Woods Rolls In With Cool 65

Turns out Tiger Woods does weather too.

“It’s ‘June gloom,’ ” he said Thursday.

June what?

Reporters from land-locked cities looked at him with quizzical faces.

“Well, people from SoCal, you know,” Woods said. “This is what happens every June. The fog, the low clouds roll in. They burn off in the early afternoon and you have a wonderful summer.”

Tiger had it half right.

The fog rolled in, but it didn’t roll out.

You expect a guy to shoot 65 at a major and work the meteorological charts?

Tiger was correct in one sense:

Any time it’s June, and there’s a tournament, and Tiger’s in it, there’s going to be gloom in the air, a pea-soup pall.

If he keeps this up through Sunday, the golf world will be sifting through June Doom.

The world’s best player may not deserve heavenly acts of kindness, but Woods got one Thursday, using an early-morning, sun-splashed tee time to set the pace in the 100th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, otherwise known as the Tiger Invitational.

Woods’ opening-round, six-under-par 65, the lowest score ever posted in a U.S. Open round at Pebble Beach, must have a sent a shudder through the rest of the 156-man field.

You could argue the big scorekeeper in the sky had seen enough in the afternoon, when he blanketed Pebble Beach with a fog so thick it forced suspension of play at 3:56 p.m. with 75 players still on the course.

The 25 groups will resume play today at 6:45 a.m., with the second round scheduled to begin at 8:30.

For those chasing Woods through the mire, maybe it’s not going to be such a wonderful summer.

Perhaps the fog will never lift.

Woods wasn’t the only man to beat the weather and post a low score, but the names trailing him on the leaderboard do not necessarily inspire fear or dread.

Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez shot 66, leaving him a shot behind Woods. John Huston had a 67, longshot Bobby Clampett had 68 and Hal Sutton and Angel Cabrera each finished with 69.

Woods, safe to say, likes his position.

“I always felt I’d much rather have the lead than try to catch up,” he said.

Woods is so good, his recitation of Thursday’s scorecard, 33 on the front, 32 on the back, sounded like a guy checking off a shopping list.

“Made that, made that,” Woods said. “Tapped that one in.”

Woods finished with six birdies.

Golf is not this easy.

Ask John Daly. The two-time major championship winner was plugging along respectably Thursday through 17 holes before taking a 14 on the par-five 18th. He finished with a 12-over 83 and promptly withdrew from the tournament.

“It is always unfortunate when a contestant withdraws prior to completion of his regulation rounds,” Marty Parkes, Senior Director of Communications for the U.S. Golf Assn., said of Daly’s bailout. “We are very sorry that John’s struggles at the end of his round today caused him to withdraw.”

For a shot-by-shot account of Daly’s 18th on the Internet, log on to www.wheelscameoff-AGAIN.com.

Daly’s blowup only makes one more fully appreciate Woods’ 65.

U.S. Open courses are not supposed to render scores common to any number of sprinkler-soaked, target-practice stops on the PGA Tour.

The Open comes under jurisdiction of the USGA, the governing organization that so believes par should win the championship it spends months growing the rough and narrowing the fairways.

Yet, Pebble Beach is a links course, dependent on wind and weather to keep the scoring down.

“This course is totally dictated by weather,” said Huston, who took advantage of his 6:15 a.m. tee time. “On a good day, there are a lot of birdie holes. But when the weather gets nasty, it makes this course incredibly hard.”

Woods said it was simply a matter of driving.

“If you’re driving the ball well and driving in a lot of fairways, obviously you’re going to have some chances and have situations where you can attack,” Woods said. “In the early rounds, I was able to do that. I had a couple of situations where I had some wonderful numbers.”

On the front, Woods hit all seven fairways, and four of seven on the back.

They suspended play Thursday, but at least no one has yet ceded the tournament to Woods.

This Open isn’t open and shut.

Nick Faldo, Corey Pavin and Loren Roberts were among those under par when play was halted.

Phil Mickelson shot even-par 71 before the fog fell and still considers himself in contention.

“I think I’m in pretty good shape,” he said. “You know, it’s a long tournament.”

Huston, a five-time winner on the PGA tour who finished 14th at this year’s Masters and tied for 17th last year at Pinehurst, proved anyone can hang with Tiger for a day.

And what of Jimenez?

In 1999, he forced a playoff against Woods at the American Express Championship.

OK, Tiger smoked him with a birdie on the first playoff hole, but a 36-year-old man from Spain can dream, can’t he?

Jimenez said he is tired of all this Tiger talk.

“He is the best player in the world,” Jimenez said. “But one thing, the press thinks there’s only one player here at the tournament. No, there’s 156 players.

“He can win, sure, but there’s other players. And on this type of golf course, you have to be very consistent and you have to hit very straight.”

Let’s see, Tiger is very consistent, and hits it very straight.

And, by Thursday afternoon, the rest of the field was in a fog.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. OPEN AT PEBBLE BEACH

Course Builder

CLUBHOUSE LEADERS

Tiger Woods: 33-32--65 -6

Miguel Angel Jimenez: 31-35--66 -5

John Huston: 33-34--67 -4

Bobby Clampett: 32-36--68 -3

Hal Sutton: 31-38--69 -2

Angel Cabrera: 35-34--69 -2

Rocco Mediate: 34-35--69 -2

OVERVIEW

Players in field: 156

Rounds completed: 81

Rounds par or better: 15

Rounds over par: 66

Average score: 75.0

Toughest hole: Par-three No. 5: 3.42

Easiest: Par-five No. 6: 4.87

Daly Routine

John Daly withdrew from the 2000 U.S. Open Thursday after a first-round 83 (+12). Daly’s round concluded with a 14 on the par-five 18th hole:

* Hit first tee shot to the right and did not learn that the ball had landed out of bounds until he walked up the fairway.

* Returning to the tee, next tee shot landed in the water hazard--the Pacific--left of the fairway.

* Third tee shot landed in the same water hazard.

* Hitting seven from the tee, he found the fairway short of the trees right-center.

* Hit layup shot in the fairway approximately 115 yards short of the green.

* Ninth shot again found water to the left of the fairway.

* After dropping in the bunker, where his ball crossed the margin of the hazard, Daly was forced to play left-handed because his stance was impeded by the sea wall. He was unable to advance the ball from the hazard and reached the green with his 12th shot.

* He two-putted for 14.

*

Trent Jones Dies

Legendary golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. died Wednesday at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 93. Jones designed 310 golf courses. D9