Don't be surprised to see Irwin in contention on Sunday

Long-time Maui resident Mark Rolfing, an NBC golf analyst, will be providing commentary for the network at the U.S. Open. He also will chronicle his observations for The Advertiser.

By Mark Rolfing
Special to The Advertiser

TULSA, Okla. — As expected it was a very difficult day at Southern Hills. The wind blew quite hard in the morning and the course played very firm and fast. Hale Irwin's round was incredible. At the age of 56 to be able to shoot an opening round of 67 in a U.S. Open is quite remarkable.

Southern Hills fits Irwin's game perfectly. It is tough and he is tough. He will continue to grind it out and it wouldn't surprise me to still see him in contention on Sunday. He will play a very smart and conservative game and won't make a big mistake like we saw some of the younger players do today.

Tiger Woods has beaten David Duval, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III on a regular basis. I doubt that he has ever thought about beating Hale Irwin, who represents Kapalua on the Senior PGA tour.

Even though the first group of the day teed off before 7 a.m., it didn't really feel like the U.S. Open had started until 12:30 p.m. That was Tiger's tee time. I made the comment on TV at the first tee that Tiger didn't look very sharp to me during his pre-round warmup. It was tough to really pinpoint but he just seemed a little out of sync.

I was right. Tiger's opening tee shot with an iron missed the fairway badly. In fact in the 10 holes he played, he missed four fairways with irons off the tee . . . all to the right.

It was an awkward and uncomfortable front nine. It took almost three hours to play. Tiger bogeyed the third and then made a double bogey at nine to shoot three over par. He missed the green and buried it in the bunker at the ninth from 84 yards. It is the worst shot I have ever seen him hit.

Play was suspended at about 4 p.m. local time due to rain and lightning. Tiger has about a 6 footer for par at number 10. I think the suspension was a good break for him. He needs to re-group and come back out this with a new attitude. Knowing him. . . he will.

After nine holes, Woods is six shots back, but I still think he is the favorite. He will figure out a way to claw his way back into this championship. His problem now is that with all the rain, the course is much softer, which gives many more players a better chance.

I didn't get a chance to see Dean Wilson after his round but he's off to a great start. I think it worked to his advantage to get in before play was stopped. He will have a long wait (this) morning before he tees off, though. I hope he can sleep in knowing what is at stake.