San Francisco – What wasn’t obvious before Thursday’s opening round of the 112thU.S. Open has become obvious in the smoldering aftermath. This edition at The Olympic Club is more like your father’s U.S. Open.
It certainly isn’t anything like last year’s accommodating configuration at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., where red numbers on the Blue Course left predecessors green with envy.
“This golf course, it's so demanding. And if you're off your game just a little bit, you're going to pay the price,” said Tiger Woods, who was not off his game and was rewarded with a 1-under-par 69, one of six scores under par in the 156-player field. “This is one of those Opens where it's just really hard to make birdies. This is not like I was last year. This is a tough one; you’ve got to really grind.”
But grinding might not be enough for some of the top players and pre-championship favorites who will have to conjure some magic to make the cut. USGA executive director Mike Davis wants a setup today consistent with the exacting conditions of Round 1, when the scoring average was a corpulent 74.923.
This means an uphill climb for many players in the Tilting Yard, otherwise known as Olympic’s hilly and idiosyncratic Lake Course.
“It's a nice start. And you want to get a little bit of momentum early this week if you can because if you let this golf course beat you up early in the week it will just continue to do that,” said 2010 U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell after a 69, which tied him for second behind Michael Thompson’s surreal 66. “You can't really kind of start firing at pins out there. You've just got to plod your way around.”
“You can't go out and shoot eight or nine over and expect yourself to get it back,” said Rickie Fowler after a solid 72. “Yeah, there's four and five under out there. But you have to be on top of your game. You can't miss a lot of shots and you have to make some putts. Michael Thompson played awesome [Thursday] morning to put up four. If you go out and shoot seven, eight, it's going to be tough to kind of come off of that and do the opposite.”
But that will be the task for some of the top names at the bottom of the leaderboard. Among them is defending champion Rory McIlroy, who crashed to a 77. Last year het set the U.S. Open record in relation to par with his 16-under 268 mark at Congressional.
Also trying to play catch-up will be Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker, both of whom shot 76; Masters champion Bubba Watson, who decided to undertake a belated celebration of Arbor Day on the way to a 78; and world No. 1 Luke Donald, who shot 79.
The projected cut of low 60 and ties (the 10-shot rule has been eliminated), if the scoring average holds, would be, roughly, a puffy 8-over 148. Not out of the question on a day forecast for sunshine and cool temperatures, meaning Olympic should remain firm, fast and flinty.
Also keep this in mind when watching today: the worst opening-round score by a U.S. Open winner is held by two men who shot 76. One was Ben Hogan, who triumphed at the monster known as Oakland Hills in 1951. The other is Jack Fleck, who beat Hogan here at Olympic in 1955 in an 18-hole playoff.
“The big problem we all have is that it’s hard to go forwards and way too easy to go backwards,” Fowler said.
Fowler’s fellow competitor, Ryo Ishikawa of Japan, perhaps spoke for the entire field when he summed up how he felt about his rather respectable 1-over 71. “I'm very tired right now, especially mentally. So I'm going to rest tonight, so hopefully I'll play well tomorrow, too.”
Hopefully, everyone got his sleep. Olympic so far has been one rude awakening.
2012 US Open
Jun 14-17 - Purse: $8,000,000
Olympic Club - Lake Course - San Francisco, California, United States
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