ESPN.com - Golf Online - US Open Men 2000 - Frozen moment: No day at the beach

By David Kraft
ESPN Golf Online
Sunday, June 18

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Early Friday afternoon, Kirk Triplett spent part of his day at the beach.

It should have served as an omen for him, and for most of the rest of the field at the U.S. Open -- Tiger Woods and select others excepted.


	Despite two double-bogeys, Triplett is one of only five players under par.

For Triplett, it was part of a stretch where he double-bogeyed two of five holes. For the field, it was a warning shot signifying that Pebble Beach was about to exact its pound of flesh.

Seventeen players were under par when fog delayed play Thursday afternoon. By the time the sun set Friday, that number was whittled to five.

Triplett is one of those, no thanks to his play at the par-4 10th. He had played the front nine in 32 and climbed to 4-under on a fogless Friday at Pebble Beach. He hit his tee shot into the middle of the fairway on No 10.

And there, he had a revelation. "I should have recognized in that fact that the golf course was playing different," Triplett said. "It was playing more typically like Pebble."

He noticed that his tee shot was considerably shorter than the one he'd hit Thursday. So he took some extra club -- a 4-iron -- for his second shot. It didn't clear the ravine in front of the green, falling into the bank and tumbling down to the beach.

Triplett went down to the sand and saw the ball was in a footprint. Unable to play it -- "I knew I'd find it in a footprint," he said -- Triplett took a drop, finally recording a double bogey thanks to an 8-foot putt.

He took another double three holes later when his ball buried in the rough at No. 13. His 32 on the front morphed into a 39 on the back -- a sign of things to come.

"I don't think it's easy out there right now" he said about 3 p.m., just as much of the field was in the midst of their second rounds.

He was right. Scores were soaring. Title hopes were being dashed.

Loren Roberts and Hale Irwin both finished 3-under 68s in the morning. They shot 78s in the afternoon. Jeff Maggert, who's refusal to play his tee shot on the 10th hole Friday began the fog delay, shot 79. So did Davis Love III. Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus both shot 82.

The average second-round score? 76.011, and it could have been worse.

Pebble Beach on Friday was nothing like Pebble Beach on Thursday. The fairways rolled even more. The wind, while nothing like it was for the final round in 1992, stiffened flags.

And more importantly, approach shots weren't holding on the greens.

"I don't know how the greens got so hard overnight," said Nicklaus -- and that was before his 82.

"Different," said Nick Faldo when asked about the conditions. "The greens are really firm."

"I wouldn't say they're impossible, but they're pretty close to it," Irwin said.

None of that seemed to matter to Woods, who was 3-under through 12 holes before darkness halted play. Padraig Harrington was 2-under through eight. Robert Damron was 2-under through seven. Thomas Born was 1-under through 16. Miguel Angel Jimenez and Retief Goosen were 1-under through seven.

Others under par Friday afternoon? Joe Daley and Dave Eichelberger, both of whom shot 69; and Lee Porter and Woody Austin, both of whom shot 70.

Ten out of 156 rounds in red numbers -- only three of those completed rounds. That's no day at the beach.