Open leaders far from the crowds

LA JOLLA -- The 108th U.S. Open rolled out the green carpet Thursday and produced a full-on rock star treatment -- the Tiger-Phil-Scott trio -- and of course, no one in that group took the first-round lead at Torrey Pines.

That distinction belonged to 29-year-old PGA Tour rookie Kevin Streelman, who has missed seven cuts so far, and 33-year-old Justin Hicks, best known for coming from Wyandotte, Mich., for graduating from something called the Montgomery Tour and for not being the “other” Justin Hicks.

The Justin Hicks who isn’t tied for the lead of the U.S. Open is a local teaching pro at Stadium Golf Center. The Justin Hicks who shot a three-under-par 68 and is tied for the lead of the U.S. Open looked up during his round and saw his wife walking with the other Justin Hicks.

“I said ‘Wow, that’s kind of weird,’ ” said Hicks, who met his namesake earlier in the week.

Here’s something else that was kind of weird: The Big Three got around the course without being suffocated by galleries that would probably qualify as suburbs.

The first round of the U.S. Open was long on star quality but short on sub-par rounds. That list featured Hicks and Streelman but included only nine others, with Geoff Ogilvy, Rocco Mediate, Stuart Appleby and Eric Axley only a shot behind the co-leaders after opening at two-under 69.

Streelman must know something about Torrey Pines, where he got into the Buick Invitational field as the last alternate, a ranking of 1,114th, played himself into the last group on Saturday with Tiger Woods and wound up tied for 29th.

Streelman may not be famous, but he comes from a Wheaton, Ill., high school with some strong name recognition: Red Grange, John and Jim Belushi and Bob Woodward.

As for the Open’s name-dropping pairing of Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott, Mediate sized it up and pronounced it an unqualified success.

“The one, two and three players and with what Tiger’s gone through, everyone’s going crazy wondering what’s going on,” Mediate said.

Hold that thought for Hicks, un-famous enough that his agent caddies for him. He is also unknown enough that he’s often mistaken for the teaching pro Hicks, and vice versa.

“The tour got us mixed up, companies got us mixed up, checks were going to my place, checks were going to his place, there was all kinds of fun stuff going on there,” he said.

It’s understandable. Even the USGA database isn’t sure about which Hicks they’ve got -- there is no picture of Hicks.

And after so much was made of the charisma-oozing pairing of Woods-Mickelson-Scott, their day went off without a hitch, despite the size of the gallery. If there were 42,500 tickets sold, probably half the fans holding those tickets followed the premier pairing.

Groups of fans were about 12 deep as they lined the fairways and the green most of the way and they saw Mickelson get the jump on his peers with an even par 70. Woods double bogeyed the first hole, three-putted the 18th and wound up at one-over 72. Scott shot a two-over 73.

Woods knocked his drive into the left rough at the first hole, pitched back out to the fairway, sent the ball over the green, chipped on and two-putted for a routine six.

“It helps when you hit six shots on the first hole to get into the flow,” he said. “That’s a lot of shots to get into a flow.”

Actually, it could have flowed a different way for him. Woods had a six-iron into the par-five 13th, a seven-iron into the par-five 18th and didn’t birdie either one.

But you must consider Woods’ round in the proper context. It was his first round in competition in 60 days, since the last round of the Masters. Plus, it was the first time he played 18 holes since arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in mid-April.

Woods had two double bogeys, three-putted the 18th and birdied only one of the par fives, so his one-over score seems more than reasonable.

Woods grimaced after he ripped his drive at the 18th and even though the ball traveled almost 350 yards, he admitted his knee hurt.

“Didn’t feel very good, no,” Woods said.

Mickelson and Scott had their own story lines going. Mickelson played with no driver and Scott played with a broken hand. Mickelson used a three-wood or a hybrid off the tee and stuck four wedges in his bag, taking out his sand wedge. He said it was the first time he had no driver in his bag.

As for Scott, the broken bone at the base of his little finger on his right hand doesn’t affect his swing, although he made sure to use his left hand when he shook with Mickelson and Woods at the end of the round.

The beginning of Hicks’ round was noteworthy, at least for its eccentricity. He played his first nine holes without making a par, but with six birdies and three bogeys.

Hicks said he didn’t care if his gallery might not have equaled the one for Woods-Mickelson-Scott.

“It’s great that those guys are all paired together because that way I can just kind of be on the side doing my own thing,” Hicks said. “I don’t have 80,000 people following me around.”

Streelman said no matter what happens the rest of the way, he’ll always have his Thursday in the U.S. Open sun at Torrey Pines. If that’s his high point, he remembers his lowest, when his sponsor dumped him and he had a couple of hundred dollars left.

“It’s forgive and forget,” Streelman said. “I’m just trying to enjoy this.”

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com

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U.S. Open

First-round leaders and others at Torrey Pines South Course. Par 71:

*--* Players 1st To Par Justin Hicks 68 -3 Kevin Streelman 68 -3 Stuart Appleby 69 -2 Eric Axley 69 -2 Rocco Mediate 69 -2 Geoff Ogilvy 69 -2 OTHERS Ernie Els 70 -1 Phil Mickelson 71 E Vijay Singh 71 E Tiger Woods 72 +1 Adam Scott 73 +2 Sergio Garcia 76 +5 *--*