U.S. Open: Round 1 notebook

By John Bush, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: Mostly cloudy and warmer. Winds variable 4-8 mph. High of 75.

- The first round resumed on Friday at 7:26 a.m. and concluded at 5:23 p.m.

- Mike Weir opened the 109th U.S. Open Championship with a 6-under 64 to take the first-round lead by two strokes over Peter Hanson, falling just one stroke shy of the championship record of 63, set by Johnny Miller (R4, Oakmont, 1973), Jack Nicklaus (R1, Baltusrol, 1980), Tom Weiskopf (R1, Baltusrol, 1980) and Vijay Singh (R2, Olympia Fields/North, 2003).

- Weir has been a model of consistency at the U.S. Open, making eight cuts in 10 previous starts and recording seven top-20 finishes. The best outing for the 2003 Masters champion was T3 in 2003, one year after missing the cut with rounds of 78-74 at Bethpage Black.

- Weir has held the first-round lead/co-lead five previous times during his PGA TOUR career, which spans 302 career events. He has failed to convert any of those into victories, most recently finishing second at the 2008 Deutsche Bank Championship. The others included the 2001 Genuity Championship (2nd), 2008 Canadian Open (T5), 2002 Mercedes Championship (T14) and the 2006 Buick Open (T20).

Dating to 1959, the first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win just eight times at the U.S. Open: Tiger Woods (2000, 2002), Retief Goosen (2001), Payne Stewart (1991), Jack Nicklaus (1972, 1980), Hubert Green (1977) and Tony Jacklin (1970). In all, the first-round leader/co-leader has won 19 times.

- The first-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win six of 24 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR this season, most recently Brian Gay at the St. Jude Classic.

- Tiger Woods shot 4-over on Nos. 15-18 on Friday, equaling his second-worst four-hole stretch to finish a round during his 230 professional starts on the PGA TOUR. The list is as follows:

6 over: 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational, final round, par, bogey, double bogey, triple bogey
4 over: 2009 U.S. Open, first round, double bogey, bogey, par, bogey
4 over: 1999 World Golf Championships-American Express Championshop, final round, par, bogey, triple bogey, par
4 over: 1999 Byron Nelson. third round, bogey, birdie, quadruple bogey, par

- Peter Hanson, a 31-year-old native of Svedala, Sweden, posted a 66 on Friday in his third start at the U.S. Open. He finished T30 at the 2007 U.S. Open and missed the cut in 2005, two of 12 previous career starts on the PGA TOUR. Among 11 made cuts for Hanson are two top-25 finishes (T9 at the 2009 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and T23 at the 2007 PGA Championship). He is attempting to become Sweden’s first winner of the U.S. Open.

- David Duval carded a 3-under 67 to sit just three strokes behind Weir. The 2001 British Open winner has made the cut in just six of 20 starts in major championships since his victory at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, with a T10 at the 2001 PGA Championship and a T16 at the 2006 U.S. Open his only top-25 finishes. Most recently he finished T39 at the 2008 British Open at Royal Birkdale.

- Duval’s 67 is just his sixth sub-70 round posted in 47 attempts at the U.S. Open and equals his career-low at the championship (first round, 1999, finished T7). Duval posted all three top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open in consecutive years (T7-1998, T7-1999, T8-2000).

- Ricky Barnes, 2002 U.S. Amateur champion, posted a 3-under 67 in his fifth U.S. Open appearance. In four previous starts, Barnes has finished T59 in 2003 and missed the cut in 2000, 2002 and 2007. In six previous major championship starts, Barnes only sub-70 round was an opening-69 en route to a 21st-place effort at the 2003 Masters, his best showing in a major.

- Todd Hamilton notched a 3-under 67 in the opening round, his first score in the 60s in seven U.S. Open appearances (15 rounds). The 43-year-old native of Galesburg, Illinois, finished T15 earlier this year at the Masters, his first top-20 in a major championship since winning the 2004 British Open.

