Several of the Penguins, including playoff MVP Sidney Crosby, brought the Stanley Cup to Oakmont Country Club, creating a bigger buzz than if Tiger Woods suddenly entered the 116th U.S. Open.
But it might have served a greater purpose if they used the hardware to help bail water.
Right when Oakmont was ready to bare its teeth and show once again why it is considered maybe the toughest course in the world, three separate storms blew through the first round of the U.S. Open, creating more stoppages than the traffic lights on Allegheny River Boulevard.
By the time 2½ inches of rain since Wednesday turned Oakmont into a gooey mess, the complexion of the U.S. Open changed like a chameleon. The course that tortured players during three days of practice rounds suddenly became as accommodating as a Wal-Mart greeter.
“Completely different golf course than we played in the practice round,” said Jordan Spieth, the defending champ, who got to play only 11 holes from the time he teed off at 8:35 a.m. till the time play was stopped at approximately 5 p.m. “I mean, night and day.”
Weather apps, not yardage books, were the desired reading devices of the day.
And the chief benefactor of the conditions was Andrew Landry, a U.S. Open qualifier who has missed six of 11 cuts this season on the PGA Tour. He was 3-under par and looking at 10-foot birdie putt on his final hole when play was suspended for the third and final time. Resumption of play will begin at 7:30 a.m. today.
Gerry Dulac looks back on a rain-soaked first day at Oakmont. (Video by Matt Freed)
Only half of the 156 players in the field made it to the course, meaning players such as world No. 1 Jason Day, No. 6 Dustin Johnson, No. 7 Henrik Stenson, No. 10 Justin Rose, No. 12 Sergio Garcia and No. 15 Hideki Matsuyama have yet to start their first round. Angel Cabrera, who won the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont, is another.
Even birthday boy Phil Mickelson, who turned 46 Thursday, had to wait one more day to begin his attempt to win the only major tournament that has escaped him. Mickelson would become only the sixth player in history to complete golf’s Grand Slam if he could win the U.S. Open.
It also means all those players will have to play more than 18 holes each of the next two days if the U.S. Open is to get back on schedule.
“Those other guys have to play 36 holes in a row at a U.S. Open, which isn’t easy,” Spieth said.
Easy?
That’s what Oakmont was for one day, at least by its own nasty standards. And yet, despite playing as easy as it’s ever going to be for a major, the lowest score was Landry’s 3 under and only seven of the 78 players were under par.
Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson (14 holes) and Danny Lee of New Zealand (13) were at 2 under when play was suspended. The leader in the clubhouse is amateur Scottie Scheffler, 19, a sophomore at the University of Texas, who shot 69.
“It slows the golf course down a lot,” said Lee Westwood, who was 1 under through 13 holes when play was stopped a third and final time. “It was playing really tough.”
During the first rain delay, Westwood and Luke Donald, two Englishmen, came into the media dining area to watch England beat Wales in Euro 2016. Meantime, their other playing partner, Martin Kaymer, was rebuffed by the dining police from getting food in the kitchen. Apparently, two-time major champions need different credentials to get fed.
The three stoppages did not sit well with some of the players because they were not given a chance to warm up after the first delays, which lasted one hour, 10 minutes.
“We sat in a cabin for an hour and 10 minutes behind the seventh tee without being given a chance to hit any balls or do anything,” said reigning Masters champion Danny Willett. “You’re in a U.S. Open, they don’t give you a chance to even hit a few balls.”
“It’s a challenge not being able to warm up, too, going out there and trying to hit tee shots at the U.S. Open, but it is what it is. Hopefully, we’ll get some good conditions in the morning.” Spieth said.
Landry, a three-time All-American at Arkansas, is one of those unlikely leaders that seem to pop up early in the week on U.S. Open scoreboards. He has played in 11 PGA Tour events this season, missing the cut six times and never finishing better than a tie for 41st.
But none of that seemed to matter on this day. Landry, who started on No. 10, began to make his move with a birdie from the front greenside bunker at No. 17. Then he ran off three birdies in a row, beginning at No. 2, to get to 5 under after 13 holes when play was suspended a second time. The birdies included a 5-footer at No. 3 when he was able to spin his approach — a sight as rare as a tree at Oakmont — back to the pin.
When he returned, Landry missed makeable birdies at the par-4 fifth and the par-3 sixth, or the lead might be even bigger. That was followed by back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 7 and 8 before play was stopped a third time. Landry had a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 9, his final hole, when play was suspended.
“I felt like the greens were probably running — I think they Stimped them at like 16 whenever I got here on Monday, which is absolutely crazy,” Landry said. “Now, obviously, they’re a good speed, and they’re so perfect out there. You can make so many putts.”
Watson is not the type of player whose game is suited to a U.S. Open, witness his missed cuts in three of the past four national championships and five of nine overall. But there is something about Oakmont that he likes because he finished tied for fifth in 2007, his best showing in a U.S. Open championship.
Watson made five birdies in 14 holes, three in a row coming after the first rain delay, beginning at No. 8. “I guess it helped me better than it hurt me,” Watson said of the delay. His slow start — he bogeyed the third hole after back-to-back pars — was not even as issue for this two-time Masters champion.
“Around here in ’07, I finished 9 over and finished fifth,” Watson said. “When you’ve got 1 over, I’ve got eight more bogeys I can make and still finish fifth. When you look at it from that perspective, I had a par 5 coming up after No. 3 when I bogeyed, and I birdied.”
It was not a kind day for Mike Van Sickle of Kennedy, who was 7-over through 11 holes before the first weather delay and finished with 76. Still, he was able to save his round with three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the back nine, beginning at the par-3 13th.
And it wasn’t looking like a good day for Rickie Fowler, either. The No. 5 player in the world, Fowler was 6 over after 12 holes and looking as if he might be on track for another missed cut in a big tournament. Fowler missed the cut in the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, and missed the cut this year at the Masters and The Players Championship, where he was the defending champ. Throw in a lost weekend at the Memorial and he is staring at the possibility of missing the cut in his past three starts.
“It’s not the start I wanted, that’s for sure,” Fowler said. “But I’ll go get a little bit of rest, come back out early, and see if we can get some back coming in. I have a par putt on 13. It would be nice to roll that in and kind of get a couple things going, make a couple birdies coming in.”
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
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