Despite 'no expectations at all,' Weaver wows everyone with 69

To say Drew Weaver came to Bethpage Black with no expectations of how he would play is to say there have been a few sprinkles at the 109th U.S. Open. But the amateur from Virginia might be rethinking his approach after a wonderful opening 69.

By T.J. Auclair, PGA.com Interactive Producer

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- The late Bobby Jones would have been proud, because it was amateur hour at the U.S. Open on Friday morning.

Drew Weaver, a 22-year-old Virginia Tech alum from Newport News, Va., who is making his U.S. Open debut, tamed the drenched Bethpage Black to the tune of a 1-under 69, as he finished his opening round a day late, to take the early clubhouse lead.

Not bad when you hear what his expectations were coming into the week.

"No expectations at all," admitted Weaver, the winner of the 2007 British Amateur who plans to keep his amateur status at least until the Walker Cup in September. "I think in the tournaments I played the best in, I have no preconceived notion about how I should play.  I just want to go out there and realize that I am playing well and just kind of maintain that confidence and I was able to do that today really well. "

Weaver's round was outstanding, especially when you consider that he made three consecutive bogeys on the front nine beginning at No. 7. Weaver offset two of his four opening-nine bogeys with birdies at Nos. 4 and 8. Then he took care of the rest of his scoring on the back.

Before rain suspended play on Thursday, Weaver had made it through 10 holes and had a 2-footer for par awaiting him at No. 11 early on Friday. If he needed a morning jolt, Weaver got just that when he made a 12-footer to save par on No. 12.

After the impressive par, Weaver rattled off birdies at Nos. 13, 16 and 17 for a 3-under 32 on the back nine.

"There are birdies out there," he said. "You've got to hit really good shots. But we were able to make a great par on 12, and just got things going on 13 and continued that on 16 and 17.  So it was a nice way to get things going this morning."

Weaver earned his spot in the U.S. Open by making it through a six-players-for-four-spots playoff in his sectional qualifier in Rockville, Md.

"It was extremely nerve racking," said Weaver, referring to the playoff. "There were great players in it. A couple of Nationwide Tour players. Fred Funk was in it. And obviously when you're in that kind of playoff, everybody's playing well. It's just a matter of controlling your nerves and managing your adrenalin and thankfully I was able to rely on past experiences in playoffs like that and parred the first and second hole and thankfully that got me in."

This week marks Weaver's third start in a major championship. By virtue of his '07 British Amateur win, he earned invitations in 2008 to the Masters (missed cut) and the British Open (missed cut). He believes that those experiences helped him deal with the magnitude of playing on such a massive stage.

"I'm much more relaxed," he said. "I played I guess the Open Championship, the British Open and the Masters. And I played much better at the Open than I did at the Masters, but just going through those experiences really allows me to kind of grow, and now, coming into this week, I'm not really a guy that's on the driving range looking left and right, oh, wow, I'm next to Tiger Woods or whatever. But it's nice to be able to do your own thing and just get really prepared for the tournament, and I felt like I did a good job of that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday."

Whenever Weaver is making news it's hard not to remember the April 16, 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech. Weaver, then a student, was just 100 yards from Norris Hall, when Cho Seung-Hui began his killing spree that ended in the deaths of 32 innocent people in that building.

Weaver heard the shots and like so many others on that tragic day, ran for his life. Two days after the shootings, Weaver and his Hokie teammates won the ACC title and shortly after that, Weaver dedicated his British Amateur win to those who lost their lives in the shootings. A patch on his bag that week read, "Virginia Tech Remembers 4:16:07."

To this day, Weaver said there's still an outpouring of support wherever he goes, but he's looking ahead now.

"Personally, I'm kind of with everybody else that was involved," he said. "We've moved on. It's not something we can ever forget. It will always be in the back of our minds. But we definitely moved on. I've kind of developed a little better outlook on life. I'm a little more positive and kind of learned to appreciate the smaller things in life. So things are great. But we definitely haven't forgot those we lost in 2007."