REARDON: Thursday U.S. Open Blog
Bet the 4 and the 5
Three-time U.S. Open Champion Hale Irwin found himself on the other side of the ropes this week at the U.S. Open at Congressional. Irwin was on hand to watch his son Steve play in his first ever U.S. Open. Irwin mentioned before his son went off that 45 has been a significant number for him in golf. He won his last U.S. Open at Medinah CC at age 45. He went on to play the Champions Tour and win 45 times to date in his career. And 45 years ago an amateur named Irwin (yes young Hale) qualified to play in the U.S. Open. Even though his official starting time was 2:41 on Thursday, on my watch it was 2: "45" when son Steve put his first shot in play on the first tee.
Top Three???
The three top-ranked players in the world were the feature pairing for the first two days of the US Open. Luke Donald (#1), Lee Westwood (#2) and Martin Kaymer (#3) may be less appealing to the galleries on Friday. The group was collectively ten over par for round one. The trio posted 17 bogeys and a double bogey from Donald. Kaymer and Donald had three over 74's and Kaymer, who missed the cut at the Masters, shot 75. Donald led the group in with four birdies. Maybe they can play scramble on Friday.
The Real Featured Group
While golf's top three ranked players were grouped for the first two days at the U.S. Open, the actual feature group will tee it up Saturday, rumored to be at Andrews Air Force base in Washington. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will square off against Speaker of the House John Boehner and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
The purse this week at Congressional is in the neighborhood of $9,000,000. The national debt our political foursome is trying to accommodate is in excess of $14,000,000,000,000. According to my math, it would take over 1.5 million more U.S. Opens to hand out as much money as we currently owe.
Dan Reardon has covered 75 major championships, five Ryder Cups, dozens of PGA, LPGA and Senior PGA Tour events. Visit CBS Local St. Louis for additional golf coverage.
