Much less golf was played today at venerable Oakmont today than the USGA, the players and golf fans had planned on as a series of thunderstorms toyed with the championship throughout the day. The powers that be suspended play for the day at 3:51pm in the midst of the third interruption due to Mother Nature.
Downpours in June at U.S. Open’s held at courses in the northeast of the country should ‘t be a surprise to anyone. But others surprises were in store.
A twenty nine year old PGA Tour rookie out of Natches, Texas turned in the best round almost, it’s not yet complete) of the abbreviated day. Andrew Landry is at 3 under par with one hole to play and he had to 5 under at one point in the round. Everything was going right for Landry until the third suspension of play occurred before he had a chance to stroke his birdie putt on the 9th hole ( his 18th). Another minute more and he could sleep tomorrow as the first round leader but now he has to get up in the middle of the night to finish off his brilliant but interrupted round.
More than an inch of rain was dumped on the course last night and a similar amount again throughout the day’s deluge. So the fire of Oakmont was doused considerably and players had to change strategy and club selection to deal with a softer , slower course.
Even with the dragon stilled, no one slew it, as only seven players (of the 78 who teed off) are under par. Half of the field has yet to start the championships, I’ll count these gents as the lucky half of the draw. They’ll have a long, slow slog tomorrow with 36 holes in store for some the course will be get table-with wider playing fairways and bigger playing greens.
FOX was back for it a second telecast of our national open with a new leading man. Paul Azinger brought his mix of eclectic insight, easy confidence and total lack of pretense to a team that was damned near laughed out of town with a abysmal presentation at Camber’s Bay. The prime culprit in that broadcast debacle was wisely cast aside and I doubt we’ll ever have to suffer through any more non-analysis from Greg Norman. Criminal #2, Joe Buck, is still on screen but I guess we can’t have everything.
Unfortunately Zinger didn’t get enough golf to analyze today but he and an improved Brad Faxon (Zinger makes those around him better, except for Buck, who is a lost cause) did well in filling the down time with anecdotes and golf philosophy. While analyzing the putting woes of Rory McIlroy Zinger called upon wisdom gleaned form an Uncle he called Sweet Pea. According to Uncle Sweet Pea “the left hand is for defense, the right hand for offense”. With that he advised Rory to trust his natural right hand “hit” more than he’s currently showing.
As noted, only nine players completed first round play, with the club house leader a young college sophomore amateur, Scottie Scheffler, from that powerhouse Texas team that came in runner up to Oregon at the recent NCAA’s. It’s reported that after signing his card Scottie was shopping in the gigantic merchandise tent on site. We have that from a less than reliable source.
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