Fog delays U.S. Women’s Open for day

Michelle Wie stood on the balcony of the stately clubhouse at Newport (R.I.) Country Club, which ordinarily offers a spectacular view on a century-old golf course that juts into the Atlantic Ocean.

Thursday afternoon, she was lucky to see 180 yards away to the fifth green.

The U.S. Women’s Open dodged the rain, but ran into weather that left the players feeling even more hopeless – a soupy fog that limited visibility to 75 yards along the ocean holes and wiped out the first round.

It was the first time since the 2003 Masters that the start of a major was postponed one day. The USGA could not remember that happening at any of its championships.

“It’s unusual to get fog where you’re delayed or you can’t play all day long,” said Mike Davis, senior director of rules and competition.

The first round was rescheduled for today, followed by the second round Saturday. Davis said there would be a 36-hole Sunday, the first time that’s happened at the U.S. Women’s Open since 1990 at Atlanta Athletic Club, where Betsy King overcame an 11-shot deficit early on the last day to beat Patty Sheehan.

Wie and former Women’s Open champions Juli Inkster and Meg Mallon were among those were supposed to tee off in the morning and instead spent nearly 10 hours at Newport waiting to tee off.

“It just got worse and worse,” Wie said. “I just took this day to relax. I just chilled.”

Play originally was suspended 30 minutes, and then announcements followed about every half-hour. The practice range was packed with players anticipating a 3 p.m. start when word spread that the first round was called off.

PGA

Harrison Frazar returned from a long layoff to grab a share of the first-round lead in the Buick Championship at Cromwell, Conn., shooting a season-best 5-under-par 65 to join Heath Slocum, Peter Lonard and Scott Verplank atop the leaderboard.

Frazar, seeking his first PGA Tour victory, hadn’t played a tour round since withdrawing after the first round in Memphis last month. The birth of his third child nine days ago and family health problems kept him close to home. In that time, he only played a few rounds with his father and some buddies.

“Haven’t hardly hit more than a bucket of balls at a time, maybe total, in the five weeks,” Frazar said.

Former U.S. Open champ Corey Pavin, Memorial winner Carl Pettersson, Darron Stiles, Camilo Villegas, Todd Fischer and Ron Whittaker opened with 66s, and former Buick Championship winners Olin Browne and Brent Geiberger were in a 12-player group at 67.

Former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett fired 2-over 72.