Grant Me This: First-round musings from penal but fair Winged Foot

PGA.com contributor Grant Boone says the first round of the 106th U.S. Open on Thursday was "a frustratingly fair and eminently exacting" test for the world's best golfers, many of whom were left woosie from the whipping exacted upon the field.

By Grant Boone, Special to PGA.com

Mamaroneck, the suburban New York village hosting the 106th U.S. Open, begins with "Mama." As in, "I want my ...," a phrase no doubt muttered early, late, and often by contestants in Thursday's opening round on a day when a classic course and a typically-tough USGA setup left players tightly coiled in the fetal position.

Winged Foot may well be the mother of all modern-day major championship tests, a frustratingly fair and eminently exacting measure of the world's best golfers, which -- for a day at least -- didn't discriminate in dishing out defeat. At age 15, Tadd Fujikawa is the youngest U.S. Open competitor since Tyrell "Party On" Garth in 1941. But Fujikawa was more than a Tadd over par Thursday, matching 81s with three-time major champion Nick Price, who's 34 years the senior of the high school sophomore from Honolulu.

In all, there were just five scores of even-par 70 on Winged Foot -- one for each toe? -- and a single red number, the 69 of Colin Montgomerie. Now this isn't your father's Monty. Ten years ago, a New York gallery would've immediately and gleefully gotten itself under Montgomerie's skin, and back then he had plenty of skin for a crowd that size. But somehow since then, after enduring multiple major misses and a nasty public divorce, Monty's morphed into a fan favorite, even in the Big Apple. And his description of the gallery's treatment of him today? "Warm." Maybe Al Gore's onto something.

Actually, that entire group was a walking mulligan. John Cook, with his (like Montgomerie's) chances dwindling of snagging that elusive major, put his son Jason on the bag and a solid 71 on the board. Rounding out the Borrowed Time Trio was David Duval, who has his biggie -- the 2001 British -- but little else in the way of a resume since. After an opening 77, Duval will need something better than that to keep his five-year free pass into this championship, courtesy of that Claret Jug, from expiring on Friday.

One thing I love about the U.S. Open is all the stuff that goes on in the first few hours Thursday morning that no one remembers Sunday night. Like Jyoti Randhawa (pronounced 'jyoti randhawa') beginning his first U.S. Open with a birdie 2 on the 10th. Having lost most of our decent jobs to Randhawa's native India, would we now outsource our national championship? Probably not this year. Randhawa shot 77, six shots higher than his brother-in-law, Vijay Singh, who himself is no relation to fellow competitor Jeev Milkha Singh, who was able to
Milkha 73 from a round in which he hit only four fairways and the same number of greens.

Like the family ties that bound Bo Van Pelt to New York. His uncle, Brad, wearing No. 10 as a linebacker for the NFL's Giants was almost as weird as seeing Bo (or anyone) birdie three U.S. Open holes in a row. Van Pelt would card a very functional 72 that could have been much better were it not for an inward 39. And the ties that bind Kevin Stadler to his dad, Craig. The Bronx Zoo doesn't have two walrus that look more alike than the Stadlers. Kevin's 71 matched his dad's first-round score at Winged Foot at the 1984 Open.

And like Tag Ridings' birdie at No. 2 for an ephemeral share of the lead. Alas, the Ridings on the leaderboard couldn't trump the Ridings on the wall. A double at No. 3 foreshadowed a frustrating 77.

The U.S. Open's two chief protagonists, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, went off in opposite draws and directions. Mickelson played early and turned in a tidy (two birdies, two bogeys) 70 for a share of second as he tries to win a third straight major. Woods teed off late and pretty much stayed teed off all day in his first round since the Masters and, more notably, the passing of his father, Earl. Three straight bogeys to begin the round, six total on the front nine, an unforced double at the par-5 12th, and a balky putter used 33 times conspired for a 76. And it could've been worse. At one point, Tiger was 10 off the lead and tied for 110th. But he'll begin Friday a touchdown behind Monty, tied for 68th, and well aware that it's been more than a half century since Jack Fleck was the last to shoot 76 in round one and still win.

"Mama" said there'd be days like this.

Grant Boone is a husband, father, golf broadcaster, and sports journalist based in Abilene, Texas. He can be contacted at grant@greatcities.org.

The views and opinions expressed here do not reflect those of PGA.com or The PGA of America.