Friday, June 14, 2002
US Open notebook
Teen plays it cool in his first Open to shoot a 78
By TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Writer
![[img]](http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/06/14/tolan_150x200.jpg)
Derek Tolan, 16, of Denver, putts on the third green Thursday.
(AP photo)
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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The kid did his best to play it cool. Then he stepped up to the opening tee shot.
“I didn't think I'd be nervous, but just watch the tape,” 16-year-old Derek Tolan said Thursday after completing his first round at the U.S. Open. “I'm walking kind of funny. It's like I forgot to breathe.”
After that shaky beginning, the youngest entrant in the field at Bethpage State Park's Black Course shot a 78, good enough to tie defending British Open champion David Duval and one stroke better than defending U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen. But Tolan said he should have done better.
“I don't want to use age as an excuse. I feel like I can contend — not for the title, maybe, but I'm good enough to make the cut,” he said. “Overall, I don't think it affected the way I played. I just didn't play very well.”
At least Tolan is used to playing alongside golf's big boys. He qualified for the Open by sinking a 50-foot chip shot on the first playoff hole of a sectional qualifier in Denver against PGA Tour winner Mike Reid and professional Mike Zaremba.
Derek's father promised him a car if he made it to Bethpage. Now, the chore is finding a way to make the cut and play the weekend.
“You can't get away with anything out there,” Tolan said. “Hopefully, I'll hit it a little straighter tomorrow.”
As if he didn't have enough to worry about, Derek learned that wildfires in Colorado were moving nearer to the family's Highlands Ridge home.
“At least everybody is here with me,” he said, “so we're lucky for that.”
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BE NICE: Colin Montgomerie got off to a great start in the U.S. Open. Too bad his golf wasn't very good.
Montgomerie has been a favorite target of hecklers in past major championships, particularly those on the East Coast. He got nothing but applause Thursday, despite opening with a 5-over 75.
“There were no problems at all,” he said.
Golf Digest magazine is behind a campaign to treat the Scot with respect, issuing 25,000 “Be Nice to Monty” buttons.
Asked how it worked during the opening rounds, Montgomerie said there were no problems, no story.
“If only Monty was nice to himself,” he said of a round in which he made only one putt, a 4-footer on No. 5 for his only birdie of the day.
Then again, he had an early tee time. The real test will come Friday afternoon.
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KIDD'S A FAN: Phil Mickelson has a big fan in Jason Kidd, who has a little more time to follow his favorite golfer now that the New Jersey Nets have been swept by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kidd cleaned out his locker Thursday and was headed toward Bethpage to have dinner with Mickelson.
After hearing Mickelson, who played the tough back nine first, had an opening 70, Kidd was pleased.
“He didn't shoot himself in the foot and tomorrow he gets to tee off on 1.”
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BIG PAIN: Matt Gogel was 9-over during a seven-hole stretch in the middle of his round, but he had a good excuse. Gogel felt a pop in his back on No. 6 after trying to slug a 4-iron out of the dense, gnarly rough.
He thought about withdrawing, but instead asked for a physical therapist who didn't arrive until the 16th hole.
“I've never had that happen before,” Gogel said.
He ran down the hill on No. 8 and ran up a hill on No. 9 to try to loosen up his back, but that didn't seem to work. Then, he arrived on the most brutal stretch at Bethpage Black — Nos. 10, 11 and 12 — able to taking only a half swing.
Bogey. Double-bogey. Bogey.
“It hurt like hell, but it wasn't a disc,” Gogel said. “Every time I turned, it stung.”
Still, he managed to birdie the next two holes — his back hurt so bad that he hit a 6-iron from 160 yards on the par-3 14th — and made par from the rough on 15.
The therapist gave him a brace and a massage on the 16th tee, and he wound up playing the final six holes in 2-under for a 78.
“It's disappointing, because today was the day it was going to play the easiest,” he said.
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SERGIO'S COMPANION: Tennis player Martina Hingis is at the Open to follow her boyfriend, Sergio Garcia.
Garcia said having Hingis here is beneficial because she has faced some of the same pressure playing tennis as he does in golf.
“She knows what I'm going through. And that's helpful,” Garcia said. “To me it takes a lot of weight off of my shoulder to be able to talk to somebody that understands that. With her I'm able to find that and that's not easy to get from a girl.”
Hingis must have helped. Garcia shot a 2-under 68 and was within a stroke of the lead after one round.
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TIGER'S 3-WOOD: Tiger Woods hasn't had many problems so far with Bethpage Black. His 3-wood is another matter.
Woods broke the club while practicing Wednesday and whoever fixed it apparently didn't do a good enough job.
Woods was about to hit the 3-wood on No. 7, when he heard a rattling in the head. He stopped his swing, and went and got his driver to hit instead.
Woods said he has a backup 3-wood he will use in Friday's second round.
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NOT JACK YET: Tiger Woods is the most dominating player in the world, but he still has a ways to go to match the dominance of Jack Nicklaus in the 1970s.
In a stretch of 33 straight majors beginning with the '70 British Open, the Golden Bear won eight times and never finished lower than 13th in the sport's four biggest events.
Nicklaus was a runner-up seven times during that span, finished third five other times and slipped out of the top 10 only twice before the remarkable run ended with a victory at the '78 British Open.
He held three major titles — PGA Championship, Masters and U.S. Open — at the same time. His bid for the fourth ended at the '72 British, where he finished one stroke behind winner Lee Trevino.
Woods grabbed all four majors — now known as the “Tiger Slam” — in 1999-00. He entered this year's U.S. Open hoping to become the first player since Nicklaus three decades ago to begin the year with victories in the Masters and U.S. Open.
No modern player has ever won all four majors in the same year.
Nicklaus won a record 18 major titles. Woods has seven.
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DIVOTS: The first cell phone of the 102nd U.S. Open went off on the first tee before the third player could hit his tee shot. The phone belonged to Bill Higgins, chairman of the caddie committee. Making it even worse, Higgins continued to talk on the phone as Jerry Haas teed off. At least Haas found the fairway. ... The first sighting of beer came on the 11th fairway. It was 8:15 a.m. ...The first three holes on the back nine are all par-4s. They all played like par-5s on Thursday. All three played to a stroke average of about 4.5.
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US Open notebook
