Open Hit By Rain, Hale

First-round play in the 101st U.S. Open was interrupted Thursday by a tornado watch, a flood warning and a senior moment.

The meteorologists saw the weather coming, but no one could have predicted Hale.

You could say it was a strange day.

When play was suspended at 3:39 p.m. local time, Hale Irwin, 56, was tucked safely in the clubhouse after shooting a three-under-par 67 to lead all finishers.

Loren Roberts and Stewart Cink shot one-under 69s and were the only players other than Irwin who completed play under par.

South Africa’s Retief Goosen was three under and confronting the eighth hole when play was halted.

Meanwhile, out at the par-four 10th, Tiger Woods stood over an eight-foot putt to save par in hopes of saving his day.

Woods was a wobbly three over when the sirens sounded, fresh off a double bogey on No. 9 that exhibited none of the form that earned him every magazine cover this week except Popular Mechanics.

Twenty-two groups had completed their rounds when play was stopped, with 30 groups still on the course.

Woods, in quest of his fifth consecutive major championship, declined comment on his half-round.

First-round play will resume at 7 a.m. CDT today with the second round scheduled to start at 9 a.m.

Tom Meeks, director of rules and competition for the U.S. Golf Assn., said the last group in today’s second-round would tee off at 5:30 p.m, meaning it’s highly probable the second round won’t be completed until Saturday morning.

As for this Hale warning?

It’s early. It’s wet. Nothing has been settled yet.

When play resumes, Woods might drain his putt to save par on No. 10 and go on one of his Tiger tears.

Yet, to have Irwin leading the U.S. Open at Southern Hills, one of golf’s toughest tracks, was enough to make you think the precipitation that fell had been dispensed from some heavenly Fountain of Youth.

Should Irwin’s lead hold up, he will become the oldest first-round leader at the U.S. Open since World War II. Such records were not kept before then.

“Awesome,” Paul Azinger said of Irwin. “I don’t care if he’s 56 or whatever age he is, that’s an unbelievable round for anybody.”

Scorecard?

Irwin may have been the first U.S. Open participant ever asked to sign his AARP card, which he readily admits to possessing.

“I’m going to sort of champion the cause, I think, of those of us who are over 50 that don’t feel like we’re gone,” he said.

No one would deny his right to be here. He qualified fair and square by winning the 2000 Senior Open.

This is his 32nd Open appearance.

He is a three-time Open winner, capturing his first in 1974 at Winged Foot.

A year and a half later, in December of 1975, Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was born in Cypress.

Irwin has long been a tour de force in his age group, winning 31 PGA Senior Tour events since 1995.

Safe to say few, if anyone, had Irwin on the short list of this week’s contenders.

Jack Nicklaus turned back time when he won the Masters at 46. Nolan Ryan was 44 when he pitched his seventh no-hitter.

No one, however, is ready to fathom a 56-year-old U.S. Open champion.

No one except Irwin, a former defensive back at Colorado, who still boasts neck muscles and a stomach flat enough to bounce a dime off of it.

“Age is a three-letter word,” Irwin said. “If you keep yourself young at heart, if you keep your thoughts in a positive manner, if you don’t accept the word, ‘I can’t do it,’ then you can certainly extend your career.”

This definitely isn’t Irwin’s crowd. Nicklaus isn’t here. No Palmer, no Player, no Greg Norman.

Who are these kids?

“Eighty percent of them I don’t even know who they are,” Irwin said of this year’s field of 156 players. “I mean, I have to get the roster and look at the bag and say, ‘Oh,’ put the name and the face together.”

Irwin’s game isn’t acting its age.

After shaking off bogeys on the first two holes Thursday, Irwin birdied No. 3 and No. 4 and four more holes en route to 67.

On the par-four 18th, said to be one of golf’s toughest finishing holes, Irwin’s two-iron shot from 198 yards, uphill, rolled to within two feet of the pin.

He made the short putt for birdie.

“What else can I say?” he said. “It was hit well.”

His day drew raves from the gallery and from his peers.

“It does not surprise me,” said Roberts, who played in Irwin’s group. “Look at him. I don’t know if he’s genetically blessed. He’s never hurt, and he’s a control player. He putted good all day.”

Added Sergio Garcia, who wasn’t born when Irwin won his first two Open titles: “The way Hale Irwin played was amazing.”

Irwin knows he’s a long way from having his name etched on a trophy.

“You have to have a deep-rooted belief that you can, yet at the same time I think along with those vitamins you take the reality pill,” Irwin said.

Yet, Irwin isn’t conceding an inch.

“I’m not ready to say I can’t do it,” he said. “I may not do it as well as I once did, although today may have proved that differently. I can still play. I will continue to do so.”

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