Brehaut 'totally cool' with sharing early first-round lead

Jeff Brehaut, a self-described grinder, didn’t let the weather get him down Thursday as he slogged his way to the top of the leaderboard. His wife encouraged him to embrace the conditions, and he is.

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- No matter what happens during the rest of this water-logged U.S. Open, Jeff Brehaut will have something to remember.

And it's not just the fact that he was holding a share of the lead when play was suspended on Thursday, either.

Brehaut's Kodak moment came at the ninth hole during his practice round on Wednesday. He was playing by himself, but there were plenty of fans around the green waiting for Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk to arrive.

Brehaut had hit two "lousy" irons into the front bunker on the 460-yard par 4, but then proceeded to holed his bunker shot. He laughed and threw another ball into the sand, then promptly hit that one into the cup as well.

The 46-year-old veteran said he knew the second ball was in when it was 5 feet from the hole. The fans went wild and egged him on to try for three in a row. "No mas. No mas," Brehaut remembers telling them.

"I was jumping up and down like Bob Tway when he holed out to beat Greg Norman," Brehaut said, grinning. "I pumped my fist, I signed half an hour's worth of autographs. Afterwards I told my wife I felt like I had just won the tournament. ...

"So that was my highlight so far."

Of course, Thursday's visit to the press room after Brehaut played his first 11 holes in 1 under wasn't bad, either. He joined Johan Edfors, Andrew Parr and Ryan Spears with the early lead -- none of the other three had played more than four holes.

The rain had just begun pelting Bethpage as Brehaut teed off in the first group at No. 10. He made bogey there after finding the fairway bunker off the tee but promptly got that stroke back at the 605-yard 13th hole despite finding the wet rough with his driver.

Brehaut simply chipped a 4-iron up the fairway and hit a 5-wood to 10 feet for the birdie. He added another at the par-3 17th courtesy of a 4-iron that settled 8 feet from the hole, then ground out pars until the ground was saturated and play was called.

Brehaut, who played the PGA TOUR for eight years before losing his card in 2007, had played in downpours like this before at Pebble Beach -- "colder, though," he was quick to add. His wife, Hillary, helped him keep things in perspective as the rains settled in.

"Obviously, we'd all love to be playing in 80 degrees and sunny," Brehaut said. "But my wife's been telling me the last three days, embrace your conditions, embrace your conditions. So that was the first words out of her mouth today when she saw me.

"But everybody's got to play it. It's not what any of us wants to deal with the weather. But they're still going to give out a trophy, I think."

The last trophy Brehaut hoisted was at the 1997 Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic. He's a journeyman pro, a self-described grinder, who went to q-school 13 times before finally getting his TOUR card at the age of 35.

"It's a real mental test," said Brehaut, who once missed by a shot after hitting a ball into the water on the 108th hole. "It's like half your brain is saying, 'Don't screw up,' while the other half is saying, 'You have to make some birdies.' "

In the meantime, Brehaut played the Nationwide Tour for six straight years in the 1990s, loading his growing family into an SUV and driving around the United States. He played well enough to make the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship each year but never well enough to earn one of the money list promotions to the PGA TOUR.

"People said, "Congratulations," on six consecutive (Nationwide Tour) Championships, and I felt like it was kind of a half compliment, half not, because I wasn't good enough to get out of here and I was good enough to be in that tournament," Brehaut said.

"When I finally got on TOUR, it was a big deal. So it was one of the things where I kept getting a little better, a little better every year. I told people I wish I would have got better or worse faster so I could have made up my mind."

Plan B probably would have been flipping houses because Brehaut "loves to put my tool belt on." The PGA TOUR, though, had been his goal since he was a little kid. He's trying to get back, too, but he's only had two top-25 finishes in 11 starts on the Nationwide Tour this year.

"It's been fun this week because I haven't seen a lot of my friends that I played eight years on the TOUR with," Brehaut said. "I told Briny (Baird) inside, 'I miss it out here, I miss you guys.' We had a lot of good friends that I haven't seen in a while."

Brehaut spent the rain delay in the locker room getting reacquainted, as well as fielding congratulatory text messages and listening to voice mails on his cell. At the same time, he was trying not to get ahead of himself.

"This is totally cool," Brehaut said. "But I am just trying to keep it in perspective. I am only through 11 holes and half the field hasn't even started."

Still, Thursday night will be a fun one for Brehaut. He's rented a home on Long Island and in addition to his wife and kids, Brehaut's parents are there, as well as his father-in-law and one nephew.

And Brehaut's 76-year-old father, Gene, "is jumping out of his skin right now," the son said with a smile. Not unlike Brehaut did when he holed those two bunker shots on Wednesday.