Ardmore, Pennsylvania: Clouds gave way to peeks of sunshine, squeegees gave way to putters, and the 13th hole gave way to birdies during the first round of the U.S. Open's return to Merion Golf Club on Thursday.
Drenching storms caused a 3 1/2-hour delay, halting play less than two hours after it began. When the golfers returned to the course, one thing was evident: a 102-yard hole was easy pickings for the world's best players. Twelve of the first 16 players to try the par-3 No. 13 scored 2, including 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, who used the hole to start a run of three consecutive birdies that included a chip-in at No. 15.
Sergio Garcia also birdied No. 13, but that was an aberration in a terrible start for the Spaniard, who has spent the lead-up to the tournament trying to make amends with Tiger Woods. Garcia had a quadruple bogey, double bogey and a bogey in his first five holes. The golfer was greeted with mild applause and a few audible boos when he was introduced at the start of his round. He is playing his first tournament in the U.S. since a recent exchange with Woods hit a low point when Garcia said he would serve fried chicken if Woods came to dinner during the Open. Garcia has since apologized for the remark. He shook hands with Woods on the practice range this week and left a note in Woods' locker. He was also noticeably friendly to the gallery during Wednesday's practice round, stopping several times to sign autographs.
Cliff Kresge, a Floridian ranked No. 551 in the world, hit the first tee shot of the tournament at 6:45 a.m. The horn blew at 8:36 a.m., and thunder, lightning and downpours followed, sending everyone scurrying for cover. Safety was a concern on a course that required fans to take long shuttle rides from remote parking lots. At a fan zone, where a replay of the limited action was on a jumbo screen, a worker used a microphone to implore an overflow crowd to move to the merchandise tent.
"We're not feeling safe having this many people in here," he told them. Many folks heeded his message and moved on. Play resumed shortly after noon. The course was already soaked from a half foot of rain during the past week, although sunshine Tuesday and Wednesday helped to dry things out a bit on the historic course, hosting the Open for the first time in 32 years.
The marquee group originally was scheduled to begin shortly after lunchtime, but the rains pushed back the tee time for Woods, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott - the top three players in the world rankings - to mid-afternoon. Even with all the rain softening up the shortest major championship course in nine years, Merion was expected to be no easy stroll. Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker saw the notoriously sloping greens live up to their reputation after just a few minutes of play when each had a birdie putt roll 8 feet past the hole, Mickelson at No. 11 and Stricker at No. 12. Both ended up with bogeys.
Mickelson's early tee time presented a logistical challenge. He arrived at Merion after an overnight flight from San Diego, where he watched his oldest daughter graduate from the eighth grade. Early on, he played like someone who didn't get much sleep. Starting on the 11th hole - one of the unorthodox arrangements in the setup at this course - he opened with the 3- bogey and put his tee shot in the rough at No. 12. But he saved par at the 12th and birdied the short par-3 13th to pull back to even par.
Any major weather disruption would be a shame, given that the U.S. Open has waited 32 years to return to the course where Olin Dutra overcame a serious stomach illness to win in 1934, where Ben Hogan hit the picture-perfect 1-iron approach to No. 18 before winning in a playoff in 1950, where Lee Trevino pulled a rubber snake out of his bag at the first hole of the playoff when he beat Jack Nicklaus for the title in 1971, and where David Graham became the first Australian to win the trophy in 1981. It would also dampen the drama of Woods' pursuit of his first major in five years, a reasonable proposition given that he's already won four times on the PGA Tour this year. And Scott's hopes of becoming the first to win the Masters and U.S. Open back-to-back since Woods in 2002.
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