2005 US Open Day 1

After the first day of the US Open, Olin Brown and Rocco Mediate stand tied for first at -3.

Olin who? A part-time PGA Tour player, he had to shoot a 59 on the final day of qualifying to get into the Open.

Retief Goosen, Lee Westwood and Brandt Jobe all stand tied at -2.

Brandt who?

Steve Jones, Luke Donald, K.J. Choi and Phil Mickelson follow at -1.

At least I recognize all three of those names.

Even for the day were David Toms, Tiger Woods, Tommy Armour III, Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, Toru Taniguchi, and Bob Estes.

I have no idea who Toru Taniguchi is.

There are also some big names not so much further back at +1: like Ernie Els, Chris DiMarco, Jim Furyk, and Fred Couples.

All in all, it’s not too far off from what you might expect. The big names are right in there, there are a couple of early leaders who won’t be there on Sunday, and no one is too far under par.

I wlso got the sense, from watching the rounds today, that the USGA is working hard to avoid the criticism that has haunted it since Shinnecock last year. Crews were watering the greens throughout the day to keep them soft enough to hold shots—no easy task, considering the legendary upside down saucer shapes.

Apparently the only real criticism of the day came from Ian Poulter, who felt that the cups were not set the requisite one inch below the surface.