Fritsch shoots even par as USGA limits silliness
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — After all the angst and trepidation in the lead-up to the 115th U.S. Open, Day 1 in the Chambers of Horrors turned out to be … well, almost benign.
Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch, even in the cooler, breezier afternoon half of the draw, carved out a more-than-satisfactory round of even par 70 with a pair of birdies at the 5th and 9th holes coming in. That was two shots better than
David Hearn of Brantford, whose morning 72, on a day when literally dozens of players broke par on Chambers Bay, will make it a little more challenging to survive the 36-hole cut.
To Hearn, the setup in the fair weather seemed all part and parcel of the U.S. Golf Association’s determination not to put an immediate black mark next to the course’s potential as a major championship venue.
“I think they set the course up real fair, not knowing exactly how it was going to play out,” he said.
“I think they were pretty generous with the tee positions. They have the opportunity, though, with the amount of length out here, that if they wanted to make it really silly they probably could. I guess each day we’ll find out.”
Fritsch, who finished the day No. 2 in average driving distance at 364.5 yards, had no difficulty with a course playing 7,500 yards long. The hard ground made for plenty of bounce and roll.
“I think the longest club I hit into a par-4 was a 6-iron,” he said. “I wish I could hit the high spinning shots that some guys can from the fairway, so it was
hard getting it close even when I did hit good shots.”
CAMOUFLAGE CARPET: It was the greens, with their multicoloured fescue grass, that many players found substandard.
“Well, I mean, they’re not Augusta greens. It’s not a situation where if you hit a perfect putt it’s guaranteed to go in the hole,” Fritsch said. “But I made a 15-footer, I made a 20-footer, I made a couple of 12-footers, so you can make putts. You just have to kind of be really patient, don’t let it get to you. I got frustrated a few times, but we just talked about it for 10 seconds and then let it go.”
Hearn was flirting with a big score after he bogeyed the fifth, seventh and ninth holes to make the turn in three-over-par 38, but bounced back with birdies at the long 11th and driveable 12th before bogeying the 17th.
Not an extraordinarily long hitter, Hearn was nonetheless one-under par on the back nine, which has three par-4s of 500 yards plus, and a 604-yard finishing hole. The greens look horrible, he said, but roll just fine.
“Sometimes we play golf courses that are in just perfect condition and that don’t look great on TV, and this one is probably not going to translate that well to spectators at home,” Hearn said, “but the greens putt pretty darn true for what they look like.”
THE TURTLE DIARY: Pace of play on a U.S. Open course, especially Thursday and Friday when they play threesomes, is notoriously slow. The USGA’s “time par” for the first groups was supposed to be four hours, 45 minutes, but among the early groups, the trio of Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Angel Cabrera came in at 5:21. Watson was so frustrated while waiting to hit his approach to the par-five 18th, he lost it after hitting a poor shot, and audio caught him saying: “Wait 30 minutes ... This is pathetic professional golf!” MAN IN BLACK: Gary Player doesn’t look like a man who completed a career Grand Slam 50 years ago with his U.S. Open victory at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, nor does he feel his age.
“Because of the hard work and the way I organized my fitness program, when I was 50 I was in the same shape I was when I was 25. I’m 80 and still almost in the shape I was when I was 25,” said the Black Knight. “I think where I’ve just been the last two weeks at my age, I was in Johannesburg, Germany, Florida, Philadelphia, West Virginia, I went to St. Andrews for one day and flew back here. So energy comes from what you put in the bank.”
THE WEE ICE-MON: Player said he could vividly remember his first U.S. Open, in Tulsa, Okla., where he was paired for two days with the intimidating Ben Hogan, “my ultimate dream,” Player said. “And I play 36 holes with him and he says five words in 36 holes: ‘Morning, fella’ and ‘ Well played, son.’ ”
LEFT OUT: The atmosphere at Chambers Bay, where spectators have a hard time following a given group because of all the dead ends on the interior of the course, is “weird,” according to Phil Mickelson.
“Amy wants to come out and follow and she simply can’t, she just can’t come out and, first of all, see,” he said. “And I’ll tell you, the golf spectators are probably the most dedicated fan, when you think about it. Any other sport you buy a ticket, you sit in a seat and you watch a hundred per cent of the action. In golf you buy a ticket, you’ve got to walk miles in rough territory and you see but a fraction of the event. So I give a lot of credit to the people who are out here.”