The 111th version of the US Open takes place at the Congressional Country Club in Maryland on June 16th week and the famous tournament is generally regarded as the toughest golf major of them all. To win the US Open, it’s going to take a lot of skill combined with mental toughness, a great short game, a cool temperament, and quite a bit of patience.

The course has only hosted the US Open twice before in its history with Ken Venturi winning it in 1964 and Ernie Els being victorious back in 1997. However, things are a little bit different this time around as the course has changed over the past 14 years.

The par-71 Congressional course has undergone some changes and it will measure a total of 7564 yards from the back tees. Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, the defending US Open champion played a practice round there recently and said that nobody will be able to break par because the course is pretty difficult to master.

US Open 2011 Predictions

As usual, it’s going to be pretty hard to predict a winner. But there’s a good chance it’s going to be somebody who’s claiming his first Major victory. The four current Major champions are all first-time winners and six out of the past eight US Open winners were first timers. Only Retief Goosen in 2004 and Tiger Woods in 2008 had won the US Open trophy before.

Once again we’re finding great odds at Oddsmaker for the 2011 U.S. Open.

However, Woods won’t be playing this weekend and many experts are picking Lee Westwood to hoist the trophy when all is said and done. He should get some tough competition from Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlory, Matt Kuchar and Luke Donald. It’s the first time Woods, who’s currently ranked number 15 in the world, will miss the US Open in 14 years.

The 38-year-old Westwood of England is ranked number two and has been in excellent form lately. He came in second at Wentworth and claimed a European Tour win in May at the Ballantines Championship. He also took the Indonesian Masters a week before that by three strokes. He placed third at the US Open in 2008 and was tied for fifth back in 2000.

Donald, also of England, is currently ranked number one after winning the PGA Tour event at Wentworth. The 41-year-old Mickelson is ranked third and he’s no stranger to winning Majors as he’s taken a US PGA tournament and three Masters so far in his career. He’s never won the US Open, but has finished runner up a record five times.

Twenty-two-year-old Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland was leading the Masters until collapsing on the final day and there’s a chance he could make up for it here at the Congressional.

McDowell has been on the downswing since winning last year’s US Open and hasn’t won a Euro Tour or PGA in the past year. He also missed the cut for the Masters.

Martin Kaymer and current Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel could also be in the running for the 2011 US Open if they play to their potentials.

Woods lost the lead when he double-bogeyed on the 13th hole and then had a kick-in birdie while on the 18th hole in regulation. McDowell sank a 20-foot putt to birdie on the 18th and Woods, who was hosting the event, knocked in a three-footer to send the game into a playoff.

McDowell, the current U.S. Open champ, knocked in his birdie putt on the playoff hole while Woods missed and McDowell was the winner. After the game McDowell said it’s been a fantastic year and it was like a dream playing alongside Woods and beating him. The loss cemented the n2010 season as being one of Woods worse as he didn’t win anything, officially or unofficially.

Woods said he fought hard, but had trouble early on in the round and then lost his swing. He said he then started to get it back and it was a good, close battle.

The 31-year-old McDowell from Northern Ireland was tied with Woods heading into the last hole at 15 under par. Woods was just three feet away on the hole while McDowell was 20 feet short of the hole, but he handled the pressure well and sank his shot. Woods didn’t have a problem matching him and that led to the first playoff round in the history of the tournament, which took place in Thousand Oaks, California.

McDowell started the round well as he birdied three of four holes after the second to reach 15-under par for the tournament. He then hit for par seven straight holes before picking up three shots on Woods on the 13th hole. Woods hit for par on seven straight holes as well, from the sixth on. However, early on he missed a couple of four-foot putts to miss par.

Third place went to Paul Casey as he finished with a three-under par 69 for the second straight round. He ended up with a 12-under-par tournament at 276. Rory McIlroy ended up in fourth place with an 11 under and Hunter Mahan placed fifth with his 10-under total of 278.

Karlsson said it was a fantastic day and he was quite happy after Poulter received the penalty shot as it made things a bit easier for him. Karlsson ended the final round with a five-under 67. Poulter, who was leading by two strokes after the third round, finished the day with a two-under 70. They were both tied for the lead at 14 under with 274 after regulation play.

The top-ranked golf player in the world, Lee Westwood, who won the tournament last year, came in at four-under par for 68 on the last round and ended up tied with Alvaro Quiros for third place. Quiros shot a 67 on the round and he and Westwood were just one stroke behind Poulter and Karlsson as they finished the tournament at 13 under par.

Martin Kaymer, the reigning PGA champion, won the Race to Dubai contest and pocketed a bonus of 1,092,418 Euros for his excellent play this season. He won his first major this year and was also a member of the Ryder Cup’s winning team. He finished the Dubai tournament at six-under par 282 and was tied for 13th place.

