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Weather could lead to longest Open in history

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Robert Lusetich

After more than 20 years of covering everything from election campaigns to Olympic Games, Robert Lusetich turned his focus to writing about his first love — golf. He is author of Unplayable: An Inside Account of Tiger's Most Tumultuous Season. MORE>>
Updated Jun 20, 2009 2:59 AM ET
     
 

FARMINGDALE, N.Y.

Memo to the 156 contestants at what will inevitably drag into the longest United States Open in history: forget those Monday flights home and get to work on an ark. Shooting for this reality show — let's call it Wipeout: Bethpage Black — isn't likely to wrap on Sunday after weather washed out all but three hours and 16 minutes of the first round. "Nature is going to take its course," said a philosophical Padraig Harrington, whose start was suitably leaky, four over par after six holes. "We'll get this tournament done and I guarantee you they will have a U.S. Open champion at the end of this week." Looking at the heavens, he reassessed. "Well, at some stage in the next week." Not including playoffs, no U.S. Open in 108 years has stretched past Monday morning — and that happened only once, in 1983 at Oakmont, when the final groups had to return to play five holes — but this one could very well extend into Tuesday or beyond. Lighter rain is expected to fall over Long Island on Friday, but Saturday's forecast is for a return of the heavy rains. For a change of pace, there's more rain in the works for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, as well.
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"We will not determine a national champion until we play 72 holes," said the USGA's Mike Davis, "So if that takes us to Monday or Tuesday, whatever." Tiger Woods made it onto the seventh green but, like the rest of the morning starters, must have been wishing that he had an afternoon tee time. At 1 over par, he faces a testing seven-foot par putt when play resumes — weather permitting — at 7:30 a.m. ET Friday. "It was a slow day," said the defending champion. "It took 2 1/2 hours to play six holes. "It was pretty tough out there. There was a lot of standing water." The title defense did not begin well for Woods. After putting on a ball-striking clinic at the Memorial, hitting every fairway in the final round en route to a 7-under 65 that gave him his second win of the year, Woods started on the first tee Thursday with a vicious pull hook. It looked frighteningly like the opening drive of the final round at this year's Masters, which sailed so far left it ran through the adjoining fairway. "Way left," said Steve Williams, his caddie, after Woods appeared to lose sight of the ball as it headed for a merchandising tent. At Bethpage, missing by 50 yards in places is better than missing by five yards and Woods benefited from an inviting lie; the grass had been trampled by shoppers who were either looking for refuge or thought $32 was a reasonable price to pay for a hat. Woods had a look at the green but found a greenside bunker, then — as is his wont — got up-and-down to salvage par. He settled down and gave himself chances at birdie on the next three holes before accepting pars. On the fifth, however, came another foul ball, this time to the right. Way right. This was the banshee which has long plagued him and which, at Memorial, seemed to have been banished. He was lucky that his ball caromed off a tree and settled in the rough. He left himself a 9 iron for a third shot but, he said afterward, struck it thin and saw the wind knock it into the front left bunker. The bogey putt missed to the low side of the hole. Woods bounced back, however, with a birdie on the next hole, nailing a 15-footer. Some players questioned whether there should have been any play at all Thursday but Woods accepted that there was really no choice. "It was a good decision to play today," he said. "We had to get in as many holes as we could. We probably played more holes than we thought." Harrington, playing alongside Woods and Masters champion Angel Cabrera — who was at even par, facing his own long par putt on the seventh — said the day's winners were the players with the afternoon tee times, who will not tee off until 10:30 a.m. Friday.
"I don't think there's a guy who hasn't teed off today that is not sitting very happy right now in their hotel room or maybe at the cinema watching a movie," he said. Four players managed to get to 1 under par, but of them only 46-year-old journeyman Jeff Brehaut had played more than five holes. A native of California, Brehaut tried for 13 years to get onto the PGA Tour before finally getting through qualifying school at the age of 35. However, he's spent the past two years on the secondary Nationwide Tour. "Through the first 10 holes, it was wet, but the course was holding up pretty well," said Brehaut, who managed 11 holes before play was called at 10:15 a.m. "But when we got to the second green, my 11th hole, we all looked at each other and said, 'It can't handle it anymore.' "They were squeegeeing it off and it was coming straight back up. "J.P. Hayes had a 45-footer, they squeegeed it away and he putted it and it rooster-tailed up and (came up) 15 feet short. "At that point it just couldn't take any more water. So it happened very quickly where the course was playable and then all of a sudden it wasn't."

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The conditions will make this not only the longest of tournaments, but the longest of courses. Brehaut hit woods into five of the nine par 4s he played, including a 5-wood for his third shot into the 13th. It seems that long hitters will now have an extreme advantage, but Brehaut said there was more demanded by the Black course than just length. "Who wouldn't love to hit it 300 yards in the air?" he said. "But it doesn't matter if you're not playing from the fairway most of the time. "And then it really gets down to kind of dealing with the elements, hanging in there, getting this shot up-and-down, making this critical putt, not hitting a shot that goes into the knee-high grass. "It's all these little things that add up to a guy that just hung around, hung around, took advantage of a couple good shots and shot one or two under or one or two over instead of four or five over, which is simple to do on this golf course. "You can get on a bogey run easy." Justin Leonard, who was even par through seven holes, said the conditions had gotten so bad that "my goal was to forget about par and do the best I could." Sound advice.

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