ANTIQUES SHOPS

Long regarded as one of the best putters in the game with a stroke that flows like fine honey, the 45-year-old American has been struggling on the greens in recent weeks.

"The last month has been a little unlike what I've been doing the last five or six years," Stricker, a 12-times winner on the PGA Tour, told reporters on Tuesday while preparing for Thursday's opening round.

"I just haven't been able to get the ball in the hole really as well as I have been over the last few years. But otherwise I'm hitting the ball fine, so I'm looking forward to this week.

"I put a lot of time in chipping and putting (practice) at home and I'm trying to get that a little bit straighter in my mind. Hopefully I'll put it all together this week. I enjoy the course. I love being here."

Stricker has fond memories of Olympic, having tied for fifth place when the U.S. Open was last staged here in 1998. He played in the final round of that year's edition with the eventual champion Lee Janzen.

However, he accepts that his own window of opportunity is beginning to close as he bids to win the first major title of an otherwise glittering career.

"I'm 45, my chances are probably dwindling a little bit, but I still feel like my game is pretty good," former world number two Stricker said. "I do a lot of good things still, I think. I keep the ball in play.

"Besides the last month or so, I've been playing fairly smart, but the last month has been a little different. I've thrown some shots away and really not taken care of my game the way I normally do.

"So hopefully with what's on the line this week I'll be a little bit sharper mentally and get things going."

Stricker won his most recent PGA Tour title at the season-opening Tournament of Champions in Hawaii but, despite his respected status among his peers, he does not include himself among the favorites for this week.

"I'm an underdog for sure, that's what I'm telling myself anyways," he grinned. "The way I played the last few tournaments, I'm not carrying a ton of confidence in here, but I've been playing well in spurts.

"There are so many good players and we've got to be looking at Tiger (Woods) or Phil (Mickelson) or Rory (McIlroy) or Lee Westwood, who won last week, younger guys that hit it further.

"But I'm not discrediting myself at all. I feel like I can hold my own and I've played well in prior U.S. Opens. If I play my game and I'm capable at what I'm doing, I can get myself in there."

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in San Francisco; Editing by Frank Pingue)

Sanders released information provided by the Government Accountability Office showing representatives of 18 banks that got emergency Fed funds during the 2007-2009 financial crisis while their top executives served on the boards of regional Fed banks.

"This report reveals the inherent conflicts of interest at the Fed," Sanders said in a statement.

Dimon, a member of the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, had taken on a leading role as spokesman for the banking industry's objections to financial reforms aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2007-2009 crisis. He is due to testify before Congress on Wednesday about embarrassing trading losses at his firm that have raised questions about oversight.

Sanders has proposed legislation barring bankers from having a role on the board of the 12 regional Fed banks, saying it is wrong for executives to govern an institution that regulates their firms.

The Federal Reserve - the U.S. central bank and lender of last resort - is composed of a seven-member board of directors in Washington and 12 regional Fed banks around the country, each of which has its own board of directors.

The president appoints the members of the Fed board, subject to Senate confirmation, and each board member votes at monetary policy meetings.

The regional Fed bank presidents, who have rotating rights to vote at policy gatherings, are selected by their own boards of directors. The boards are composed of bankers, business people, and community representatives selected by regional banks and by the Fed board.

Members of regional Fed bank boards are prohibited by Fed policy from involvement in regulatory actions, and are limited to providing information about the evolution of the regional economy.

Defenders of the existing system say regional directors have no influence over supervision and play an important role in interpreting economic trends that helps in policymaking.

However, critics charge that because the board members help select the regional institution's president, there is in fact a conflict.

A GAO report on possible conflicts of interest in the Fed governance system concluded that there were none, but there was the risk of an appearance of conflict.

The report said that while directors of regional banks were consulted during the creation of emergency programs, only those firms that satisfied eligibility requirements were allowed to use them. GAO said directors were not involved in making decisions about approving or setting terms for any loans.

The Fed board and regional Fed banks declined to comment on Wednesday.

While the names of institutions receiving emergency Fed loans during the crisis is public, the GAO identified the bankers who were serving on regional Fed boards, and how much their firms received, a Sanders spokesman said.

GAO named bankers and business people with possible conflicts sitting on the board of nine of the regional Feds, Sanders said. Besides Dimon, the GAO identified former New York Fed board members Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, and Sanford Weill, former chief executive of Citigroup. (Reporting By Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Leslie Adler)

* Fekter says Rome's high borrowing costs may drive it to aid

* Italy's Monti calls comments "totally inappropriate"

* Spanish, Italian bond yields rise, Spain's hits euro high

* EU, ECB press for early euro zone banking union

By Michael Shields and Steve Scherer

VIENNA/ROME June 12 (Reuters) - Raising the stakes in Europe's debt crisis, Austria's finance minister said Italy may need a financial rescue because of its high borrowing costs, drawing a sharp denial on Tuesday from the Italian prime minister.

