'Unknown' Hicks upstages the stars

GOLF US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPTHE EXAMINATION, as the USGA perceive it, is to test all facets of a player's game. Driving. Iron play. Putting. It's designed to expose weaknesses, so that - ultimately - the best player will emerge as champion. That's the theory.

Yesterday, as the first round of the 108th US Open evolved at Torrey Pines, there were those that have lived much of their professional lives in the shadows who sought to debunk such grand aspirations.

On a day where Tiger Woods, the world's number one, played his first full round since the Masters in April - finishing with a 72, one over - there was early evidence that, perhaps, the set-up on this cliff-top course in southern California could conceivably produce a shock, unheralded winner.

After all, how could you explain the fact that Justin Hicks, after an opening 68, was the early clubhouse leader? Justin who? Exactly! Hicks, a 33-year-old who is a conditional member on the Nationwide Tour in the United States, a rung below the main tour, where he has missed the cut in three of the seven tournaments he has managed to play with a best finish of 28th.

Still, while others struggled with the test provided in yesterday's first round, it was to his credit that he remained immune to some of the tragedies that befell others.

For instance, Steve Stricker, who has been in the doldrums for much of the season, looked set to post the early target when reaching the turn in four-under - turning in 32, having started his round on the 10th - only to start back with a run of bogey-bogey-bogey.

He ran up another two bogeys by the end, eventually signing for a 73. He wasn't alone.

Patrick Sheehan was another to discover Torrey Pines' twin imposters, at first showered with good tidings - and moving to three-under with four holes to play - only to be rebuked on the homeward run, suffering a triple bogey seven on the 15th where it took him three desperate attempts to extricate himself from greenside rough.

It's a cautionary tale that many players will take with them into the next three rounds, a reminder (if it were needed) not to get ahead of themselves.

And while Sweden's Robert Karlsson and England's Lee Westwood signed for opening 70s, Karlsson - like Stricker and Sheehan - will reflect on a score that got away.

He was three-under on his round after birdieing the 18th, and moved to four-under with a birdie on the first. However, Karlsson's putter then went cold and he bogeyed three of the last seven holes to drift backwards but he remains still very much in the hunt. He was happy with his lot at the end.

"So far so good, I'm happy for my prospects," said Karlsson.

So it was that Hicks, who had a remarkable seven birdies in his round, found himself - as much to his surprise as anyone else - in possession of the early lead, a shot clear of Rocco Mediate and Stuart Appleby who each posted rounds of 69.

And, while Pádraig Harrington kick-started his own quest for the championship by sinking an 18-footer for birdie on the first, Hicks was coming to terms with making the quantum leap from the mini-tours to leading a US Open. The secret?

"I think if you just approach it with the right mindset, and stay patient and treat it like any other golf course, then you play and just try to hit fairways and greens and make as many putts as you can," explained Hicks. Sounds easy, really.

On a course where the greens were watered overnight but were still reading on the higher end of the mid-13s on the stimpmetre, Hicks managed to keep to that game plan and remained unnerved by his ever-improving position as his round progressed, so that he outgunned the likes of Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott.

"I know it's a marathon, not a sprint. My goal is to keep playing good, steady golf and try to be standing here on Sunday night," said Hicks, standing on the interview podium outside the recorder's hut.

Who is Justin Hicks? "Who am I? I'm another one of the guys out there playing the Nationwide Tour trying to earn his PGA Tour card. There's a lot of great players in America, and we're all out there trying to earn our way up to playing on this bigger level."

That bigger level occupied on a regular basis by Woods and Mickelson is where Hicks aspires to be. He knows he has a long, long way to go to reach that level; still, Hicks at least had the distinction of outscoring golf's superstars in yesterday's first round.

For Woods, playing his first round since undergoing knee surgery on April 15th, it was a mixed round that ended with a 72.

"I guess I don't need a cart yet," he quipped afterwards.

"It was a terrible way to start," he observed of his double bogey on the first where he pulled his drive way left, while he finished with a three-putt par on the 18th.

Of his knee, all Woods would say was that, "it's a little sore . . . as of right now, I'm four back. To make two double bogeys and a three-putt and be only four back, that's a great position to be in because I know I can clean that up tomorrow."

Likewise, Mickelson - who played without a driver in his game at the instigation of his short game coach Dave Pelz - seemed nonplussed by the fact that he was three shots off the pace set by Hicks.

"Anything around par is good for the US Open. I don't really look at what anyone else is doing."

He knows, like Woods, that there is a long way to go and a long time for Mr Hicks to be looking over his shoulder.