Bethpage will offer stern challenge

Some U.S. Golf Association officials hinted at record scoring in the U.S. Open, to be played for the first time on a truly public course with relatively flat greens.

Some players who took on the Black Course at Bethpage State Park during a practice round Monday had an entirely different verdict.

``What idiot wrote that?'' David Duval said.

Duval played the Black with Davis Love III, who looked stunned when told there was talk of the lowest 72-hole score in the 102-year history of the U.S. Open.

``Scoring record? If the wind blows even 15 mph, some guys won't finish,'' Love said. ``The only scoring record that might be set is the wrong kind.''

The last time a score over par won the U.S. Open was in 1978 at Cherry Hills outside Denver, where Andy North won at 1-over 285.

No one is suggesting Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or any of the 156 players who qualified for the U.S. Open is incapable of breaking par over four days on a Black Course that hardly resembles a local muni this week.

They just don't think it will be easy.

``Whoever said these are flat greens is crazy,'' said Bob Estes, who grew up in Abilene, Texas. ``Maybe they're flat for New York, but they're sure not flat for Texas.''

The rest of the course is no picnic, either.

PGA champion David Toms missed the fairway to the right on the 459-yard 15th hole, which is to say he was up to his ankles in thick grass. He tried to reach the elevated green, only to see his ball come up well short and disappear into more lush grass.

Toms looked at caddie Scott Gneiser, took a sand wedge and pitched it out to the fairway at the base of the hill.

Get used to that kind of decision, said Vijay Singh, who has the strength and steep swing to get the ball out of the rough, and the smarts not to bother.

``I have a club I can get to the green, but it's not worth it,'' Singh said. ``You learn through the years that you can get up-and-down from 80 yards.''

The USGA dumped about 9,000 tons of sand in the 70 bunkers, making them soft and difficult to escape. The grass around the green is so thick that Woods tried a variety of shots from behind the green -- first a flop, then a chop.

Both were a bust.

Fast, deceptive greens. Thick grass framing the fairways and greens.

Anything else?

Oh, the Black Course also happens to have two of the longest par-4s in U.S. Open history, the 499-yard 12th and 492-yard 10th. Those two are only part of the equation, because the Black is the longest par-70 in history at 7,214 yards.

Other than that ... ``I'll take my chances at 6-under,'' Singh said.

Singh has been playing practice rounds at Bethpage since missing the cut at the Buick Classic over the weekend, and he found it has changed a little every day, with wind swirling through the trees and affecting his club selection.

He also is trying to figure out how to keep the ball in the fairway, a critical part of anyone's game this week.

``It's a little weird how they shape the fairways,'' Singh said. ``You're going across the fairways. You can't shape it too much on one side or the other. The guys who hit it very straight are going to do well.''

Does that favor the short knockers so precise they can pick out a lawnmower stripe in the middle of the fairway?

``Well, they still have to play (Nos.) 10 and 12,'' Singh said.

The strength of the Black could come from a variety of sources, although most players pointed to the rough. Ever since the '98 U.S. Open at The Olympic Club, the USGA has tried to keep the rough moderate to tempt players to reach the green.

That might not be the case at Bethpage. The fairways are only about 25 yards wide, and trouble is not hard to find. Marshals stand by on every hole with tiny yellow flags to mark where balls disappear into the rough.

It gets worse.

The rough is only about 7 yards wide. After that, the grass is nearly waist-high, resembling wheat fields in Kansas.

``It's got to be 3 feet,'' Estes said. ``It's every bit of a half-shot (penalty) for hitting in the main rough. If you get it in the other stuff, it's a full shot.''

Love was even more pessimistic about the tall grass.

``You can't hit the green out of the rough,'' he said. ``There's really no way. If you hit 10 balls in the rough, you might be lucky to get one on the green.''

Woods arrived at Bethpage about 3 p.m. and, after warming up on the range, tried to get in an 18-hole round. He will be the top favorite, especially coming off his Masters victory in April that makes him the only player capable of a Grand Slam this year.

``This favors a guy who hits it 300 yards and straight,'' Love said.

Singh wasn't willing to limit the field that severely, but he made it clear that Bethpage Black was no place for anyone not on top of his game.

``If you have one bad round, you're out,'' he said.