COLORADO SPRINGS — At 4-under-par, South Korea’s I.K. Kim leads the 66th U.S. Women’s Open and may be the only player who has the quirks and bends of Broadmoor East figured out. Otherwise, the golf course is winning big.
With the second round still to be completed today, 17 of the 18 holes are playing over par, including the quartet of par 3s. Golfers are having consistent success only on the 560-yard, par-5 No. 3.
Ouch.
“You’re not that far away, but the scores say you are,” Karrie Webb said of her game, which, at 1-under par through 18 holes, rates better than most.
Hoping to hear “oohs” and “aahs”? Might as well haul a group up the winding Pikes Peak Highway and take in the views. Down here, cheers and roars have been almost nonexistent.
This is more about grinding. And surviving. Perhaps as it should be for an Open.
“You can never relax at a U.S. Open,” said four-time tour winner Angela Stanford, “but especially here. You never have a chance to let down.”
Some might say weather has had the upper hand. This national championship is now two-for-two in abbreviated rounds, both suspended by lightning. The horn sounded this time at 6:09 p.m. Play resumed at 7:15, but losing those 66 minutes cost those on the course as many as four holes.
The tournament will pay for it over the weekend, needing calmer conditions for there to be any chance of a Sunday finish.
“That’s Mother Nature, and you can’t control that,” said Paula Creamer, the defending U.S. Women’s Open champion. “You know it’s going to be a long day.”
Kim was among those who had a particularly long one. She didn’t even get to tee off Thursday before play was stopped at 12:37 p.m. She finished her initial 18 holes Friday at 1-under-par 70, two strokes behind first-round leader Stacy Lewis.
It took 13 more holes Friday before Kim leapfrogged Lewis to the top of the leaderboard, when Lewis fell from 4-under to 2-under with a double bogey on the 432-yard No. 15. Darkness finally ended things at 8:25 p.m., with Kim needing four holes to complete her second round and Lewis finishing two holes shy.
They shouldn’t feel bad. A total of 66 players, including first-round sensation Amy Anderson, have not even begun their second round. Anderson’s 2-under through 18 holes remains good enough for a second-place tie with Lewis.
Anderson must be really tired of the practice range.
“Hit some balls, maybe putt a little bit, and then go relax,” she said early in the day after playing six holes to complete her opening round.
Remarkably, Kim has not made worse than par on a hole — the only player among 156 entrants to remain bogey-free.
The leaderboard has some big names: Creamer (2 under), Webb (1 under) and Cristie Kerr (even par).
But other notables have struggled. Pre-tournament favorite Yani Tseng of Taiwan couldn’t make a putt of decent length and sits at 3 over par. But that looks good in comparison to Morgan Pressel (5 over) and especially Michelle Wie (7 over).
Just 33 players — 11 groups — have completed 36 holes at what should be the midway point of the championship.
Hey, playing this course is difficult enough without having to keep an eye on the skies.
“I’ll go to bed and try to get ready for tomorrow,” Lewis said before leaving the course in darkness. “We play tomorrow at 7. I don’t know how you do it.”
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
Eye on . . .
Michelle Wie
Although the towering Hawaiian has only two career LPGA victories, she’s just 21 and remains a face of the tour.
What’s up? Wie hit 11 greens in regulation during her opening round, which was completed Friday morning. But she needed 35 putts and finished at 7-over-par 78. Making the cut should be her focus now.
Bottom line. Wie may have shot herself out of the tournament during her first nine holes, going 5-over.
EI.K. Kim
The diminutive, 23-year-old South Korean, above, hopes this is the year she breaks through at the U.S. Open. Kim tied for third in 2008 and ’09 and was fourth last year.
What’s up? To complete her second round, Kim still has nine holes to play. But she is the only player in the field so far to not have a bogey.
Bottom line. If she keeps it in play and avoids a train wreck, look for her to be in contention Sunday to claim her first major championship.
Karrie Webb
After having posted just one victory during the past four years, she won two of the first three tour events of 2011.
What’s up? Webb didn’t get to begin her second round Friday, but she sure finished her opening 18 holes in style. Completing the round on the front nine, she birdied Nos. 2, 6 and 9 to record a 3-under 33.
Bottom line. Webb, 36, appears to have regained the fire to go after her eighth major championship and first since the 2006 Kraft Nabisco.
Tom Kensler, The Denver Post
Question of the day
How were you feeling when you stepped to the tee box for the first time ever at the U.S. Women’s Open?
Rachel Rohanna, 20 years old, shot 2-over-par 73: “I was really nervous. I actually think my adrenaline was going so much I ended up hitting my 3-wood 20 yards farther than I would normally and drove it through the fairway. But I think today I got even a little bit more nervous. I was like standing over my chip shot that I had to go to and standing there for 10 minutes. At first I wasn’t too bad, but as soon as I put my club down after they blew the horn, it was like concrete went through my body.”
E Brittany Johnston, 25, 10-over 81: “I was a lot less nervous than I thought I’d be. . . . It was kind of a disappointing last nine holes, but I have 18 more to go to figure it out. It’s been fun, though. . . . It’s obviously a little unnerving to have all those people, but I like the experience for the most part.”
Ryann O’Toole, 24, 2-under 69: “It was a little nerve-wracking. I mean, I go to my caddie after the first hole, I’m like, ‘Are the nerves going go away yet?’ Because they weren’t. . . . This is exactly what you dream of when you’re growing up saying, I want to be a professional golfer. You have a huge crowd and they’re following every group, so it really makes you feel really good.”
Chelsea Mocio, 19, 10-over 81: “I just tried to play my game, just tried to breathe. Growing up, you always wanted to know what it would be like to play in a U.S. Open, and it has been unbelievable. I can’t compare it to what I had imagined.”
Lindsay H. Jones, The Denver Post
Hole of the day
No. 8 — 166 yards, par 3.
At the outer edge of the course, the USGA set the unassuming, slightly uphill hole at 176 yards for the first round.
It gave up just a few birdies in the first round and ranked as the fourth-toughest hole. One of the teenage amateurs had a quadruple-bogey 7.
With the pin placement all the way back just off the right edge, anything short on the tiered green was down in the swale. And anything missed to the left was another tough two-putt back up the hill.
For the second round, the hole stayed back but was moved all the way over to the left edge.
David Krause, The Denver Post
Course life
With just 10 rounds under par after the first 18, the East Course wasn’t giving away anything:Yeah, they’re quick.
The afternoon heat and warmer temps certainly speed up the already-quick greens. Even with the light rain and cool night Thursday, the consensus for the early rounds was that the greens were not any softer. But as the day went on, the speed certainly picked up, as did the wind.
Long shots.
The USGA didn’t take it easy at the start, playing the first round at 7,024 yards. However, for the second round, officials did move up the No. 2 tee box to make it a 265-yard par-4.
Long shots.
The pins on the par-3s were fair in the opening round, though No. 8 gave the field fits.
David Krause, The Denver Post
