Fears realized: Winged Foot surrenders one sub-par score
Scotland's Colin Montgomerie was the star Thursday during the first round of the U.S. Open, but Winged Foot Golf Club stole the show. Presenting a stern but fair test, Winged Foot surrendered just one sub-par score, the 1-under 69 by the surprising Scot.
By T.J. Auclair, Junior Editor
MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- The only thing missing from Colin Montgomerie's brilliant resume is a major championship. And arguably none has teased him more mercilessly than the U.S. Open, where he has twice finished second and once third.
He was the best after the first round of the 106th U.S. Open at the wickedly difficult Winged Foot Golf Club on Thursday. The surprising Scot recorded the day's lone sub-par round, a 1-under-par 69, to take a one-shot lead over Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Miguel Angel Jimenez and David Howell.
"[I'm] delighted," said Montgomerie, whose round included four birdies and three bogeys in breezy conditions. "Obviously 69 is a good score under any circumstances. It's a good thing, being 2 over after three. I was practicing well and it gave me some confidence, didn't bother playing yesterday because I felt quite confident about things, and that was wise. I came out this morning and was 2 over after three and thought it wasn't too clever, but by the end of the day it was all right. I played well."
Shortly after Montgomerie finished, Tiger Woods teed off for the first time in competition since the Masters and death of his father, Earl. The much-anticipated return of Woods quickly turned into an occasion he'd rather forget.
An opening tee shot that flew wide left of the first fairway and into the dreaded Winged Foot rough was a microcosm of an uncharacteristic 6-over-par 76 for Woods. He spent much of his round negotiating the vicious rough and the trees, hitting just three of 14 fairways.
"I felt pretty good," Woods said. "I expected to be on the rusty side, but I really felt good. I started off swinging well. The only thing that got my round off to a bad start was not adjusting to the greens. And once I did that, I was fine, but I was so far behind."
Woods' worst opening round in a tournament he has eventually gone on to win was a 2-over-par 74 at the 2005 Masters.
The opposite of Woods came in the form of Howell -- for most of his round, anyway. Howell, the Englishman who turns 31 next week, did a lot of barking and got as low as 4 under par through 14 holes.
But in the end, Winged Foot did the biting, showing Howell first hand why you can't take a nap on the relentless A.W. Tillinghast, Tom Fazio buffed-up layout. He bogeyed Nos. 15 and 16, parred the 17th and stood on the 18th tee at a masterful 2 under par.
A par at the last would have been beautiful, and would have given him a one-shot lead. Instead, he missed a left-to-right curler from 20 feet for par, leaving it roughly three feet short of the hole. From there, he blew the bogey putt well past the cup, before taking double-bogey and falling to even par.
"This course can bite you at any time," Howell said. "I was delighted to get to 4 under and I hope I see it again. But this is probably the easiest the course is going to play, so I think anyone would do well to get there again.
"It's frustrating to finish like that," he added. "I hit two bad shots and they are going to cost you unless you do something miraculous. I missed a three-footer and three-putted the last to compound matters. It's very frustrating, but 70 is not a bad start."
Mickelson, looking for his third major title in as many tries, missed a pair of short par putts, both inside of 4 feet, but got off to an enviable start at even par.
"You're always going to feel like you left shots out at a U.S. Open because it's just so tough that some putts aren't going to go in or maybe a shot doesn't come off the way you want it," he said. "But I was very pleased with even par, would have taken it from the start. With the wind it was very tough. I thought this was the fairest setup that we've played. I was pleased with the way it was set up today because the graduated rough gave you a chance."
Devastatingly difficult in its own right, Winged Foot Golf Club was proving to play even more beastly with a steady breeze as the day progressed. As if the narrow fairways, the slick greens and the thick, nasty rough weren't enough to deal with here.
As is usually the case at a major, the conditions played a hand in shooting obscure names to the top of the leaderboard in the early going, while consistent major contenders -- like 2001 PGA Champion David Toms -- struggled mightily.
Furyk was tied for the lead at 1 under par through nine holes with fellow American Jason Dufner, England's Kenneth Ferrie and Sweden's Peter Hedblom.
While Furyk is a major champion you'd expect to see on the top of the board in an elite tournament, Dufner is a Nationwide Tour player who got into his second U.S. Open through a qualifier. He finished in a group at 2 over par which included Hedblom, Stuart Appleby, Adam Scott and Thomas Bjorn.
Ferrie and Hedblom, while probably unknown to most American golf followers, are solid players on the European Tour. Ferrie, tied for seventh at 1 over par with seven others including Vijay Singh, Mike Weir and Fred Funk, was exempt into the U.S. Open after finishing in the top 15 on the European Tour's Order of Merit. His biggest victory came at the Smurfit European Open last July at the K Club in Ireland, site of September's Ryder Cup.
Hedblom is at the Open because he tied for 11th at Pinehurst last year -- the top 15 players in the U.S. Open are exempt into the following year's Open.
As for Toms, he was a mind-blowing 7 over par through 14 holes. He got off to a terrible start, going double-bogey, double-bogey, bogey and was 5 over par after playing just three holes and ended up shooting a 9-over-par 79.
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