Big cheers for ... courage?

SAN DIEGO - Poor Phil. The U.S. Open comes to his town, and instead of getting to be the star of his group, Mickelson winds up playing understudy to Tiger Woods' limp.

There was Phil early Thursday morning at spectacular Torrey Pines, shooting a better score than Tiger while in the same group at a major for the first time in six tries, and what's everybody talking about?

Tiger's pain, Tiger's courage, Tiger's rust while playing for the first time since the Masters, Tiger hitting a drive 360 yards to the center of the 18th fairway while grimacing at the twinge in his surgically repaired left knee. Then there was the third player in the group and third in the world rankings, Adam Scott, playing with a broken bone in his right hand and shaking lefthanded before and after the round.

Mickelson was looking for a homecoming; he wound up in a campaign ad for universal health care.

Oh, Phil The Thrill tried to hurt himself, too, whipping a hybrid through the gnarly rough on the 12th hole, watching the ball travel an estimated 5 feet, then shaking his hand in pain. Then he took the same swing with the same club from a better lie and knocked it on the green.

That's Mickelson -- the agony and the ecstasy under one golf cap. Thursday, he shot a directionally challenged 38 on the front nine and a saving 33 on the back to finish at even-par 71, three behind leaders Justin Hicks and Kevin Streelman, one ahead of Woods and two ahead of Scott.

That's what golf needs -- a Sunday showdown between Hicks and Streelman.

There was the plague of injuries, with Woods at times struggling to stand up after crouching to read a putt, and Scott admitting that a friend slammed his hand in a door in London.

There was pestilence: A swarm of bees chased Scott from his ball in the 14th fairway.

And there was the forced march over the longest course in U.S. Open history, with two Southern California guys, Mickelson and Woods, leading thousands of believers toward the promised land, or at least the concession stand behind the 18th green.

"It was pretty loud at times," Woods said. "Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I think that there have been more people before, but I haven't seen this many people inside the ropes before."

The inside-the-ropes portion of the crowd consisted of reporters and photographers treating the Woods-Mickelson-Scott group like the entree and the rest of the players like dim sum.

"You noticed that I didn't have a driver today, huh?" Mickelson said with his Eddie Haskell grin. "My game plan was that I only want to hit it a certain distance, I don't really want to hit it past 300 yards on most of the par-4s because it starts running into the rough."

How'd that work out? "When I made some terrible swings and hit it in the rough, it kind of defeats the game plan, because now I'm short and crooked," he said. "But when I started hitting fairways coming down the stretch, I made birdies."

Mickelson admitted he has never before left the driver in the bag during a tour event. Next time he craves attention, he should just jump on Oprah's couch, because Torrey Pines is no place to nudge the ball around.

By the end of the round, though, Mickelson was grinning because of his surge and Woods was grinning through the pain. "It's a little sore," Woods said.

We have two assurances about the group's round this afternoon -- Woods will play hurt, and Mickelson will try to prove just how smart he is, whether that requires using five drivers or none.