Mike Weir flirted with golf history in ideal scoring conditions to become a US Open contender. Now Tiger Woods will have to make history at Bethpage Black in order to defend his title.
Canadian left-hander Weir, only twice a winner since a 2003 Masters triumph, fired a stunning six-under par 64 first round on Friday but went two-over through nine holes of the second round to
share third place when darkness halted play.
American Lucas Glover, whose only PGA victory came in 2005, was on six-under par through 13 holes in the second round of the rain-struck event, one stroke ahead of Ricky Barnes, the 2002 US Amateur champion who had played nine holes.
Weir, who shared third with Sweden’s Peter Hanson, fired the lowest US Open round since 2003, his eight birdies capped by a downhill 22-footer at the ninth that left him only one off the
all-time low 18-hole score in Majors history.
”It was just one of those days,” Weir said. ”I was just really focused on it. I didn’t give the score much thought. I was just trying to hit it close.”
Woods, seeking a 15th major title on the same course where he won the 2002 US Open, stumbled home to an opening four-over 74 to stand 10 strokes off Weir’s pace after 18 holes or Glover’s when dusk arrived.
No one has ever come back from so far behind after the first round to win the US Open, the best 54-hole victory rally belonging to Jack Fleck from nine strokes behind at the 1955 US Open.
”It’s not like I was hitting it all over the place,” said Woods, who ended with a double bogey at 15 and bogeys at 16 and 18. ”I hit a lot of good shots. Unfortunately I didn’t finish off the round the way I would have liked.”
Hanson, who fired an ace to grab the last US Open berth on offer last month at qualifying in England, expects Woods to be in the hunt for the final round.
”Everybody knows he’s going to be there come Sunday afternoon,” Hanson said.
No one is quite sure if the final round will be there come Sunday, though. Forecasts for Saturday thunderstorms had US Open officials looking to push the finish of 72 holes beyond the weekend
for only the second time in history.
A deluge Thursday foiled the start for Woods, who could face more sloppy conditions with his scheduled Saturday afternoon second-round start. Weir played most of his first two rounds in sunshine on a drier layout.
”The course is playing longer,” Weir said. ”Players who hit longer have an advantage but those of us medium hitters think we can compete. The greens are holding. It’s not as big a factor as you would have thought.”
Weir could have been lower in round one. He left a birdie putt at 17 on the lip of the cup and lipped out another at 18 as well as taking a double bogey at the sixth, when he found a bunker and greenside rough.
Weir (39) birdied the 11th and the par-5 13th, added back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 and tap-in birdies at the par-three fourth and par-five fifth. He found a bunker and then rough on the
sixth but finished round one with a flourish.
”It’s nice but it doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Weir said. ”It’s a great feeling but it’s the US Open. It takes more than one good round.”
Woods missed an eight-foot par putt at the seventh with his first stroke on Friday. After birdies at 11 and 14, a chip at the 15th rolled 30 feet down a sloping green to start his frustrating finish.
Woods played alongside Masters champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina, who had six bogeys on his way to a 74, and British Open and PGA Championship champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland, who struggled to a 76.
Four-time runner-up Phil Mickelson charged into the hunt for his first US Open title to the cheers of a boisterous crowd, standing one-under through 11 holes after a first-round 69 and three birdies against a bogey and double thereafter.
Mickelson, a runner-up to Woods in the 2002 US Open at Bethpage, is playing his last event before wife Amy undergoes breast cancer surgery in early July, wearing a pink ribbon on his cap as vocal supporters bolster him at every hole.
”The soft conditions are helping,” Mickelson said. ”The balls that hit the fairways are staying in the fairways.”
American Todd Hamilton, who has not won since taking the 2004 British Open title and is playing on the final year of that exemption, opened on 67 and stood fifth on three-under through 10 holes of his second round.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia reached one-under but missed two putts from inside two feet at 18, his ninth hole of round two, for a double bogey to tumble back. – AFP
