Play was suspended at the women’s US Open on Thursday when a thunderstorm struck Colorado Springs, forcing dozens of players, including world No. 1 Yani Tseng of Taiwan and her compatriots Amy Hung and Doris Chen, to wait a day to being their first round.
The 22-year-old was scheduled to tee off at 1:36pm, but the storm postponed play for most of players before it was finally canceled at 3:12pm, after only 25 players had managed to compete their rounds.
Taiwan’s Candie Kung was one of those 25 with an early tee-time, and struggled to a five-over-par 76, with one birdie and five bogeys. Teresa Lu of Taiwan managed to get in 14 holes and finished the rain-shortened day at two-over.
Photo: Reuters
Meanwhile, world No. 2 Cristie Kerr and unheralded amateur Amy Anderson held a share of the early lead at two-under through 15 and 12 holes respectively.
The Broadmoor course is located at an elevation of 2,042m and it lived up to its brutally difficult reputation as only five players of the 83 who teed off were under par, including 2008 champion Park In-bee of South Korea through 17 holes, and Japanese Ai Miyazato through 15.
Tseng, who has four majors to her name, will have to play 36 holes when play resumes.
She said it will be her first time playing that many holes in one day and she expected it to be physically challenging.
Tseng said her preparation for the high altitude included walking up and down hills near her her home in Florida after the LPGA Championship.
She added that she feels comfortable with the conditions.
Tseng is one of the favorites to win the US$3.25 million tournament and has the opportunity with a victory to become the youngest Grand Slam holder in both men’s and women’s golf.
“She’s a hot player. She’s got a lot of confidence in her putter. She’s hitting the ball great. You know, she’s the player to beat,” Creamer said of Tseng on Wednesday.
Kerr, who won the 2007 Open at Pine Needles, had just made back-to-back birdies on her 14th and 15th holes of the day before she ended up in a greenside bunker at the par-four seventh, her 16th hole.
At that point, the siren sounded to signal a halt in play. With radar indicating a string of storms coming in over the nearby Rocky Mountains, play was suspended for the day less than three hours later.
“I can’t believe they called it [for the day]. Shocking,” Kerr told reporters. “I know there’s a lot of stuff in the area, but it gets dark at 8:30 or 9 here.”
“It’s going to be a domino effect for the rest of the week. Usually they keep you here and try to get in as much [play] as possible. I guess the forecast looks so bad,” she added.
Anderson, who has just completed her sophomore season at North Dakota State, suffered an early bout of nerves, before displaying good form on the East Course.
She recorded two birdies on her front nine and made no bogeys in the 12 holes she completed, allowing her to sleep on a tie for the early lead in her first US Open appearance.
“It’s pretty exciting, I wasn’t expecting it,” Anderson said. “I was pretty nervous on the first tee this morning and then settled down.”
“I hit my first drive really good and that helped me calm down a little bit. Yeah, first-day leader. That’s way more than I could have really imagined,” she added.
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