Congressional’s controversial 10th hole came under fire on the opening day of the U.S. Open.
The 218-yard par was one of the major changes to the Maryland course that last played host in 1997 to a U.S. Open.
Graeme McDowell critical of Congressional's 10th hole
Many of the game’s leading players, including the respective World No. 5 and 6, Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar walked off with double bogey after finding the water guarding the green.
And for Mickelson, who was celebrating his 41st birthday, and Kuchar it was their opening hole of the championship.
It was the second occasion in the past three U.S. Open’s the four-time Major winning Mickelson had started with a double bogey.
McDowell, who started his round from the first, will commence day two from the 10th lying under the shadow of the awe-inspiring Congressional clubhouse.
“The 10th is a bitch and the most unfair hole on the golf course,” McDowell said after his 70.
“It was a tough number for me today with my 5-iron barely making the front edge because a 4-iron would be too much for me.
Congressional's Par 3, 10th hole.
“So I think it’s the only slightly unfair hole on the golf course and the rest of them are what they are, and if you play well you get rewarded.”
Just moments before playing the 10th, McDowell and playing partner, Louis Oosthuizen were the centre of one of the most bizarre rules incidents in recent Majors after their tee shots at the ninth came to rest in the middle of the fairway resting against each other.
There was the sight of a handful of USGA officials deliberating before McDowell was informed to mark his ball one club length away and then replace it after the South African had played his second shot.
“It was pretty incredible and a very unusual circumstance at nine with Louis’ and my ball touching each other after we laid them up from about 220-yards,” remarked McDowell.
“But when we got down there the two balls were touching and I have never ever seen that on a golf course before apart from on the greens.
“Louis was going to have to go first and I was worried about him moving a big piece of turf, so I wasn’t sure what the ruling would then be.
“But thankfully Louis didn’t do that as I was unsure how I would recreate me lie on the fairway.
And prior to tee-off, McDowell had singled out Congressional’s 96 bunkers as a big factor this week rather than the rough, and those fears jumped up to scare him at the very first hole when he took a bogey from a greenside trap.
But the Pebble Beach winner bounced back with birdies at two and six.
Overall the former Barclays Scottish Open champ was delighted with his first round as he seeks to become the first player since Curtis Strange in 1989 to successfully defend his U.S. Open title.
“It could have been a little better but all in all, very happy with most departments today,” he said.
And it was a tough day for Frenchman Gregory Havret, a fellow Barclays Scottish Open winner, and who was runner-up last year at Pebble Beach to McDowell.
Havret recorded a six over par 77 but clearly his thoughts were with one person who this year was not in the crowd.
Last year, Havret singled out the support of his father, Dominque who had urged on his son as he tried to run down McDowell.
But on June 4th, and during the recent Wales Open, Havret’s father passed away after a long heart complaint.
