An Early Leader Keeps It All in Perspective

Drew Weaver, right, with his caddie C. Damian Velaquez. Weaver had three birdies on the back nine.

One of the early leaders in the first round of the United States Open on Friday morning could hardly consider Thursday’s weather disastrous, or even terribly troubling. Drew Weaver gained an entirely different perspective on such things when, as a student at Virginia Tech, he was 100 yards from the shootings that ravaged the campus in 2007.

“It’s always with you,” Weaver said.

Weaver, 22, who recently graduated, qualified for the Open in sectional qualifying and also won the British Amateur, which gains him entry to The Masters. He started his first round early Thursday, before the day was washed out by more than an inch of rain. He finished at one under Friday, an excellent score on a day that dawned dry but cloudy and on a course playing even longer than usual because the wet fairways kept drives to a single bounce.

Tournament favorite Tiger Woods stumbled to four over for his round, missing a par putt on his first shot after resuming Thursday’s round and struggling on the back nine.

Graeme McDowell came in at one under as well, but golfers teeing off around noon started to collect some birdies on the wet greens. with Camilo Villegas reaching minus two in his first four holes, a score matched quickly by Sean O’Hair and Soren Hansen in their first four holes.

“I realize there’s no point being up on the leaderboard now but you’re jockeying for position posting a nice number,” McDowell said. “It’s not going to hurt as long as I don’t get ahead of myself mentally. I’ve got to stay in the present, keep doing what I’m doing all weekend and realize it’s going to be a tough slog.”

While Weaver enjoyed his round — he had three birdies on the back nine to pull from two over to become one of the few players under par — he said he plays with the perspective earned on the day he heard shots coming from Norris Hall, the day a lone gunman killed 32 people.

“At the British Amateur, it’s definitely something I was playing for,” he said. “It’s nice to have something to dedicate to those that were lost.”

Weaver played in the Masters and the British Open but never had a sniff of the lead. He started Friday at two over after he played 11 holes on Thursday. He made a good par save at the 12th hole with a 10-footer and then birdied No. 13 with a 20-foot putt, and No. 16 with an 18-footer. “At that point I was kind of feeding off the crowd, wasn’t nervous and used my adrenaline to my advantage,” he said.

He got the crowd into it on 17 with a 22-foot putt that broke left to right and rolled in the hole.

“It was incredible, really nice to pour that in and hear that roar,” he said.

Weaver, though, said he learned how to appreciate much smaller things than golf victories by surviving the massacre at his university.

“We’ve definitely moved on and developed a little better outlook on life, a little more positive, and have learned to appreciate the smaller things in life,” he said. “Things are great, but we haven’t ever forgotten the loss.”

Woods, meanwhile, was dealing with woes involving golf only and he had a few. After starting the day one over, he collected another bogey immediately. He seemed to be finding his game with two birdies early on the back nine, but the doubled No. 15 with a three-putt. then bogeyed 16 and 18.

“Well, I wasn’t playing poorly,” Woods said. “I was even par with four to go, and I was right there where I needed to be, and two bad shots and a mud ball later, here we go and I’m at four-over par.”

On No. 18, while Woods’s playing partners Angel Cabrera and Padraig Harrington were busy looking for Cabrera’s ball in the rough, Woods not only did not help, he hit his approach shot over their heads toward the green. He was clearly focusing on his game.

“The course is playing tough, obviously,” he said. “They moved quite a few tees up, but still, the fairways have dried out just enough where you’re getting just a little bit of mud, and the wind is starting to pick up just a little bit.”

The Open’s first round resumed at 7:26 a.m. Friday and the United States Golf Association hoped to get most of the second round completed Friday before dark. There was a slight chance of rain Friday, and Saturday’s forecast was gloomier: an 80 percent chance of rain, and possibly another inch, for the waterlogged course.