AS YER man, Robert Burns, once put it, “the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.” Or, ahem, go astray to those of us in the real world. Yesterday was one such time when all the planning, the priming and the sugar-coating was for nought as Mother Nature’s dousing of heavy rain on the New York area forced a suspension of play in the first round of the US Open at Bethpage.
With the water tables already raised from weeks of unseasonally heavy rainfall, the floodgates – quite literally – opened yesterday. When over an inch of rain fell in a three-hour period, the USGA conceded defeat as lakes formed on a number of fairways – most notably the 18th, where even modern pump machinery failed to stem the tide – and greens flooded.
Just over three hours into a first round ruined by the weather, play was suspended – initially at 10.15am local time and confirmed at 1.55pm – with a quartet of players on one under par in a share of the lead: Jeff Brehaut (through 11 holes), Johan Edfors (four holes), Andrew Parr (three holes) and Ryan Spears (three holes).
However, with more bad weather forecast for the weekend, there is the distinct possibility that the championship could run into Monday, Tuesday or even Wednesday if needs be to determine the champion.
As the USGA’s Jim Hyler put it, “not trying to be pessimistic, but we will play 72 holes (however long it takes) . . . but an ideal goal would be to get round two finished by Saturday.”
Whether the weather gods allow that remains to be seen, with the prediction for further heavy rain tomorrow and into Sunday. This is the first time since the 2004 US Open at Shinnecock Hills (also on Long Island) that the weather has caused a suspension.
Also, the USGA remained adamant that the ball would be played as it lies, with no introduction of the “lift, clean and place” rule. Ian Poulter didn’t agree with such a policy, remarking, “It’s a schoolboy error . . . the balls are picking up big clumps of mud. I understand the reasons but common sense should prevail.”
Of the two Irish players to start their rounds yesterday, Graeme McDowell fared best. The 29-year-old Ulsterman, who started on the 10th, suffered back to back bogeys on the 11th and 12th but rolled in a 25-footer for birdie on the 14th and stood one-over (in tied-12th) after seven holes when play was suspended.
Pádraig Harrington, though, experienced a dreadful time and was very thankful that his misery – however briefly – was brought to an end. The triple major champion suffered two bogeys and a double bogey over his opening six holes and was overnight left to contemplate a 20-footer for par on the seventh after marking his ball when the siren sounded.
“I’m on the back foot so the best thing for me is to come back fresh tomorrow . . . it didn’t look like this round of golf was headed in a very nice direction for me. So, if I can get it into my head in some shape or form that I’ve got 66 holes to go, and that two bogeys and a double won’t really cost me at the end of the day, but that’s hard coming from four-over,” said Harrington.
Whilst acknowledging that players who didn’t tee off at all were probably happier, Harrington was philosophical. “That’s the nature of the game, you’re going to get bad breaks . . . but I guarantee you they will have a US Open champion at the end of the week, well, at some stage in the next week, and somebody is going to be a winner and the best player is probably going to win.”
For that to happen, Paul Casey – at third, the leading European in the world rankings and who was one-over for his opening five holes – believes mental toughness will be the biggest attribute. “Patience is paramount and you are going to have to deal with not only a very tough golf course but also some of the decisions that are being made like not being able to lift, clean and place. That’s going to be very difficult and you are going to have be patient and expect some difficult lies and some mud-balls. That’s the way it is. What does it say in the original rules of Golf? Play the ball as it lies,” said Casey.