Maria Fekter's assessment of the euro zone's third largest economy stoked investors' fears that Europe is far from ending 2-1/2 years of turmoil - a feeling reinforced by Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, who said the euro zone was "still far from stable".

A deal by euro zone finance ministers on Saturday to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to recapitalise its banks was seen by many in the markets as yet another sticking plaster. Spanish 10-year bond government yields soared to 6.81 percent, their highest level since the euro's launch in 1999.

Euro zone rescue funds, already stretched by supporting Greece, Portugal, Ireland and soon Spain, might be insufficient to cope with Italy as well, Fekter said in a television interview on Monday night.

"Italy has to work its way out of its economic dilemma of very high deficits and debt, but of course it may be that, given the high rates Italy pays to refinance on markets, they too will need support," Fekter said.

She sought to soften her remarks on Tuesday, saying she had no indication Italy planned to apply for aid.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, asked by a German television network whether his country would need a bailout, said: "I don't believe so."

Earlier, he called Fekter's comments "completely inappropriate" for an EU finance minister. Euro zone officials said they were deeply unhelpful.

Amid the cacophony, Italian 10-year bond yields also rose further as the aid deal for Spanish banks failed to ease doubts about Madrid's ability to fund itself, fuelling wider contagion fears.

The market reaction suggests that ministers have failed to break the so-called doom loop between rising government debt, economic recession and teetering banks that previously drove Greece, Ireland and Portugal into EU/IMF bailouts.

Analysts cited uncertainty about the mechanics of the Spanish rescue and fears that private bondholders could be pushed down the repayment chain below official lenders, risking losses in any debt write-down, as they suffered in Greece.

"If you're a bondholder and they just push you down the line, why would you invest in Spanish government bonds?" said Gary Jenkins, director of Swordfish Research Ltd. "What they should be doing is trying to encourage people to invest in Spain, not discourage them."

Investors are also worried about the outcome of a Greek general election next Sunday which may determine whether the country stays in the euro zone.

Credit ratings agency Fitch said the bank rescue may help stabilise Spain's sovereign rating, which it cut last week by three notches to BBB, and the bailout should not have a direct impact on other euro zone countries.

Even though Italy's deficit and unemployment are lower than Spain's and its banks are not exposed to a real estate crisis, doubts about Rome's ability to turn itself around during a deep recession are keeping international investors at bay.

If the economy does not start to grow after a decade of stagnation, Rome will face mounting difficulty in bringing down its debt, now at 120 percent of gross domestic product - second only to Greece's debt mountain in the euro zone.

BANKING UNION

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Central Bank policymaker Christian Noyer and French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici all called on Tuesday for swift moves to create a euro zone banking union.

Barroso told the Financial Times that a cross-border banking supervisor, a deposit guarantee scheme and a bank resolution fund could be put in place in 2013 without changing EU treaties.

EU paymaster Germany has so far rejected a deposit guarantee or a resolution fund, saying they would require treaty change.

The Bundesbank weighed in, saying a European banking union could bring advantages only if properly anchored in a fiscal union with powers to stop countries breaking budgetary rules.

Fekter's typically outspoken comments came after Italy's industry minister dismissed the idea that Rome may need external help, saying reforms adopted by his government so far had put the Italian economy on a sound footing.

Her concerns are shared by one of the German government's council of economic advisers, Lars Feld, who told Reuters that Italy could be next in line.

"Overcoming the troubles in Spain will bring calm to the markets for a while, but the chances are not so small that Italy may also come under fire, in particular as the promised labour market reform has turned out to be less ambitious," Feld said.

OUTSPOKEN

The Austrian minister has a record of speaking out of turn. She angered EU paymaster Germany last month by suggesting Greece might be forced out of the European Union over its economic problems.

She infuriated Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker in March by rushing out to brief the media on a deal to increase the euro zone's financial firewall before he could make the official announcement. She later apologised.

And when U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was invited to a euro zone finance ministers' meeting in Poland last year to plead for a more robust rescue fund, Fekter said bluntly that Washington should look after its own worse fiscal mess first.

In Brussels, EU officials voiced exasperation at her latest comments on Italy.

"The problem is that this is market sensitive," said a euro zone official, whose position does not authorise him to speak on the record. "It's one thing if journalists write this but quite another if a euro zone minister says it. Verbal discipline is very important but she doesn't seem to get that."

Italy's leading economic newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, appealed to Germany to save the single currency before it is too late.

"Schnell Frau Merkel! (Hurry Up Mrs Merkel!)," the usually sober business daily said in a banner headline in German.

An editorial urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to back joint guarantees for European bank deposits, allow direct access for banks to euro zone rescue funds and accept a mutualisation of European public debt, with each country paying a different interest rates.

Merkel has opposed issuing joint euro zone bonds and says member states must agree to transfer more budget sovereignty to European institutions, including the EU's Court of Justice, as part of a political union before she would consider such idea. (Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels, Philip Pullella in Rome, Emilie Sithole-Matarise, John Stonestreet and Swaha Pattanaik in London, Steven Scherer in Rome; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Janet McBride/Mike Peacock)