Faldo Turns Back Clock With Best Open Round: 66

A day after shooting six over par and grousing about this year’s U.S. Open course conditions, Nick Faldo answered Saturday with a 66.

Not bad for a 44-year-old man who got into the tournament on an exemption, huh?

“That was as good as my heyday, that really was,” said Faldo, who has won six major titles, three Masters and three British Opens. “I hit so many solid shots, that was as good as 10 years ago.”

The 66 was the lowest round Faldo has ever shot at the U.S. Open and it left him with a 54-hole total of 212, seven shots behind leader Tiger Woods.

Faldo’s best finish at a U.S. Open was second, in 1988. He finished tied for 72nd last year.

Faldo’s day was in stark contrast to Friday’s rain-soaked second round, when he shot 76 at Bethpage Black.

“I had to keep reminding myself: I am a golfer,” Faldo said Friday. “This is golf. This is not fighting in the jungle. If we had a 15th club, it would be a machete or a grenade launcher.”

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Sergio Garcia suggested Friday the U.S. Golf Assn. would have stopped second-round play on the rain-drenched fields of Bethpage Black had Woods been on the course.

Woods played through a steady rain in the morning, shot two-under 68, and got out before the course really started to get waterlogged.

So, does Garcia’s favoritism argument about Woods hold water?

“Well, I can assure you, that’s not true,” Tom Meeks, the USGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions, said.

Meeks did say he was very concerned about casual water on the course and said that play was almost suspended after he was told puddles of water had gathered close to the 17th hole.

“That’s the first time I heard it,” Meeks said. “Right then I did feel like we might be close to shutting it down for a while. No sooner was that said than the squeegee crew was over cleaning it up, and all of a sudden I don’t hear any more calls from that area.”

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More spillover from Friday, with the emphasis on spill: Several golfers were upset the USGA did not move forward tee boxes on the 10th and 12th, the two longest par-four holes at Bethpage.

Because of the rain, golfers were getting almost no roll on the fairway.

The PGA Tour will often adjust tee boxes, but that is not the policy of the USGA, which has jurisdiction at the U.S. Open.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve never done that,” Meeks said. “I hope we never do. Because we set the golf course up for a U.S. Open the way we thought it should be played to test the best players in the world.”

The par-four 10th hole is 492 yards, while the 12th, at 499 yards, is the longest par-four in U.S. Open history.

Yet, despite the complaints, neither of those holes played the most difficult Saturday. That distinction went to the par-four 15th, at 479 yards, which yielded an average score of 4.781.

The 10th hole ranked fourth most difficult at 4.619 while the 12th was fifth at 4.594.

Friday’s scoring average ended up at 76.47.

By contrast, Saturday’s scoring average was 72.06.

The USGA, in fact, did alter some tee boxes slightly for Saturday’s round, but Meeks said, “It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It was insignificant.”

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Vijay Singh, who made Friday’s cut by one shot, showed up Saturday and massaged a 67 out of Bethpage Black, indicating it would be a good day to shoot a low score.

Singh said the second round was one of the worst weather days he has experienced on the PGA Tour.

“I never thought that plus-10 was going to make it, really, but I’m glad I made it and I’m glad I played today,” Singh said.

He said the course was not nearly as difficult Saturday.

“It’s almost like it never rained,” he said. “The greens are very, very receptive.”

The forecast for today is cloudy with scattered showers and a chance of thunderstorms late in the day, which isn’t the best possible news. The reason is that the USGA is shooting for a 7:40 p.m. EDT finish--the latest ever--to satisfy NBC, which wants as much of the golf as possible to inch closer to prime time.

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Headline news: The New York Daily News and the New York Post had the same headline in Saturday’s editions: Reign Man.

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Qualifier Andy Miller, the son of NBC commentator Johnny Miller, shot a five-over 75 and said that wasn’t too bad.

“You can shoot five over so fast on this golf course, it’s not even funny,” he said. “Five over is not a terrible score.”