They qualify as Open leaders

PINEHURST, N.C. – In the broader sense as well as this week in particular, Rocco Mediate and Olin Browne are relatively late additions to the field – and happy ones at that.

Tied for the lead after matching rounds of 3-under-par 67 in Thursday’s opening round of the 105th U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort, Mediate and Browne picked up golf later than many young players do and are only in this week’s championship after advancing through sectional qualifying last week.

Taking advantage of conditions players said were slightly softer than during practice rounds earlier in the week, Mediate and Browne lead by a stroke over defending U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, England’s Lee Westwood and Oklahoma native Brandt Jobe.

Four players, including Phil Mickelson and 1996 U.S. Open champion Steve Jones, are 1 under, with two-time U.S. Open winner Tiger Woods and fellow major winners David Toms and Vijay Singh among seven players at even-par.

The scoring average was 74.699 strokes – higher than the 74.547 average for the week when the Open visited Pinehurst in 1999 – but most of the leaders still cited what they deemed the United States Golf Association’s attempts to keep the course from being overly challenging in the first round.

“I think we’ve seen the easiest it has to offer,” said Browne, 46, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour playing in his ninth U.S. Open. “It’s going to get firmer and faster and more difficult as the week goes on.”

Mediate realized as soon as his group hit its approach shots on the first hole that the USGA had watered the course to counteract some of the stifling heat earlier this week.

“David Toms and Peter Lonard hit two shots and made huge divots – wet,” Mediate said of his playing partners. “So I’m like, ‘You’ve got a chance today.’ “

It’s something the co-leaders have given themselves only after relatively late starts in the game – Mediate at age 15 and Browne, who confesses to going through nine majors in college while searching for something he wanted to do, at age 19.

“I was at a stage in my life where I really didn’t have any clue what I was going to do. I kind of fell in love with the game,” Browne said. “It ended up being a long-term, love-hate relationship.”

Browne, like Mediate and Jobe, had to advance through 36-hole sectional qualifying last Monday just to make this week’s field.

Following an opening-round 73 at his qualifier at Woodmont CC in Rockville, Md., that had him far off the pace to advance, Browne sought information on the proper way to withdraw from the second round without offending any golf protocol.

Browne was concerned about saving his energy for the Booz Allen Classic, which held its first round June 9 in Bethesda, Md., but decided to play at least the front nine of the afternoon round.

After a 30 on the front, Browne raced home with a 29 on the back for a 59 that propelled him to this week.

“I was probably five minutes from not being here,” he said. “(But) there’s absolutely no correlation between qualifying for the Open and playing in the Open, other than it gets you here. Woodmont is a really nice place, but the conditions of the golf course can’t come close to the U.S. Open in the difficulty and challenge.

“I’m certainly doubtful I’ll get many more opportunities to shoot 59 anywhere, (but) I would rather shoot par at the Open than 59 screwing around at home.”

Mediate, 42, who also advanced through sectional qualifying at Woodmont, has been playing for about a month without the back woes that plagued him throughout his career and limited his effectiveness the past 18 months.

The five-time winner on the PGA Tour is using a more upright swing, a wider stance and has eliminated the tilt in his back he once used to get his body behind the ball on the backswing.

He also, for the time being, anyway, has abandoned the long-putter he first began using in 1991 because it allowed him to avoid hunching over a conventional putter.

“My back is good enough now,” Mediate, the first player to win on the PGA Tour with a long putter, at the 1991 Doral-Ryder Open in Miami, said of the switch to a conventional putter. “I wanted to get two hands on it again. It’s working well, worked very well for me today, maybe one of the best putting rounds I ever had today.

“It just lost its luster to me,” Mediate said of the long putter. “It may come back someday. I said it will never come back five years ago, and I used a short putter for a week, so I’m not going to say that anymore.”

Even with the moisture added to course, players stopped well short of calling Pinehurst’s historic, Donald Ross-designed No. 2 course easy.

“I told Hank today starting out, anything even par or better is going to be just a great score at this event,” Woods said of a conversation with his swing coach, Hank Haney. “If you shoot four days at even par or better, you’re going to look awfully good.”

“It’s playing under the kind of conditions that Donald Ross would have intended, and I think the USGA ought to be commended on its setup,” Browne said. “I would hope that they don’t look at the couple of red numbers on the board and flip out tonight.”