TIGER Woods won three of the last 118 US Opens.
A fourth one looks unattainable.
With his opening round 78 yesterday, he needs a miracle to even make the cut.
Tiger’s 8-over par start had put him 9 shots behind four players bunched in the lead.
And that included the long-hitting and the Tour’s hottest player today, Dustin Johnson. Johnson’s one-under 69 tied him with Russell Henley, Scott Piercy and Ian Poulter.
Of the quartet, Johnson is the only one with a pedigree, having already won a US Open.
OK, include Poulter, once golf’s most artful—atrocious?—dresser with his penchant for crazy color combinations that defy fashion conventions.
He has mellowed. And so does his shot making, which has now gone from wild to subdued.
Blustery winds at Shinnecock Hills in New York sent scores tumbling yesterday, accounting for that virtual under-par drought of only four on opening day.
Cruel, humbling and humiliating were results of misadventures suffered by many of the game’s biggest stars.
But if you think the 73 and 75, respectively of Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia were bad enough, what about Jordan Spieth’s 78 that tied him with Tiger Woods at equal 103rd?
And then this, a 79 by our Fil-Aussie Jason Day?
And then the spitfirish Irish, Rory McIlroy, crumbling to 80?
Amid soaring scores, Piercy’s 69 was a miracle.
For, after his practice round on Thursday, he phoned his wife and told her: “I’d be home Saturday.”
If Piercy shoots 89 today, Saturday, his wife shouldn’t prepare dinner for him, nor admit him home.
You just don’t waste opportunities in the US Open.
Tiger Woods did just that.
Primed to win his 15th major due to his recent remarkable finishes, Tiger immediately threw out the window his chances when he triple-bogeyed his first hole. After two holes, he was four-over.
He succumbed to 15-to-20 mph winds, missing makeable putts, including a 6-foot birdie on the par 5 16th.
Going out 3-over, he came home humbled by a five over, accounting for two of the day’s horrific total of 189 double bogeys coming home.
Tiger is winless in majors for 10 years now since he won the US Open in 2008.
Unless a miracle happens, it will stay that way—officially today.