Mike Report Day One at the US Open

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:00:23

"Thursday was definitely a long day, but also a good one for me. I played well and was quite pleased with my one-under 69. Of course it didn't seem like I was going to be enjoying the day after I made bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes, my two first of the day. But you're not going to play mistake-free golf in this tournament. I made a couple early but I did pretty well after that, plodding along and staying patient.

When you start your day with a couple of bogeys, you want to try and get those back right away. I managed to get one back on the next hole, but that's what a U.S. Open is all about. The course set up tests your patience, tries to tempt you into taking some chances. I just realized that there were 16 holes in front of me and another 70 in the tournament. It was no time to panic and I just stayed with my game plan and played smart from that point on.

I have to say I was really happy with the way I managed my game from that point on. I hit a lot of fairways and gave myself a lot of birdie chances. I had to scramble on some holes, which you're going to have to do out here, but having a lot of runs for birdie is a good sign out here.

Anytime you play in a U.S. Open, you know it's going to be a long day and that was made even longer on Thursday by the two-hour rain delay. It's unfortunate to have to stop playing when you're rolling like I was, but safety has to come first in those situations and it was the right call.

During the break, I hung out in the players' lounge, ate and just shot the breeze with the other players. You can't really do much else in those situations so you just have to stay relaxed and hope the rain lifts. With so much daylight left, we were pretty sure we'd be going back out.

And in the end, the rain helped me. When I came back to play, I was on the seventh, a nasty par 3 with a green that's almost impossible to hold, but thanks to the rain, it was softened up a bit. I hit a five-iron and it landed right at the front of the green and stopped about 12 feet from the hole. I rolled that in for a nice birdie on a difficult hole.

I was also a bit lucky to get my round in. I was in the middle of the ninth fairway (my 18th hole) when the siren blew to end play for the day. When that happens, you have the option of finishing your hole, which we obviously did. But the fog was rolling in and I was talking with my playing partners, Joey Sindelar and Michael Campbell that we knew they were going to call it as you could hardly see in front of you. On my last shot, 155 yards away, I could just barely make out the flag.

All in all, it was a good day, one I hope to build on. My game seems to be like that, where I get on a nice roll and then go from there as the week goes on. Hopefully I'll play a little better each day although I know this is a long way from over.

As always, thanks for your support.
Mike
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