But while Kaymer enjoyed a great season, it was Karlsson who shone over the four days in Dubai. He got a fine start in the last round with birdies on the first two holes. He then had an eagle on the third hole and was a shot in front of Poulter at that point. He extended his lead after Poulter bogeyed on the third hole, but then hit a snag as he three-putted the fourth and sixth holes while bogeying them and was tied with Poulter.

Poulter then birdied the seventh hole and went a stroke in front. Karlsson birdied the 10th and they were tied for the lead once again. Karlsson regained the lead with a birdie on the 11th hole. The see-saw battle continued though as Poulter birdied the 11th and 12th holes to take a one-stroke lead again. However, Karlsson of Sweden, then tied things up on the last hole with a birdie. Poulter came close to winning it with a chance for a birdie himself, but his putt just missed the hole.

The playoff took place on the par-five 18th hole and both birdied on the first playoff. Karlsson then won it on the next attempt.

Because Woods means so much to the sport of golf it’s such a big story when he doesn’t do well. So going winless in 2010 and not finishing higher than fourth in any event is big news. In fact, he didn’t really do too well in any area of his game this year.

His birdie average of 3.78 had him tied for 29th place. His scoring average for the year was 70.32 which would have him tied for 28th spot and his percentage for fairway hits was 57.21. But does his decline necessarily mean he can’t bounce back to reclaim the number-one spot?

Woods certainly is the only golfer to have a bad year, and unlike many others, he actually had a reason for it due to his personal problems over the last 12 months. Going a year without a victory isn’t anything new for most golfers as some of the game’s best, such as Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, and Cary Middlecoff all went through winless years in their great careers.

In this era, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson have suffered the same fate, with Mickelson going two full years without a win and Singh doing it three times. But looking ahead to the major golf championships in 2011, Woods will almost certainly be a favourite Augusta, since he’s won it four times and has place in the tournament’s top 10 a consistent 11 times out of 14 as a professional.

The U.S. Open will take place Congressional, where Woods hosted the AT&T National. He won his own event there in 2009 and finished in a tie for sixth place in 2007. However, at the U.S. Open at Congressional in 1997 he ended up in a tie for 19th place.

The Open Championship will be held at Royal St. George’s next year. The last time it was held there was in 2003 when Woods tied for fourth place, just two shots back from Ben Curtis. The PGA Championship will take place at the Atlanta Athletic Club. It was held there in 2001 and Woods ended up in a 29th place tie.

Woods will be 35 before the year ends and has a lot of golf left in him, but how good he’ll be at it is anybody’s guess. But he’s still the biggest name in golf and there’s a good reason for that.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Kim has now promised to behave and cut down on the partying after management at the Bellagio confronted him about his unruly and loud behaviour. However, it doesn’t mean he’s going to turn into a choir boy overnight.

It was reported that the 25-year-old golfer’s screaming and language was so bad that it would have made a longshoreman blush. It got so bad that casino management finally had enough of it and asked him to keep both the noise and the language down.

One of the Bellagio’s dealers, who wasn’t impressed with the uncouth golfer, said Kim’s nothing more than a loose cannon and he may have set a world record for using the F word while he was involved in a high-stakes game of real money craps during the weekend.

It seems that Kim was hanging around with and sitting at the same table as poker star Phil Ivey on Friday and were getting liquored up by ordering several drinks, including top-notch whisky and cognacs.

However, this could just be a case of somebody making a mountain out of a molehill as is often the case when these types of reports come in. Las Vegas dealers must be used to some pretty colourful language by now and it’s a bit hard to believe that Phil Ivey would let his reputation in Vegas be tarnished in any way as that’s basically where he makes his bread and butter. Ivey can’t risk any bad publicity in Las Vegas because of it.

Either way, they say all publicity is good publicity even though the PGA may not be too thrilled about it and the fact Kim can’t hold his liquor. But looking on the bright side, Anthony Kim and the PGA Tour should be happy that somebody actually knew who he was and recognized him. Kim had surgery on his thumb in May and is trying to get back in the swing of things at Timberlake’s charity event.

A nobody is arrested on suspicion of a suspended driver’s license? Really? That’s what qualifies for news these days?

“Potty Putter, Jim. It’s made all the difference!”

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10. “For starters, please excuse the cold sore on my mouth.”

9. “I didn’t really drive a Buick anyway. Think about it. I can drive any car I want – you think I’m rollin’ in a Lucerne?”

8. “I thought about texting my statement, but…”

7. “And you all thought John Daly was the Bad Boy of golf.”

6. “Heard any good jokes lately?” (an homage to Pee Wee Herman)

5. “Half of a lot is still a lot. Big time.”

4. “Too bad Chappelle’s Show isn’t on anymore. They would have had the best skits about this…Fo shizzle.”

3.  “Are you guys still watching Lost? Soooo hard to figure out.”

2. “Ernie Els thinks my timing is bad? Kind of like his yips on 2-foot putts. Choker.”

1. “You think this is bad, wait until I get busted for roids. Oops, did I say that out loud?”.