Woods needs rescue club from start

Shortly after Tiger Woods made a par so incredible that few other than Tiger Woods could have done so, Noah backed up his Ark and monsoon season hit the U.S. Open golf tournament.

The U.S. Golf Assn. called players off the course at 10:15 a.m. local time and called it a day for the first round at 1:55. Bethpage Black had become Bethpage swamp.

Eventually (presumably) the rain will stop here, and attention will get back to golf, which will get them remembering Tiger’s first hole.

It was raining lightly, quite playable at 8:05 a.m. Woods took a couple of light practice swings, tipped his hat to the army of umbrellas surrounding him and stretching as far down both sides of the fairway as he could see and toed the tee box. Playing partners Padraig Harrington and Angel Cabrera had already hit, Harrington down the middle and Cabrera slightly left into medium rough.

Tiger swung and hit something you’d see Wednesday afternoon at Azusa Greens. It started left and turned 90 degrees more. Ducks would be embarrassed lending their species name to this hook.

As the army of umbrellas gasped, the ball came to rest near the steps of a merchandise tent. Fittingly, the tent next door sold sausages and was called the Dog House. Tiger was so far left that he paused on the tee, thinking he was either out of bounds or off the planet and would have to reload.

But assured he was still in the same county as the first green, he marched down, was surrounded by a funnel of faithful umbrellas, squinted to see the green in the distant mist, and slashed his next shot more than 200 yards and into a trap to the right of the green. Playing from where Woods did, the guys at Eldorado Park muni would have written down a 7x and walked to the green. But then, the guys at Eldorado Park are human.

During all this, Cabrera was already angry because the crowd, including media, nearly trampled him, trying to get close to Tiger.

“There are three of us playing,” Cabrera snarled. “Not just one.”

When it finally became his turn, one of the marshals was talking in his backswing, trying to control Woods’ crowd, and Cabrera fatted it out of the rough about 120 yards. He turned and glared at the marshal, then thought better of public assault and plodded on.

Woods stripped off the rain jacket, down to short-sleeved muscle shirt, and, with rain starting to swirl, climbed down into the trap. Incredibly, he got it up and out to five feet and made the putt for par. In golf, they call that a sandy. Thursday at Bethpage swamp, it was a muddy.

Harrington, who had hit the green in regulation, three-putted for bogey. Cabrera eventually chipped close enough for his bogey. So guess who had honors on the next tee?

The threesome finished six holes, Woods taking a double bogey on No. 5 and responding with a birdie on No. 6. When they resume play, either today or sometime in mid-July when the rain stops, Woods will be one over, Cabrera even par and Harrington four over.

A player from Los Altos named Jeff Brehaut shared the lead at one under through 11 holes when play was called.

Brehaut is 46 years old and back on the Nationwide Tour after eight years on the regular tour. The former University of the Pacific player said he tried qualifying school 13 times before he got his card.

They hauled him in to meet a press desperate for a rainy day column and he dazzled the writers. He ran off his second shots and sounded like a regular at Brookside. “I hit a five-wood into No. 11, five-wood into No. 12, three-wood into 16, five-wood for my third shot into [par-five] No. 13,” he said.

He said his highlight wasn’t leading the U.S. Open, it was his practice round Wednesday. He said he played alone, played the back nine first and finished on No. 9 by hitting two clunker shots into a greenside trap.

“I hit my first bunker shot, and it went and trickled right in and the place went nuts,” he said. “I laughed, threw another ball down in the trap because I was practicing and I hit the same shot and it went in again.”

Brehaut said he signed autographs for half an hour.

Because of continued rain in the forecast, officials said their best-case scenario was to finish 36 holes by Saturday and play the remaining 36 Sunday. Majors are never shortened to fewer than 72 holes.

But if water keeps drenching this golf course, there is trouble ahead for everybody.

Except for Tiger Woods, who can walk on it.

--

bill.dwyre@latimes.com.