SAN FRANCISCO - With its sloping fairways and slanted greens, the Olympic Club calls to mind a wood labyrinth maze game, with the golf ball replacing the steel ball as the object to be maneuvered around the pitfall-filled Lake Course.
On Thursday, Michael Thompson deftly made foot traffic shift from one nine to the other, tilting more attention his way as his round of 4-under-par 66 unfolded in the U.S. Open. Thompson, the runner-up at the U.S. Amateur when it was held here in 2007, started on No. 1 in front of a few hundred spectators around the same time the marquee pairing of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson teed off at No. 9 in front of thousands.
With every red number he posted, Thompson, who is competing in his third major, siphoned off fans and photographers from Woods, who has won three U.S. Opens and could be positioned for a fourth after shooting a 69.
Thompson played the last 12 holes in 6 under after covering the first six in 2 over, which was better than most. The 39 golfers in the morning wave who went off at No. 1 played the first six holes in a collective 105 over par. "Got a little nervous there once all those cameras showed up," Thompson said. "It's always a bit of an adjustment. In that sense, I kind of wish I was Phil or Tiger, because you get the cameras from the beginning."
Thompson, a second-year player on the PGA Tour, can expect to have a bigger crowd following him Friday. He knows Woods will continue to attract the most eyeballs, and he's fine with that.
Double-eagle at No. 17Birdies were hard to come by Thursday. Eagles? Even harder, of course.
Then there was Nick Watney, who pulled off the rarest of the rare. After hitting the 17th fairway with a 330-yard drive, Watney's 5-iron from 190 yards skipped a couple of times on the green before arriving at the cup at the perfect pace.
It was a double eagle -- only the third in U.S. Open history, though USGA officials admit their records might be incomplete. T.C. Chen made one on the 527-yard second hole at Oakland Hills in 1985, and Shaun Micheel matched that on the 523-yard sixth at Pebble Beach in 2010.
