Stenson And DJ Lead U.S. Open, Mickelson In Contention, Tiger And Rickie Trail Far Behind
Not Many Thought Tiger Would Face The Meida After His 10-Over Round Of 80 At Chambers Bay But He Did. Briefly. - Image Credit Alfie Lau
by Alfie Lau
There’s an old saying that you can’t win the U.S. Open on the first day, but you certainly can lose it.
That’s definitely the case for the group featuring Rickie Fowler, Tiger Woods and Louis Oosthuizen. The trio combined to shoot (+28), with the South African’s (+7) 77 the best score amongst them, three better than Woods and his 80 and four ahead of Fowler’s 81.
Woods, coming up on the 7th anniversary of winning his last Major, came out to answer five questions from the media. “Not very happy, that's for sure,” said Woods of his round.
“It was a tough day. Got off to a bad start. I stuck that 6-iron in the ground on the first hole, and then just couldn't quite get it turned around today. . . I'm trying as hard as I can to do it, and for some reason I just can't get the consistency that I'd like to have out there.”
Woods played himself out of the tournament by making bogey after bogey, including 4 in his first 6 holes and 7 in his first 13 holes before a disastrous triple bogey at 14 had him on track for his worst ever round at the U.S. Open.
Woods made his first birdie of the day at 16, which was notable only due to the fact that it put him ahead of Fowler, who continued his downward spiral with four bogeys on the back-9 sandwiched by an eagle on the driveable par-4 12th which was inches away from an albatross ace.
Tiger’s plummet reached its nadir on the 18th hole, where he cold-topped his second shot into the large, deep bunker that USGA Executive Director Mike Davis thought no player, especially a professional, would hit into.
Woods’ Nike ball rolled into the cavernous bunker and before the 14-time Major winner knew it, he’d made bogey on the last for 80.
At least Woods was able to joke about one aspect of his round. “The bright side is at least I kicked Rickie's butt today,” said Woods.
cp image
Oh, Rickie You're So Fine....But We Think It's Better If You Really Do Lose That Number....81?…Really?
The media actually got 8 questions in before Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg had the USGA put a halt to the impromptu press conference, by telling the USGA’s Brian DePasquale, “Brian, get in there.”
Tiger’s troubles paled in comparison to pre-tournament favourite Fowler, who had top 5 finishes in all 4 Majors in 2014.
Fowler started the day with six pars and got to the 6th three shots ahead of a sputtering Woods. Fowler promptly went straight into the gutter, making a double bogey, bogey, double bogey and triple bogey in a four-hole stretch that took him to (+8) and no chance to play weekend rounds at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.
On the other side of the spectrum, the best rounds of the day were shot early in the morning by Swede Henrik Stenson and Wayne Gretzky’s future son-in-law, Dustin Johnson.
Stenson made his run with four birdies in his final 5 holes, which took him from (-1) after 9 holes to (-5) 65 at the end of the day. “All in all, I played solid,” said Stenson.
“Gave myself some nice birdie chances coming in and just rolled a couple of beauties in from 14 and onwards. Pleased with the striking and putting the way I played the round.”
Johnson was also pleased with his 65, as he had an opportunity to go even lower. With two holes left to play, including a par-5, Johnson was (-6), but a par on the par-5 8th and bogey on the par-5 ninth left Johnson just a share of the first-round lead.
“I’m very pleased with my round today,” said Johnson. “I thought I played really solid all day. Obviously, the bogey at 9, I hit a poor tee shot there. And hit a really good chip to even have a 15-footer for par and hit a good putt, just came up a little bit short.”
Just one stroke behind Johnson and Stenson is Patrick Reed, who wasn’t lacking any confidence when talking about what he should have shot.
“Today, with shooting 4-under, I left six birdies dead in the centre short today,” said Reed of the 60 he left on the table. “All I had to do was get the ball to the hole and it had a chance of going in.”
Reed was part of the morning wave of golfers who dominate the top of the leaderboard. Of the afternoon starters, only Ben Martin and amateur Brian Campbell made any move up the leaderboard, both finishing at (-3) for the round.
Martin briefly tied for the lead after 11 holes before bogeys pushed him back to (-3) for the day. Campbell had an up-and-down round, making double bogey on his 16th hole before salvaging a birdie on his penultimate hole to finish with a 67.
Lurking in the weeds is Masters Champion Jordan Spieth, who made three birdies in a row, on 11, 12 and 13, after playing his front 9 in even par. He finished at (-2) 68, only three strokes off the lead.
Even further back, but thrilling the morning crowds, is Phil Mickelson, the man chasing the ‘Career Slam’ after six runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open. Mickelson had it as low as (-3) after 8 holes before settling for a (-1) round of 69, four strokes behind the co-leaders.
“I’m very pleased with the way the round went. I hit a lot of good shots today,” said Mickelson. “The first round was the round I was going to be most nervous at, getting started. . . I thought there was nothing hokey or crazy with any pin positions or how it played. I thought it was difficult.”
Mickelson’s round started going sideways at the 10th hole, where his approach was 40 feet long and he had to intentionally putt it well to the right, up a slope, so that he could get it to stop somewhere near the hole on the left.
“I couldn’t go left because it would have been too fast. I couldn’t go at it and get close,” said Mickelson. “I didn’t know how high up the ridge I needed to go, so I was guessing.”
Mickelson would get that stroke back at the 11th, but cede shots at both 13 and 14 before parring in. While Mickelson and Spieth look poised to chase down their next Major titles, and Stenson, Johnson and Reed seek their first, one thing is for sure: Woods, Fowler and Oosthuizen will only be playing for pride on Friday morning starting at 8:28 a.m.
www.twitter.com/AlfieLau