Montgomerie takes lead in U.S. Open; Tiger
plus 4
By DOUG FERGUSON AP Sports Writer
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - Tiger Woods' bid for the second leg of
the Grand Slam got off to a rough start today.
While Colin Montgomerie missed only one fairway on his way
to a 5-under-par 65 for the early first-round lead at the U.S.
Open, a solid start by Woods was derailed by the gnarled rough
of Congressional Country Club.
Despite missing three putts from 4 feet on the first five holes,
Woods was at 2 under through 10 holes until he was swallowed up
- first by the tough rough, then by the water guarding the par-3
18th hole.
Woods played the final eight holes in 6 over, and his 4-over-par
74 left him nine strokes behind Montgomerie.
Montgomerie saved par on the only fairway he missed in his
round of 65. One stroke back was former PGA champion Hal Sutton.
Mark McNulty and British Open champion Tom Lehman shot 67.
Steve Stricker, having a miserable year after a change in equipment,
was at 4 under through 12 holes.
"If you miss the fairway, it's brutal," said Greg
Norman, who missed it four times on the front nine and wound up
with a 75.
He wasn't alone. Fred Couples looked like his club struck a
bowling ball when he tried to play out of the thick bluegrass
on the third hole, where he took a double bogey.
Woods, trying to become the first player since Jack Nicklaus
in 1972 to win the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year,
took double bogey on No. 11 by sailing the green with a 9-iron.
His flop wedge from rough rolled through the green, and he failed
to get up and down.
Drives into the rough at No. 13 and the par-5 15th also produced
bogeys.
The key to the 7,213-yard Congressional course, like just about
every U.S. Open, is to keep the ball in the fairway. That's why
Montgomerie, among the best players in the world who haven't won
a major, always as his best chance at this one.
"It makes a big difference when you're in the fairway,
which I usually am," he said.
Showers threatened throughout the day but only a few sprinkles
fell. That made the greens relatively easy to hold, but the rough
makes the U.S. Open difficult under any conditions.
"The golf course was playing pretty easy," said Jack
Nicklaus, who was 1 under at the turn and finished with a 73.
"It was pretty much there for the taking."
That's assuming the second shot is a mid-iron into the green
instead of a sand wedge that has to be hacked through the rough
and back out to the fairway.
Montgomerie ran into that problem just once on No. 6, the 475-yard
beast of a par 4. And it turned a conservative, Open-type round
into something that looked like Woods at the Masters.
Montgomerie, who missed three birdie putts inside 12 feet on
the first three holes, hooked his drive left into the dense rough
and punched a sand wedge out to the fairway, 157 yards from a
pin on the top tier of the green.
His 8-iron stuck 1 foot from the hole for a par, and he birdied
four of the next five holes.
"No. 6 was vital to me," Montgomerie said. "It
was the most important par I've made in a long time."
His 65 tied his best for a U.S. Open score. He also shot a
65 in the second round at Oakmont two years ago, when he wound
up losing in a three-way playoff.
He threatened the major championship-record of 63 until his
only lapse of the day, hitting a 7-iron into the greenside bunker
at No. 17 for a bogey.
"The 7-iron at 17 I'd like to take back, but there's a
lot I'd like to keep," Montgomerie said.
Sutton's only venture into the rough came on No. 5. He caught
a good lie, hit to the back of the green and two-putted from 35
feet for par.
"I drove it in the fairway most of the day," Sutton
said. "And I showed a lot of patience. Whoever the champion
is over the course of 72 holes will have had a lot of patience."
Sutton's 9-iron on the eighth hole lipped out, leaving him
an 18-inch putt for birdie. He birdied the par-5 ninth from 10
feet, then made two short birdie putts coming in at the 16th and
17th.
Although he missed the cut at the Kemper Open last week, Sutton
has had three top-5 finishes over the last six weeks.
That's nothing compared to the roll Montgomerie is on.
He is now 31 under par over his last six rounds, dating to
a final-round 64 at the Volvo PGA Championship in Europe. He won
the European Grand Prix last week by closing with a 65.
"Obviously, I came here feeling confidence and I'm still
confident," Montgomerie said.
He made it look easy by doing what he does best - going tee
to fairway, fairway to green.
"I love it that actually hitting fairways means something,
and par means something," Montgomerie said.
But while most players in the field were shooting for pars,
Montgomerie was settling for them over one stretch. He had makeable
birdie putts on virtually every hole, often grazing the lip.
He hit a 4-iron from 205 yards to within 8 feet at No. 10,
made a 12-footer at No. 11 and then got to 6 under with a pair
of 6-foot birdies at the 13th and 16th holes.
Hale Irwin holed a 30-foot bogey putt on No. 4 to keep from
going 5 over, and wound up with a 70. PGA champion Mark Brooks
and Nick Price were at 71, while Tom Watson was among those at
72.
Norman had company in the rough, and on the scoreboard. Couples,
Steve Elkington, Phil Mickelson and Davis Love III all shot 75.
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