- Fred Funk, with an opening-round 70, led the three members of the Champions Tour competing this week, with Tom Lehman firing a 71 and Eduardo Romero a 76. The eight-time PGA TOUR winner and 2007 THE PLAYERS champion has recorded four wins on the Champions Tour and a second-place finish to Jay Haas in the 2008 Charles Schwab Cup race. Funk qualified for the U.S. Open by finishing T4 and surviving a playoff at the Woodmont CC qualifier in Rockville, Md., the day after flying from Austin where he finished T7 at the Triton Financial Classic. Funk, who turned 53 this past Sunday, is making his 20th appearance in the U.S. Open, with his best finish 6th place in 2004 at Shinnecock Hills.

- Rocco Mediate, who fell in a playoff to Tiger Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open, posted a 2-under 68 on Friday in his 14thU.S. Open appearance and 48th major championship start. He is seeking his fourth top-10 finish at the U.S. Open in the last seven years (4-2001, T6-2005, 2-2008). Of Mediate’s eight rounds in the 60s (44 attempts) at the U.S. Open, six have come during the opening round.

- Amateur Drew Weaver, a 22-year-old native of Newport News, Va., and 2007 British Amateur champion, posted a 1-under 69 in his first start at a U.S. Open. Weaver is attempting to become the first player since Francis Ouimet in 1913 to in the U.S. Open in his first try.

Drew Weaver, a Virginia Tech standout, has now posted three-consecutive rounds of 69 on the PGA TOUR. Here’s a look at his six career starts on the PGA TOUR:

2007  British Open                76-72—148 (missed cut)
2008  Masters                       76-80—156 (missed cut)
2008  Memorial                      79-80—159 (missed cut)
2008  AT&T National             75-71—146 (missed cut)
2008  Wyndham Champ.     69-69—138 (missed cut)
2009  U.S. Open                    69-

- Weaver’s win at the British Amateur was the first by an American since Jay Sigel in 1979 and the 22ndoverall. He became just the sixth player from the United States to win the event in his first try.

- Weaver is one of 15 amateurs in this week’s field, the highest total since 1981. The U.S. Open has been won by an amateur eight times: Francis Ouimet (1913), Jerome Travers (1915), Charles Evans Jr. (1916), Robert T. Jones Jr. (1923, 1926, 1929-30) and John Goodman (1933). The last amateur to win a PGA TOUR event was Phil Mickelson at the 1991 Northern Telecom Open.

- Graeme McDowell posted a 1-under 69, his first sub-70 score in 13 rounds at the U.S. Open.  His previous starts at the U.S. Open: T80 (2005), T48 (2006) and T30 (2007). The 29-year-old native of Portrush, Northern Ireland is seeking to become the first European to win the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970.

- McDowell closed out last week’s St. Jude Classic with a 63, his career low round on the PGA TOUR. He has made the cut in each of the six TOUR events this year, with last week’s T7 topping his previous best showing in 2009 (T17 at the Masters). Last week’s finish was the fourth top-10 finish in 53 TOUR events and his first since a T6 at the 2005 World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

- Defending champion Tiger Woods posted a 4-over 74, including double-bogeys on Nos. 5 and 15. The last time he recorded two doubles in a round was the first round of the 2008 U.S. Open (Nos. 1 and 14).


- Australian Michael Sim birdied his final hole (No. 9) on Friday to card a 1-over 71. Sim has posted five top-5 finishes on the Nationwide Tour this year, including wins at the Stonebrae Classic and the BMW Charity Pro-Am. He is just one win away from earning the Tour’s three-win promotion to the PGA TOUR.

- Jeff Brehaut, a 46-year-old native of Mountain View, Calif. posted an opening-round even-par 70 in just his second U.S. Open appearance (T17-2007). The veteran of the PGA TOUR (228 starts) and the Nationwide Tour (210 starts) is a 2006 inductee into the University of Pacific Hall of Fame, along with University of Southern California football coach Pete Carroll.

None of the seven past champions of the U.S. Open participating this week were able to break par in the opening round: Jim Furyk (72), Geoff Ogilvy (73), Retief Goosen (73), Angel Cabrera (74), Tiger Woods (74), Michael Campbell (77) and Ernie Els (78).

Anthony Kim posted a 1-over 71 on his 24th birthday.

There were no bogey-free rounds posted during the first round.

The scoring average for the morning wave was 74.75, compared to 72.87 for the afternoon wave.

The par-4 fifth hole played the toughest, yielding a 4.564 average and just four birdies. The par-5 fourth hole was the easiest at 4.858.