Little-known American qualifiers Justin Hicks and Kevin Streelman upstaged tournament favourites Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson by taking charge in Thursday’s first round at the U.S. Open.
Nationwide Tour player Hicks, helped by a run of six birdies in eight holes, fired a three-under-par 68 to set the early pace before being joined by PGA Tour rookie Streelman late in the day.
World number one Woods, who had not previously walked 18 holes since having knee surgery two months ago, carded a topsy-turvy 72 while playing partner Mickelson returned a 71.
Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 champion at Winged Foot, opened with a 69 to share third place with compatriot Stuart Appleby and Americans Rocco Mediate and Eric Axley.
Hicks, a journeyman from the minor tours competing in only his second U.S. Open, piled up seven birdies and four bogeys on the ultra-long South Course at Torrey Pines.
“For me, it’s a great round,” the 33-year-old told reporters. “It’s a U.S. Open and I’ve never been able to say that I’ve been under par at a U.S. Open before.
“I know that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and our goal is to keep playing good, steady golf and try to be standing here Sunday night.”
Streelman, 18 days after getting married, joined Hicks atop the leaderboard with a mix of six birdies and three bogeys.
“It probably hasn’t quite sunk in yet but it’s pretty cool,” said the world No. 608, who tied for 29th at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in January.
“I do enjoy this golf course. The lines off the tee kind of suit my eye well.”
Woods, who had arthroscopic surgery on his knee two days after finishing second at the Masters in mid-April, was satisfied to end the first round just four strokes off the pace despite feeling pain in his knee late in the round.
“You couldn’t ask for a worse start than I got, six on the very first hole,” the 13-times major champion said after a round featuring three birdies and two double-bogeys.
“I figured you’re going to make bogeys out here, I just happened to make two on the very first hole.
“I wanted to get to even par as fast as I could and then try and get to under par for the day,” added Woods, who was grouped in a dream trio with world number two Mickelson and third-ranked Adam Scott of Australia.
“I got to under par at the turn and just didn’t keep it there. To make two double-bogeys and a three-putt and only be four back, that’s a great position to be in.
“I hit the ball pretty good all day, had a couple of misses left, but just need to clean up the round just a little bit.”
After making a nightmare start in overcast conditions, Woods recovered to birdie the fourth, eighth and par-five ninth, where he struck a delicate lob wedge from tangly rough to four feet.
Out in one-under 34, he made several par-saving putts from around 15 feet on the back nine but marred his round by running up another double-bogey at the par-four 14th.
Watched by huge galleries and a media contingent of around 100, three-times major winner Mickelson birdied the last for a 71 while Scott, nursing a broken bone in his right hand, returned a 73.
“It was not the best round and I made a couple of mistakes early on,” said Mickelson, who is using a three-wood instead of a driver this week on the longest course to stage a major.
“Anything around par is kind of your target for the U.S. Open and I should have a chance tomorrow to try to keep it around par, maybe get a couple birdies here or there.”
Several big names struggled in the afternoon as the greens began to firm up. Defending champion Angel Cabrera of Argentina and Britain’s Justin Rose battled to 79s while British Open winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland carded a 78.
US Open Scores
68 Justin Hicks, Kevin Streelman
69 Eric Axley, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Rocco Mediate, Stuart Appleby (Aus)
70 Robert Karlsson (Swe), Robert Allenby (Aus), Ernie Els (Rsa), Lee Westwood (Eng), Rickie Fowler
71 Phil Mickelson, Patrick Sheehan, Vijay Singh (Fij), Andres Romero (Arg), Joe Ogilvie, Luke Donald (Eng), Carl Pettersson (Swe)
72 Tiger Woods, Kyle Stanley, Davis Love III, Oliver Wilson (Eng), Casey Wittenberg, Woody Austin, Stewart Cink, Jon Mills (Can), Hunter Mahan, Scott Verplank, D.J. Trahan
73 Nick Watney, Steve Stricker, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Adam Scott (Aus), Robert Dinwiddie (Eng), Matt Kuchar, Daniel Chopra (Swe), Derek Fathauer, Brett Quigley, Mike Weir (Can), Boo Weekley, Camilo Villegas (Col), Tim Clark (Rsa)
74 Rodney Pampling (Aus), Todd Hamilton, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Aaron Baddeley (Aus), D.A. Points, Dustin Johnson, Michael Thompson, Anthony Kim, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe), Jim Furyk, KJ Choi (Kor), Rich Beem, Ryuji Imada (Jpn), Stephen Ames (Can), Thomas Levet (Fra)
75 Chris Kirk, Sean English, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Ben Curtis, Heath Slocum, Charles Howell III, Justin Leonard, Ben Crane, Mark O'Meara, Craig Parry (Aus), Tway Kevin, Jerry Kelly, Pat Perez, Lee Janzen, Jarrod Lyle (Aus), J.B. Holmes, John Rollins, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Jonathan Byrd
76 Peter Tomasulo, Zach Johnson, David Toms, David Hearn (Can), Charlie Beljan, Dean Wilson, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Joey Lamielle, Brandt Snedeker, Richard Sterne (Rsa), Jason Bohn
77 Bart Bryant, Robert Garrigus, Andrew Svoboda, Bubba Watson, Chad Campbell, Brad Bryant, Mathew Goggin (Aus), Nick Taylor (Can), Jesper Parnevik (Swe), Shingo Katayama (Jpn)
78 Michael Campbell (Nzl), Soren Hansen (Den), Steve Flesch, Nick Dougherty (Eng), Scott Piercy, Michael Allen, Jeff Wilson, Niclas Fasth (Swe), Ian Poulter (Eng), Brian Kortan, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Fernando Figueroa (Esa), Padraig Harrington (Irl)
79 Colin Montgomerie (Sco), Jeff Quinney, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Johan Edfors (Swe), Paul Casey (Eng), Justin Rose (Eng), DJ Brigman, Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi)
80 Scott Sterling, Craig Barlow, Jordan Cox, Hunter Haas
81 Rob Rashell, Jeffrey Bors
82 Travis Bertoni
83 Gary Wolstenholme (Eng), Yohann Benson (Can)
84 Chris Devlin (NIrl)
86 Mike Gilmore, Michael Quagliano, Brian Bergstol
