Opening 68 Is Heavenly to Clampett

He was forced off the PGA Tour in 1995, played Pebble Beach once in the last five years and needed a swing and a prayer just to qualify for the 100th U.S. Open.

So what was 40-year-old Bobby Clampett supposed to think after he fired a three-under-par 68 in Thursday’s opening round?

“It was almost like playing golf in heaven,” a shaken Clampett said after his round.

No one expects him to keep this up through the weekend, yet Clampett’s opening salvo was about as good as first-day stories get.

He was born in Monterey and graduated from Stevenson High in Pebble Beach. He won California State Amateur titles in 1978 and ’79 and was expected to be a star on the PGA Tour.

It didn’t quite work out.

“I’ve never met anyone’s expectations, nor my own,” Clampett conceded.

He flirted with greatness, finishing third at the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but a wayward swing prompted a career change in 1995, when Clampett left the tour to become a CBS golf analyst.

A few months ago, Clampett jokingly asked CBS partner and Presidents Cup captain Ken Venturi what it would take for him to make the United States team.

Venturi said that a win at the U.S. Open would likely clinch a spot for Clampett.

Clampett decided to try, but last month ended up as fourth alternate at sectional qualifying at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md.

To Clampett’s incredible delight, four players pulled out of the competition. Clampett’s group was on the first fairway when he was called to the tee box. With no practice, he bogeyed the first two holes, then finished the rest of the round at 10 under. He shot 68-67 in two rounds and made the U.S. Open field.

So, little wonder why Clampett was on Cloud Nine after his three-under 32 on the front.

“I was fighting back the tears all through the front nine,” Clampett said. “It was such a clear demonstration of divine intervention.”

Clampett played the back at par and ended the day three back of leader Tiger Woods.

Clampett has no expectations for today--”I’m a once-a-month golfer,” he said--but his round reminded him of other mystical moments: Ben Crenshaw’s emotional Masters win in 1995; Johnny Miller’s improbable triumph at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1994.

“Life is made of dreams, and there’s been a lot of dreams that have happened on the golf course,” Clampett said.

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When you’re Tiger Woods, it comes with the territory.

Woods wasn’t the only golfer who did not attend Wednesday morning’s tribute to the late Payne Stewart, but Woods’ absence was noted by some as conspicuous..

At the time of the ceremony, Woods was playing a practice round at Pebble Beach with Mark O’Meara.

Woods’ explanation:

“I’ve figured I’ve gone all through it with the memorial service, and I felt by going it would be more of a deterrent for me during the tournament, because I don’t want to be thinking about what transpired,” he said.

Woods noted that O’Meara, who also did not attend the memorial, was one of Stewart’s best friends.

“It all depends on how you are personally,” Woods said. “If that’s how you want to put closure to it, that’s how you want to put closure on it. I handle things a bit differently.”

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How many players have won the U.S. Open and a PGA Tour event at the same course in the same year? Apparently, only two: Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan.

In 1972, Nicklaus won the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am and the U.S Open, both at Pebble Beach. And in 1948, Ben Hogan won the Los Angeles Open and the U.S. Open at Riviera.

Woods won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February.

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Colin Montgomerie and Craig Parry have never missed a U.S. Open cut--each is eight for eight. They were both at even par when play was suspended Thursday. . . . In one part of a Golf Digest interview, Nicklaus said he once tried marijuana. Nicklaus said there hasn’t been much reaction to the story. “The only one who got after me was [wife] Barbara,” he said.