No rain, but little clarity at Open

The rain-soaked major has a lot of story lines. There are a lot of questions, too.

The Washington Post

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The U.S. Open, to this point, may have been a bit of a logistical puzzle, and there’s an excellent chance that theme will continue. But imagine for a moment that the skies above Bethpage State Park’s Black Course stayed clear through the weekend. That is not the forecast — rain is due to fall this afternoon on an already saturated track — but dream a bit.

If and when the final two rounds can be played, so many story lines might resonate. Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, took the first-round lead with a wonderful 6-under-par 64 Friday, immediately shunning the idea that only mammoth hitters could conquer Bethpage’s 7,426 yards. That was enough to lead by two shots over a Swede named Peter Hanson, who needed to make a hole-in-one in a qualifying tournament in London even to be here.

And during a regular U.S. Open, that would be enough to digest for a first round, a one-time major winner and a no-name European, wondering whether they could hold up for the weekend. This, though, is not a normal Open, because almost all of Thursday’s scheduled first round was delayed by the deluge.

“It’s a great feeling,” Weir said of his first-round lead. “But at the same time, it’s such a long week.”

It could be longer still, particularly for the half of the field that went to bed Friday having yet to tee off in the second round. That group included defending champion Tiger Woods, whose opening 74 finished thusly: double bogey, bogey, par, bogey. The man Woods beat over 91 enthralling holes last year at Torrey Pines, Rocco Mediate, managed a 68, and stopped between his first round and second rounds long enough to say, “I like playing a lot of golf in a row.”

There, then, are two potential protagonists — going in different directions. Survey the galleries at Bethpage Black, though, and there was a clear favorite on the leader boards. Phil Mickelson, the runner-up to Woods here in 2002, was a New York darling even before he became a sympathetic figure when his wife, Amy, had breast cancer diagnosed last month. At one point in his first round, Mickelson was 4 under, but the fact that he stumbled home to a 69 didn’t subdue his frothing fans, and Mickelson spent much of his day pointing at the galleries, nodding his head in appreciation — and smiling.

“You could hear every roar,” said Irishman Rory McIlroy, who played two groups ahead of Mickelson. “You knew if he’s holed a putt or hit a great shot.”

There, then, are some of the most alluring names the field had to offer, all playing well Friday afternoon. And that cast does not even begin to deal with David Duval.

Duval was, a decade ago, the No. 1 player in the world. He arrived here ranked 882nd. He did not qualify for the past two U.S. opens, and he is only now shaking off a decade of mental and physical deterioration. The unexpected outcome: a first-round 67 that had him right in contention.

“I feel comfortable with what I’m doing, and I feel confident in what I’m doing,” Duval said. “Confidence has been lacking for me for a while, and toward the end of [February], I started to gain a little bit. It’s something that you have to kind of accrue, and I’ve been picking it up here and there for a few months.”

Those characters on that first-round leader board — and they included 2004 British Open champ Todd Hamilton (67) and Ricky Barnes (67), a 28-year-old Californian who has missed the cut in half of his dozen starts this year — all have one thing in common: first-round tee times originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon. And because play stopped Thursday at 10:15 a.m., they didn’t deal with the hideous conditions Woods and others faced early. Rather, they played their first rounds — and the first portion of their second rounds — during what might be the only palatable 10-hour span Bethpage will provide all week.

Consider the following assessments:

“Overall, the golf course is playing difficult,” said Woods, who was among the unfortunate.

“Playing conditions today were absolutely fantastic,” said Hanson, who was among those considering themselves blessed.