Fri Jun 13 00:22:55 2008

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108th U.S. Open First Round News and Notes

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La Jolla, CA (Sports Network) - "Smoke 'em if you got 'em" would apply if only Angel Cabrera still smoked.

He might want to steer clear of the convenience store on the way back to his hotel.

The defending U.S. Open champion, who chain-smoked his way to a win at brutal Oakmont last year, opened with an eight-over 79 at Torrey Pines on Thursday and was tied for 126th place in a field of 155 players.

Cabrera, only the second major champion from Argentina, quit smoking last summer after the British Open for no other reason than he was sick of the habit.

If he still smoked, Cabrera would be allowed to light up at Torrey Pines despite rules that forbid smoking on the municipal golf course. The restriction was lifted for players, but remained in effect for spectators and everyone else.

No cigarettes. No cigars.

Cabrera said in a recent interview that giving up smoking has had no effect on his game.

What he's been struggling with is his putting -- he ranked 195th on the PGA Tour entering this week, fifth from the bottom -- and those struggles continued Thursday.

Cabrera made nine bogeys and one double-bogey in the first round of his title defense, erasing the three birdies he squeezed out of the tough South Course. And while he out-drove most of the field -- not surprising considering one of his tee shots at Oakmont last year measured 390 yards -- his putting was characteristically below average.

Which left Cabrera in position to join the long list of players who've failed to repeat as U.S. Open champion since Curtis Strange was the last to turn the trick in 1989.

Not only that, it left him danger of missing the cut.

CHASING ROMO

Only 11 players broke par during the first round, and four shot scores worse than 84 -- the number Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo posted at Torrey Pines last week while playing with singer Justin Timberlake (98), "Today" host Matt Lauer (100) and amateur golfer John Atkinson (114).

The exhibition was staged in response to Tiger Woods' assertion that the Average Joe wouldn't have been able to break 100 at tough Oakmont during last year's U.S. Open.

Romo and Timberlake went a long way towards proving Woods wrong, though none of the four amateurs was able to make a birdie on the longest course in U.S. Open history, which is playing at more than 7,600 yards as a par-71.

Among the players who fared worse than Romo on Thursday -- Michael Gilmore, Philippe Gasnier, Michael Quagliano and Brian Bergstol, who all shot 86 -- only Bergstol was able to make a birdie.

The Pennsylvania club pro collected two of them, in fact, but also had a quadruple-bogey on his card.

OPEN NOTES

- Torrey Pines is the second municipal golf course to host the U.S. Open after the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York, hosted in 2002. Tiger Woods won his second U.S. Open that year.

- The hardest hole in Thursday's opening round was the 504-yard, par-four 12th. It played to an average of 4.60.

- The easiest hole of the first round was the par-five closing hole. The 18th played to an average of 4.80.

- The low amateur on Thursday was 19-year-old Rickie Fowler. The Oklahoma State product is the youngest player in the field and shot a one-under 70. Fowler is tied for seventh place.

- No European has won the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970. Robert Karlsson of Sweden and England's Lee Westwood are the low Europeans at one- under 70.

- Masters champion Trevor Immelman only managed a four-over 75 and is tied for 64th place.

- Brett Wetterich and Mark Calcavecchia withdrew on Thursday without finishing their rounds.