Stewart Wearing His Minus-Fours

Thursday afternoon at the Olympic Club, just about the time it started to get way colder than the guy who told Payne Stewart his golf clothes looked simply terrific, the 1991 U.S. Open champion turned in a four-under-par 66 to lead the 1998 U.S. Open after the first round.

All in all, it was a wonderful day for Stewart, who went birdie-birdie-birdie the last three holes of the highly user-unfriendly Olympic Club, where the rough is so high they didn’t know whether to bail it or just go ahead and string telephone wire across the top.

Sure, Stewart’s finish was sizzling, but it turned out he was merely warming up for his media session afterward.

So, Payne, how great is that 66?

“Really good. Really good. Really good. It was really good.”

That sort of covers it, all right. He had to be stunned to get out of there without losing any blood. There weren’t too many players catching too many breaks at Olympic on the first day of the 98th version of our country’s golf championship. When the sweaters came on and the light dimmed, only nine players in the field of 156 broke par.

Mark Carnevale, whose last name is pronounced like the festival, is one shot behind after a 67 that featured not a single bogey. No other player who climbed the hills and trudged the hollows and stayed out in the fog without getting lost was able to play the round without a bogey.

He wishes he knew how. Carnevale hadn’t been playing well recently and switched putters, changed irons, switched putters and changed irons again and then came to an important conclusion.

“The problem wasn’t in the equipment,” Carnevale said.

Meanwhile, two shots off the lead there is an typically U.S. Open first-round foursome. Guess who seems out of place in this picture? It features Tom Lehman, who won the 1996 British Open; Jose Maria Olazabal, who won the 1994 Masters; Bob Tway, who won the 1986 PGA; and Joe Durant, who is a reformed pessimist and former insurance salesman.

Like everyone else, they discovered the key to playing Olympic was to keep the ball out of the rough or else. Olin Browne, who shot a 73, probably said it best.

“If you hit the fairways, you have a chance,” Browne said. “If you don’t, you’re DOA.”

So there you have it. In Stewart’s case, he was sort of walking along at one under in those shiny, silver-toed spikes until something happened to him at the long par-five 16th. That’s where he reached the green in three with a nine-iron, then rolled in an eight-foot putt for birdie.

On Olympic’s fearsome 468-yard 17th, trimmed down from a par five to a spooky par four for the Open, Stewart’s two-iron second shot got him on the green. The ball was 45 feet from the hole, but not for long. Stewart dribbled his putt into the hole for birdie and he felt so good about it, he did a little dance walking off the green.

When he closed out at the tricky 18th with another birdie putt, this one from 12 feet after an eight-iron got him close, Stewart was in the house with a score that was going to stand up.

He might have beat it one day, but Stewart said Olympic presents enough challenges to keep you busy. He listed them.

“Fairways that slope opposite the direction of which the hole goes. You have to play a lot of shaped shots off the tee. You have to draw the ball. You have to fade the ball. You have to keep the ball in the fairway.”

Speaking of fades, there were a fair share of them. Ben Crenshaw had an 82, Davis Love III a 78, Nick Faldo a 77. Ernie Els and David Duval were at 75 and Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk at 74. Woods would have been much better off except for two three-putts and a four-putt double bogey on No. 9.

He didn’t sound all that worried, though.

“Hopefully I’ll get it fixed by tomorrow,” he said.

Casey Martin, riding the first cart allowed in the U.S. Open, bogeyed the last two holes and finished with a 74 at 8:40 p.m., about 5 1/2 hours after he began.

But if you’re talking serious problems, try what happened to Paul Simson, a 47-year-old amateur and insurance executive from Raleigh, N.C. Simson was two-under at No. 10 when he drove into some trees, where two spectators claim another spectator picked up Simson’s ball. Simson took a one-shot penalty for a lost ball, returned to the tee and hit another one. A person identified as a USGA official had advised Simson on the lost ball, according to the USGA.

Simson made a triple bogey, but he was also the victim of a bad ruling, not to mention possible ball theft. Simson probably would have been awarded a free drop if he had not hit a provisional ball.

As far as intrigue goes, that was it. As for history, there was Jack Nicklaus, playing in his 42nd consecutive Open and shooting a 73. As for predictions, pre-tournament favorite Colin Montgomerie is only four shots behind Stewart after turning in a 70.

John Daly, Jesper Parnevik and Jeff Maggert are tied for seventh at one-under 69. They all finished early in the afternoon before the temperature dipped and the sky turned the color of bathtub ring.

Parnevik, like the rest, was really impressed by the rough.

“I don’t know what you guys use for fertilizer, but the rough is something else,” he said. “It’s unbelievable how deep it is.”

For Daly, it was sort of an unusual day. Not only did he shoot a one-under 69 on a course that couldn’t be any worse for him unless they banned his beloved chocolate muffins from the place, but he did it without using his driver.

Normally, you just don’t see them apart. Daly without his driver is like the Golden Gate Bridge without fog. Anyway, Daly stuck a three-wood in his bag to replace the driver, which he basically can’t use at tree-cozy Olympic.

Daly was asked if this was the kind of golf he enjoys.

“No, this [stinks],” he said. “I mean, I hate it. But it is challenging. Whenever I can’t use a driver on 18 holes, it is not good for the fans. But it’s the only way to play this golf course and I believe it’s the only way I have a chance playing really solid.”

On opening day, there were plenty of Olympic memories to go around.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. OPEN

LEADERS

Player: Score

Payne Stewart: 66 -4

Mark Carnevale: 67 -3

Joe Durant: 68 -2

Tom Lehman: 68 -2

J. Maria Olazabal: 68 -2

Bob Tway: 68 -2

3 tied at 69 -1

OTHERS

John Daly: 69 -1

Colin Montgomerie: 70 E

Mark O’Meara: 70 E

Justin Leonard: 71 +1

Phil Mickelson: 71 +1

Fred Couples: 72 +2

Tom Watson: 73 +3

Jack Nicklaus: 73 +3

Tiger Woods: 74 +4

Casey Martin: 74 +4

David Duval: 75 +5

Ernie Els: 75 +5

Nick Faldo: 77 +7

Davis Love III: 78 +8