Today may find Utah's small battalion of combatants in the U.S. Open reduced by half.
Thursday's opening round of the 92nd annual Open Championship was a mixed bag for current Utah residents and former BYU golfers. Three players matched or bettered par of 72 at Pebble Beach Golf Links, while another three were well off the pace.Jay Don Blake of St. George led the way with a four-birdie, two-bogey round of 2-under-par 70. Two former BYU players, Dick Zokol and Dan Forsman, also were in good shape to make the cut at even-par 72.
Three other ex-Cougar golfers were in danger of missing the weekend rounds. At 4-over 76 was Rick Fehr, while Mike Reid wound up at 77. Mitch Voges, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion who is making his first Open appearance since missing the cut in '72 also at Pebble Beach, carded a 78.
Zokol, 33, playing in just his third Open, and Reid, 37, a veteran entered in this event for the 17th time in 18 years, represented the good and bad that can happen to a player in a major event. While they went off early and in consecutive threesomes Thursday, the looks on their faces afterward signified they had played different courses.
Reid, a softspoken Provo resident who has more Open experience than the other BYU grads combined, appeared thoroughly befuddled by his round. He bogeyed four holes in a six-hole stretch on the front nine and, despite a pair of birdies, never got anything going.
"I struggled all day," he said. "It wasn't just one club or one part of my game. I didn't play a representative round. The holes you hope to get ahead of the course, the first seven, I played very poorly.
"I missed tee shots; I missed greens from the fairway. (And) I don't know that you'll catch this course on a better morning."
Zokol, meanwhile, caught a little luck - good and bad. He chunked his way up the par-5 sixth hole only to hole out his fourth shot from a bunker for birdie. At 15, he took "a risk" that backfired into a bogey on the par-4 hole when his approach stayed in the rough.
"That's probably the picture-perfect way to start a major tournament," said Zokol, "because I established a good game. I played extremely solid. I (also) took a little risk and got bit."
Zokol, who has played in two previous Opens - missing the cut in '85 and tying for 46th in '89 - rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt at the ninth, then bogeyed the 13th and 14th holes.
It's a good start, but, Zokol added, "we're so far from the end of the tournament. It's a marathon
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and we're just getting out of the blocks."
Blake, the only non-BYU basher in the bunch (he attended Utah State), birdied the fourth and sixth holes, bogeyed the par-4 eighth before birdieing the par-4 10th and par-3 17th, offsetting a bogey at the par-4 15th.
Voges was never a factor after playing holes No. 4-7 at 5-over par. Fehr was only slightly more impressive. He had a birdie on the relatively easy, par-5 second but bogeyed the third, ninth, 13th, 14th and 17th holes.
Forsman had four birdies, four bogeys and 10 pars while never getting more than 1-under or 1-over par.