FARMINGDALE, N.Y. --- The U.S. Open is going old school.
Maybe.
Not since 1964 has the national championship gone 36 holes in the final round. Perhaps the fact that champion Ken Venturi nearly died of dehydration at Congressional Country Club that year facilitated the more humane format that exists today.
Or at least until today.
Weather nightmares have turned the 108th U.S. Open into a bit of a mess. Actually a lot of a mess if you are forced to walk in the muddy slop outside the ropes.
Nobody played more than 11 holes on Thursday. Some guys played as few as seven and as many as 32 on Friday. Saturday had guys playing anything from 18 to 30 as the predicted rains and thunderstorms held off for the most part until 6:55 p.m. That's when the skies opened up and the horns blew and the soaked fans booed.
Sixteen players haven't teed off in the third round. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods -- on opposite ends of the golf course -- have completed one hole. Weather permitting, the USGA will send them out in double time to get this thing over with today.
Last year produced a 91-hole epic, but this year already seems longer.
However, you gotta love New Yorkers. In the 90 minutes from the conclusion of the second round to the start of the truncated third round, they had little to do but celebrate happy hour at the concession stands. They were in full throat cheering Vijay Singh's practice putts behind the clubhouse. They stuck around until Mickelson left the first tee box, and many retreated for the exits before the deluge hit.
Through nobody's fault but Mother Nature, this U.S. Open has been spoiled. The course, the fans and half the field have been hosed by the conditions. The stop-and-start nature of the whole thing has taken the starch out of the tournament.
As a result, the first two rounds have produced a strange array of things you never could have expected. I mean, who would have thought weatherman Al Roker would get more air time on NBC than Bob Costas?
Three amateurs made the cut and one (Nick Taylor) shot 65 to tie the lowest round ever by an amateur. Yet the world's No. 3 (Paul Casey), 11 (Padraig Harrington) and 16 (Ernie Els) players couldn't do better than 10-, 12- and 15-over par, respectively.
Ricky Barnes, who showed such promise as an amateur when he beat Tiger head-to-head in the first two rounds of the 2003 Masters Tournament before all but disappearing on the lower tours, set the lowest 36-hole record at 8-under-par 132.
Lucas Glover, who has never made a cut in three previous Open appearances, was 20-feet away from joining the 63 club in major championships but "weenied" his putt short. This came a day after 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir was a double-bogey on his 15th hole from establishing the all-time major scoring standard of 62 on a course considered so hard it carries a warning label on the first tee.
This week has been so weird that the golfer formerly known as world No. 1 David Duval is currently tied for fourth place with Sweden's Peter Hanson, who needed a hole-in-one to qualify, and some Japanese golfer named Azuma Yano.
Strangest of all, perhaps, has been the performance of tournament favorite Tiger Woods. Despite getting the bad end of the draw, Woods was sitting pretty at even par through 14 holes Friday before posting his worst four-hole finish at a major (4-over). He shaved only one shot to par in the second round and will need to tie the U.S. Open record set by Lou Graham in 1975 of rallying 11 shots in the final two rounds.
"Yesterday was the day that did it," Woods said of his first-round undoing.
There is no telling what's in store for what hopefully will be a marathon final day. The Lawn-Guy-Land fans will return to trudge in the mud and see who has what it takes on a very, very long Father's Day slog.
It's old school. It's messed up.
But in the words of Ian Poulter before he squeaked in under the cut line, "in a funny kind of sick way, it's enjoyable."
Well ... maybe if everyone gets out of here before Monday.
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
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