Mark Officer Golf

Unfortunately after a lot of waiting and a lot of hype the first round of the US Open has been a let down with the first round abandoned at 2.00pm local time. That seems like they gave up on any further play a litle early on the first day when you consider that the USGA are now going to be hard pressed to complete four rounds by Sunday night. The leader at this stage of the event is Jeff Brehaut who is at 1 under after 11 holes and Johan Edfors 1 under after 4. Tiger Woods is at 1 over after 6 having just gone double bogey birdie and now has a birdie putt on the seventh. The course was playing extremely long and you would have to think that the guys out on the course are at a disadvantage having played in some pretty difficult conditions. Having said that if play does resume at the expected time the course will still be playing very long and showers have been forecast for Friday. Mike Davis, Senior Director of Rules and Competitions for the USGA, has stressed time and again this week that Bethpage Black drains incredibly well. “Our meteorologists are telling us that it is very likely that we can get another inch-plus of rain on Saturday,” Davis said. “And we all know how this golf course is right now.  So the question is just how playable the golf course is. But an ideal goal would be to get Round 2 finished by Saturday.  But based on that weather forecast, that’s not looking terribly promising.”
No matter what the weather brings, Davis made one point abundantly clear.
“We will not determine a national champion until we play 72 holes,” he said. “So if that takes us into Monday or Tuesday, whatever. “I think the key thing here at Bethpage is that it’s been the putting greens that have really stopped play,” Davis said. “That’s why we were stopped today.  It was not the 18th fairway.  It was the putting greens that just became unplayable.”
Some tees were moved up for the first round in an effort to be fair to the players who were already dealing with adverse conditions. No. 7, one of the U.S. Open-record three 500-plus-yard par 4s at Bethpage Black, was moved up to the penultimate tee box and played 36 yards shorter than the 525 yards on the scorecard.
No. 9 played 41 yards shorter than usual due to predicted strong south, southeast winds.
Several pin positions were also adjusted because of the standing water on greens.  Tiger Woods is still in a pretty good position having played 6 holes at 1 over and if the course continues to play long all week you would have to think he is in with a good chance of winning his 15th major and fourth US Open.

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