Open Can Be Described Only in Lehman Terms

By THOMAS BONK

June 16, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. —

How to lead the U.S. Open, by Tom Lehman: Shoot 65 to tie the course record at that green torture chamber, then get out of there before the darned place spikes you.

If there ever was a day when a 65 looked totally out of place, it was Saturday at Oakland Hills, which did nothing to erase its reputation as the biggest, baddest, ball-eating, spirit-crushing golf course of them all.

Lehman sure thought so, even though he had just thrown his five-under-par 65 up there and watched it stick.

“This is a very, very, very difficult golf course,” he said.

He is very, very, very right. Lehman will begin today’s fourth round at two-under 208 in search of his first major title.

Lehman’s lead is one shot ahead of Steve Jones, who massaged a 69 and is the only other player under par.

John Morse, Frank Nobilo and Davis Love III are at par 210 and five others at tied at 211: Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie, Woody Austin, Jim Furyk and Sam Torrance.

Any one of them could win it, of course.

But there are more. Tom Watson, John Cook, Ken Green and Stewart Cink are four shots behind at 212 and there are seven others tied at three-over 213, including Greg Norman.

It was another sunny day at the golf course, but Oakland Hills had an entirely different disposition. Almost all the players noticed.

“I’m just happy to be here,” Neal Lancaster said. “But I’ll be glad as hell to leave.”

Lancaster began with a double bogey and finished with a bogey on his way to a 74. That hurt, all right, but Payne Stewart could have admitted his golf clubs to intensive care afterward.

Stewart, the second-round leader, played the last five holes in five over par, drowned a golf ball on the 16th on the way to a triple-bogey seven and finished with a 76.

He blanched and left the grounds so fast, his little blue cap looked like a Frisbee.

“You know, it’s golf,” Stewart said.

Well, yes, it is.

Norman’s game wasn’t as sharp as Friday, when he had a 66. He came back with a 74.

That little bit of agony was lowlighted by his three-putt bogey on the 17th, where he missed a par putt of no more than a foot.

But misery had company. Els had a one-shot lead until he bogeyed the 15th hole. Then on the 16th, Els had to take a penalty drop when his golf ball was lodged against a rock near the water. He wound up with a double-bogey six, which he followed with a bogey at the 18th.

Lehman might have experienced a similar fate at 18, but with one foot in the bunker and one foot on the bank, he blasted to eight feet and managed to save par.

Afterward, Lehman was careful to give Oakland Hills its due.

“The course was impossibly difficult,” he said.

Lehman was tied for the Open lead with Norman after three rounds at Shinnecock Hills last year and finished third.

“I like the atmosphere,” Lehman said of the Open. “I like the attention the media gives it. I like the way they set up the golf courses. I like the fact that par is rewarded. I like the fact that you have to have a lot of patience in a kind of survival test. This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, so I like that.”

Everyone’s plan, of course, is not to hit the ball in the rough. Many failed to follow this plan.

And if that wasn’t enough of a problem, then torturous pin placements and greens with all those lumps and humps and break from here to downtown Flint were more than enough to make a grown golfer cry. Or at least make double bogey.

Jones finished with a birdie when he knocked a six-iron to eight feet and rolled in the putt. Then he let out a huge sigh of relief.

“I am glad it’s over,” Jones said. “I could have shot 76 real easy. I mean, it’s brutal out there.”

Maybe, but Lehman showed it is possible not only to survive, but to prosper.

He had four birdies wrapped around a bogey on the front, then picked up another shot with a birdie on the 11th. Lehman hit a nine-iron, got the ball to stop six feet from the hole, then rolled in the putt.

He even birdied the 16th, the place where Stewart and Els suffered. Lehman’s eight-iron second shot put him 30 feet from the hole and he made it.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Lehman said.

He was one of the few.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. Open Leaders

Tom Lehman: 71-72-65--208

Steve Jones: 74-66-69--209

John Morse: 68-74-68--210

Frank Nobilo: 69-71-70--210

Davis Love III: 71-69-70--210

Woody Austin: 67-72-72--211

Ernie Els: 72-67-72--211