Rain gives way to mud at US Open, opening futile preferred lies debate

Rain gives way to mud balls at US Open

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Tiger Woods would have liked to have been able to clean the mud off his ball Friday in the U.S. Open at soggy Bethpage Black.

Jim Furyk knew it was a waste of time to even talk about it.

“We all know that’s not going to happen,” Furyk said about allowing players to lift, clean and place balls in the fairways, “so it’s a worthless conversation.”

Woods was frustrated after facing four mud balls in 11 holes Friday in a 4-over 74.

“If we keep it down, it is what it is. It’s potluck,” Woods said.

When Tom Meeks was in charge of the USGA’s course setup, he referred to preferred lies — standard practice on the PGA Tour in wet conditions — as “lift, clean and cheat.” While Meeks is gone, the governing body is as firm as ever on the issue.

So much so that when championship committee chairman Jim Hyler brought up the subject Friday, it was only to refute that it was slowing play.

“I think there’s a perception that by not playing that, we’re somehow prolonging the event,” Hyler said. “That is absolutely not true.”

More rain — expected Saturday and deep into next week — would wash away the mud-ball problem, and cause even more trouble on the saturated course.

“It’s only going to get worse, unless we get some more rain,” Woods said of the mud. “If we get more rain we won’t catch them again.”

In addition to the four mud balls Woods cited, the possibility of picking up mud altered his game plan off the tee, negating some of his distance advantage.

“You would think you would have to hit low tee shots and run it off, but the problem is the fairways are so soft it’s not going to go anywhere,” the three-time U.S. Open champion said. “If you take the chance of carrying the ball out there, you also have a chance of picking up mud on the ball, too.”

Furyk had a little better luck than Woods in an opening 72.

“Actually, I made birdie on the hole, but I had a huge chunk of mud on my ball on 16 right out of the chute this morning,” Furyk said. “It doesn’t matter what club you have in, if you’ve got mud on your ball, it’s hard to control what it’s doing.”

And the players had a lot longer clubs in their hands than usual on the massive Bethpage layout, a stern test under any conditions.

“It’s very difficult to go into a lot of par 4s, certainly on a U.S. Open golf course, when the balls are picking up so much mud,” Ian Poulter said after shooting 70. “I don’t think a driver I hit today went forward more than a foot. If that’s happening you’re taking more than a pitch mark and you’re going to have mud on the ball.

“It’s pretty tricky when you’re going into greens with so much club and there’s a bit of mud on the ball. So a little disappointing, but the rule is the rule.”

The Englishman also said balls were plugging in the wet bunkers.

“The other factor in this is we had four bunker shots between our threesome and all four were buried,” Poulter said. “So, not only are we standing in the middle of the fairway with 5-wood, 3-wood, whatever club you’re going to hit, you’re thinking, ‘If this doesn’t come out cleanly, then it’s going to pitch in the face of the bunker.’ You barely can get it out of the bunker.”