winning score at this year’s event is 8 over – a wild assessment that makes a certain amount of sense to Prugh’s father, who considers Oakmont “an absolute beast” of a golf course.

“It’s long and tight,” Steve Prugh said, “and you’ve got to drive it really, really well – which is good for Alex, because he drives the ball beautifully.

“And so, because of that, I think he’s going to have a good shot to play well.”

A bigger key, the elder Prugh said, will be how his son handles all of the peripheral things like the media crush and enormous galleries that are such integral parts of a U.S. Open.

“There’s so much hullabaloo that goes on with any major golf event,” said Steve Prugh, who experienced some of it firsthand last year when he qualified for the U.S. Senior Open at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. “With all the TV cameras, newspaper reporters and all the yadda-yadda-yadda, it’s hard to stay focused on what you’re trying to get accomplished.

“But Alex is pretty level-headed and good at staying in the moment. He’s very calm and quiet, and has a knack for just getting it done, so I expect he’s going to do pretty well back there.”

Even though Prugh didn’t play in the 2004 U.S. Open, he went back East to Shinnecock Hills as an alternate and took in as much of the spectacle as he could. Now, he’s hoping he can draw off that experience at Oakmont next week.

“I was able to go there and get a feel for the whole atmosphere, more or less,” Prugh said. “I learned what some of the guys are like and how they practice. I got to walk around and see how different players managed the course – where they hit it and what they stayed away from.

“By going back to Shinnecock, I was able to get a feel for everything that goes on during a U.S. Open – except the whole playing part.”

Prugh, who was a two-time All-American and three-time All-Pacific-10 Conference selection during his four-year stay at Washington, said he is looking forward to testing his game against the best golfers in the world.

The only downside, he added, is that his father won’t be there to watch.

“We’ve got our member-guest tournament next week,” Steve Prugh said. “He and I do really well together on the golf course, so it would be my choice that I caddy for him. I wish I could be there, but I’ve got to work.

“That’s just the way it is.”

So Prugh’s mother, Susan, will be the only family member accompanying him to Oakmont.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be one terrifically proud father hanging on every stroke his son takes.

“He’s been so close the last two years,” Steve Prugh said of Alex. “I’m just proud of the way he sucked it up after that, kept believing he was still going to get there and then went out and got it done.”