Medinah, Ill. – For many players, the first goal of the opening round of a major is not to shoot your way out of contention. The second rule is to stay within shouting distance of the early leaders.
While Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson followed the formula perfectly Thursday, it seemed they were the only people completely satisfied.
“Nothing really exciting, just a kind of grind-it-out round,” Woods said after his 3-under-par 69. Mickelson also shot 69, as did the third member of the pairing, Geoff Ogilvy.
Expectations were that fireworks would explode across the sky, if not on the 10th tee, where the world’s two top-ranked players were playing together in a major for the first time since the 2001 Masters. Instead, as Woods had intimated earlier in the week, there was a cordial atmosphere but little conversation.
“If I didn’t know any of the back story, I would have said they were just like any other two guys out on tour,” Ogilvy said. “It was normal. You wouldn’t think they are the best of friends but you wouldn’t think they didn’t like each other, either.
“The first round of a major, I mean, any round of a major, there’s not the most conversation going on between everyone, anyway. So this was normal.”
What was interesting was the different approaches the two used during the day. As he did in winning the Masters, Mickelson used two drivers a total of 14 times. Woods was content, largely with the exception of the four par 5s, to use 3- and 5-woods off the tee.
That led to an odd situation on the 392-yard, par-4 15th hole, their sixth of the day. Woods used a 3-iron off the tee, his shot landing on the fringe beside a bunker about 150 yards from the green. Mickelson, meanwhile, crushed his driver to no more than about 40 yards from the putting surface.
Woods stiffed his approach to about 6 feet, inside of Mickelson, who two-putted for par while Woods made birdie.
Everybody into the pool
While much has been made that Medinah is playing to 7,561 yards, the longest course in major championship history, the leaderboard showed a mix of longer and shorter hitters. Billy Andrade, 129th in driving at 285.8 yards, was in third place, while Luke Donald (152nd/283.1) was tied for fourth, one shot ahead of Fred Funk, who, at, 271.7 yards per tee shot, is ahead of only Corey Pavin and Brad Faxon among the 200 players listed in the PGA Tour’s weekly statistics.
Tap-ins
Brandt Jobe’s struggles continued. After shooting a minus-11 in the opening round and missing the cut at The International, the former Kent Denver star shot a 76. Cherry Hills Village resident David Duval finished with a 73….Wake Forest men’s golf coach Jerry Haas, one of 15 club professionals in the field, shot a 74, one stroke better than playing partner Jay Haas, his older brother and longtime PGA Tour regular. According to the PGA, it is believed to be the first time brothers have been paired together for the first two rounds of the tournament.
19th hole
YOU CAN DO THIS
Going back and forth
Geoff Ogilvy drove his tee shot on the 453-yard, par-4 16th hole into the left rough. Given no choice but to attempt to chip back onto the fairway, the Australian sent it through the short grass and into the right rough. His next shot hit short on the slope fronting the green and rolled back into the fairway. After finally reaching the putting surface, Ogilvy left his bogey attempt on the lip of the hole.
YOU CAN’T DO THIS
Phil’s fantastic finesse
On the 443-yard, par-4 18th hole, Phil Mickelson hit an errant drive that clipped one tree and landed almost directly behind another. Instead of chipping out, the left-hander hit an approach shot that landed on the green, but rolled through into the rough. Facing a long, downhill chip, Mickelson flopped his ball barely onto the green, letting it trickle down to the hole for an easy tap-in par.
HOLE OF THE DAY
No. 5, 537-yard, par 5
If a player didn’t birdie this hole, he virtually gave up a shot to the field. No. 5 was the easiest hole on the course, averaging just 4.6 strokes. Although only three of the 156 players made eagles there, another 69 made birdie, a group that included 17 of the 20 players at the top of the leaderboard. Conversely, there were only 11 bogeys and two double
bogeys on the hole.
