{"id":11481,"date":"2012-06-14T23:21:24","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T21:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/golf-american-na-sets-early-u-s-open-pace-woods-two-back\/"},"modified":"2012-06-14T23:21:24","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T21:21:24","slug":"golf-american-na-sets-early-u-s-open-pace-woods-two-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-american-na-sets-early-u-s-open-pace-woods-two-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-American Na sets early U.S. Open pace, Woods two back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mark Lamport-Stokes<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

SAN FRANCISCO, June 14<\/span> (Reuters) – The U.S. Open lived up to
\nits reputation as the toughest championship of all in the early
\ngoing on Thursday with only five players under par in the
\nopening round.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

On a cool hazy day at the Olympic Club, American Kevin Na
\nwas alone at two under after six holes, a stroke in front of
\nSouth African Branden Grace and Americans Jason Bohn, Joe
\nOgilvie and Davis Love III.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Grace, a three-times winner on the European Tour this year,
\nhad completed six holes and Bohn five while Ogilvie and U.S.
\nRyder Cup captain Love had 14 holes to play.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Three-times U.S. Open champion Tiger Woods was among a large
\ngroup locked at even par, having parred his first five holes
\nafter teeing off at the par-four ninth.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Seeking his first major title in four years, Woods was
\nplaying in a glamour grouping with fellow Americans Phil
\nMickelson and Masters champion Bubba Watson who were both
\nstruggling at two over.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Left-hander Mickelson, runner-up a record five times at the
\nU.S. Open without yet landing the prestigious trophy, got off to
\nthe worst possible start when he hooked his opening tee shot and
\nlost his ball.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

He did well to bogey the hole after hitting a third shot off
\nthe tee but went on to bogey the next two holes, finding a
\ngreenside bunker with his approach at the 10th and missing a par
\nputt from four feet at the 11th.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Mickelson partially recovered when he birdied the
\npar-three 13th to get back to two over.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Fellow left-hander Watson bogeyed the ninth and 11th to lie
\nfour strokes off the early pace on a par-70 Lake Course layout
\nboasting arguably the toughest stretch of holes in major golf
\nfrom the first to the sixth.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Defending champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland was
\namong the day’s late starters, scheduled to tee off at 1:29 p.m.
\n(2029 GMT) with world number one Luke Donald and third-ranked
\nLee Westwood.\t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in San Francisco; Editing by
\nFrank Pingue)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark Lamport-Stokes SAN FRANCISCO, June 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Open lived up to its reputation as the toughest championship of all in the early going on Thursday with only five players under par in the opening round. On a cool hazy day at the Olympic Club, American Kevin Na was alone at two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}