ESPN.com - Golf - US OPEN 2003 Columnist

Thursday, June 12

Too much red, too little frustration
By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN The Magazine

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. -- Here at the FBR Capital Open ...


	Jay Don Blake near the top of the leaderboard? This is the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, right?

Oh, wait -- this is the U.S. Open? The one where red numbers go to die? The one where entire lower limbs disappear in the first cut of rough? The one where the world's best players often look as if they need a hug and two sessions of therapy?

Not Thursday, it wasn't. Olympia Fields Country Club played like a neutered muni. It was as forgiving as your grandma. Players kept giving this little par-70 beaut a wedgie and Olympia had to sit there and take it like the class P.E. nerd.

U.S. Open leaderboards aren't supposed to look like something from the BellSouth Classic. But there was Brett Quigley at 5-under, Jay Don Blake at 4-under, Stephen Leaney at 3-under, Ian Leggatt at 2-under, and Tom Gillis at 1-under.

Quigley has exactly zero Tour wins and an equal number of Open cuts made. Blake's recent Open record reads like scissors instructions: cut, cut, cut, cut. When NBC summoned him for a post-round interview Thursday it was a toss-up who was more stunned, interviewee Blake or interviewer Bob Costas. Not long ago, Costas was sharing air time with Harrison Ford. Now Jay Don Blake?

Meanwhile, Leaney hasn't played in an Open since 1999 and didn't make it to Saturday in that one. Leggatt has missed six of 12 Tour cuts this season, and WD'd on another. Is that any good? Gillis finished seventh in the recent FBR, but before that he couldn't make a cut if they spotted him two birdies and Tiger's caddie.

Open tracks are supposed to leave scar tissue. You should hear whimpers. The USGA's name should be taken in vain early and often. But when play began at 7 a.m., the morning air was at a virtual standstill. Opening the Olympia's clubhouse door created more of a breeze.

With no wind, no sunshine, and no rain, the course was as friendly as a Cocker Spaniel puppy. Sure, the greens were rolling at a brisk 13 on the Stimp, but the pins were mostly accessible. The Tour boys couldn't believe it.

''. . . You're looking at them and thinking you could go at the pins, which is not normally the U.S. Open,'' said Padraig Harrington, who finished at 1-under.

This is Harrington's sixth Open. Of the six, he said, Olympia is playing the easiest.

The USGA is probably having a small heifer right now, as are the Olympia Fields members. They want the Tour boys to bitch about the conditions, not send sympathy cards.

A few days ago the crosswinds barreled through the course, forcing players to improvise and persevere. ''It was brutal,'' said Harrington.

Now this. Gentle breezes. Mowed rough (pause, for double take). ''I don't know why they had to mow it,'' said a member of the grounds crew. So instead of the usual chest-high stuff, players could actually use something other than a sand wedge to escape.

Of course, the leaderboard wasn't completely absent of championship pedigree. Justin Leonard posted a nifty 66. Jim Furyk made his way into the red. Ernie Els finished at 1-under, as did Colin Montgomerie.

Monty, who has never won in the States, actually dove to 3-under before a small late-round meltdown. But until then things were go nicely for the Prickly One. Even the fans were playing nice.

''He's played a great round of golf,'' said the Cook County sheriff's department officer who accompanied Montgomerie's threesome and reported no incidents.

Of course, that was about it for Monty comments. Mrs. Doubtfire stiffed the media after the round.

Montgomerie and the rest of the fellas better enjoy this while they can. Olympia Fields' greens are going to get a haircut and then rolled Thursday night. Come Friday morning they'll get a double cut and double rolled, which means putted balls will need parachutes to stop rolling on Friday. And just think if the wind kicks up and the sun stays out.

Thursday was a quirk, a freak of Open nature. Since when does 53-year-old Tom Watson make a first-day run at the leaderboard? How else do you explain Mark Calcavecchia doing something in an Open? No-names and old names.

Here's to Olympia Fields putting the fear of triple bogeys back into this tournament. Here's to complaints running 16 on the Stimp. Here's to anger and grimaces.

''It was nice and quiet,'' said Els after his round.

Too quiet. This Open needs noise, and not just Johnny Miller and Chris Berman. It needs wind, muffled expletives and the sound of slammed clubs. Otherwise, we might as well be at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic.

Gene Wojciechowski is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine.