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And as United States Golf Association officials combed the battered, bloated 7,426-yard, par-70 municipal layout to gather evidence and determine the damage, they realized they could not be sure how long it would take to crown a champion.
“An ideal goal would be to get Round 2 finished by Saturday,” said Jim Hyler, the U.S.G.A.’s vice president and championship committee chairman. Based on the forecast, he said, “that’s not looking terribly promising.”
There were 78 golfers on the course, including the defending champion, Tiger Woods, and thousands of spectators when a steady rain became a downpour and the course began taking on water like the Andrea Gail in “The Perfect Storm.” U.S.G.A. officials suspended play at 10:16 a.m., a little more than three hours after it had begun, and called it a day shortly before 2 p.m.
It appeared that the fans who held tickets for the first round were in the right place at the wrong time. Instead of seeing a stern test of golf, they were witnesses to the battering of the course by Mother Nature. It was the first time a round was not completed on the day it started at the Open since thunderstorms blew through Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, east of Bethpage, on the first day in 2004. It could get worse before it gets better.
With any luck, the U.S.G.A. will be able to determine a winner before the Fourth of July. Jeff Brehaut, who held a share of the lead, if you will, at one under par through 11 holes, said: “It’s not what any of us wants to deal with. But they’re still going to give out a trophy, I think.”
He laughed as he said that. Brehaut, a journeyman from Northern California who required 13 trips to PGA Tour qualifying school to earn his playing privileges, might have precisely what it takes to win this tournament: infinite patience.
Amid all the dark clouds, there was a bright side. At least Sergio García had an advantageous tee time this year. García was scheduled to go off in the afternoon (as was Phil Mickelson), meaning he stayed warm and dry. Woods, meanwhile, was one over after six holes, having battled his driver and the elements.
At the 2002 Open here, García earned the enmity of the fans when he carded a 74 in a steady downpour in the second round and then said that if Woods had been on the course later in the day in the worst of the weather instead of in the morning, when he carded a 68, the U.S.G.A. would have suspended play.
On that day, four-tenths of an inch of rain fell. The course was soaked Thursday by more than an inch. Justin Leonard, who was even par through seven, said the saving grace was that it was warmer than on that Friday in 2002. “It was obviously very difficult out there,” he said. “My goal was to forget about par and do the best I could.”
It was raining but not yet pouring when the marquee grouping of Woods, Padraig Harrington and Ángel Cabrera — the champions of the past four Grand Slam events — stepped to the first tee around 8 a.m. The applause that greeted Woods, who won the Open here in 2002 for one of his 14 major titles, was louder than a clap of thunder.
As the players stood on the tee box, under their umbrellas, waiting to hit, one fan yelled, “Go Padraig!” Another shouted, “Go Tiger!” There was a pause, and then from the opposite side of the bleachers someone squawked, “O.K., I’ll bite. Go Ángel!”
Cabrera, the reigning Masters champion and the 2007 Open winner, had said he would not be intimidated playing in front of the large and boisterous crowds that followed Woods.
He was at even par when play was stopped, despite a lapse in concentration on the first hole caused by the bustling of bystanders. Cabrera drove into the left rough but Woods hooked his ball worse, his tee shot coming to rest in front of a merchandise tent. It was the first fairway Woods had missed since the Saturday of the Memorial Tournament in Ohio in his final Open tune-up. Hitting first, Woods landed his second shot in a greenside bunker, after which photographers scurried to get back inside the ropes while fans filled the area that had been cleared for Woods. The maneuvering was worse than what takes place at the Holland Tunnel entrance during a Manhattan rush hour, and it was happening a few yards from where Cabrera stood over his ball.
Instead of backing off until everyone had settled, Cabrera hit a poor shot, his ball landing well in front of the green to set up his bogey. Woods saved par — the kind of Houdini escape that is the hallmark of Open champions — while Harrington three-putted for a bogey after gracing the green in two. When they arrived at the second green, they were met by six squeegee-bearing members of the maintenance crew who dried the green as the players were reading their putts and again between putts.
Keeping the greens fit for play became a futile task for the grounds crew, akin to raking leaves in a gale. Woods said he got in more holes than he expected to given the conditions. “It was a good decision to start today,” he said. “Playing was the right decision.”
Can this tournament be saved? The consensus was that the next 24 to 48 hours would be critical.
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