United States Open Golf Tournament

So how difficult was it Friday at the U.S. Open? Well, the pin placements were . . . what would you call them, Jim Furyk? "Brutal would be a good word," he said. And every time the ball became airborne, it was what, Jeff Maggert? "Plain windy," he said. Meanwhile, the second-round scores went up more quickly than you could say Donald Ross, Pinehurst No. 2 behaved more like Public Enemy No.

Jose Maria Olazabal became the first Masters champion who could play for the Dodgers when he withdrew from the U.S. Open on Friday after angrily punching a hotel wall and breaking his hand. Olazabal, not known for showing much emotion, may have been upset after finishing Thursday's first round with a bogey, bogey, par and double bogey en route to a 75, placing him eight strokes behind the leaders at Pinehurst. He punched the wall Thursday night.

A look at the key hole Friday in the second round of the U.S. Open. Hole: 5 Yardage: 482 Par: 4 Stroke average: 4.7 Rank: 1 Key fact: There were 15 scores of double bogey or worse on this monster, but David Duval made one of the five birdies to get to five under par.

After beginning so brightly, John Daly's U.S. Open ended with the same eccentricity and confusion that has marked his career. No, he didn't walk off the course before the end of the final round, but he did essentially the same thing. He took an 11 on the par-four No. 8 after absorbing a two-stroke penalty for clubbing his ball while it was still moving.. It was after his fourth shot, a second consecutive putt that rolled not-quite-up the hilly green, then rolled back down.

Payne Stewart was finished. His pretty blue cap was soaked, his pretty white knee socks were splotched with mud, his eyes were closed in pain. Stewart's eight-foot par putt had just rolled softly past the 15th hole, and he was finished. "Your gut just turns," he said. Phil Mickelson was finished. His head was shaking, his black shirt was flopping out of his khakis, his gallery was gasping as if somebody had just dropped a baby.

Neither rain nor gloom nor a slippery putt on a wet green kept Payne Stewart from his appointed round Sunday at Pinehurst, where he won the U.S. Open for a second time and finally, gratefully, washed away any leftover memories of a year-old missed chance. There is much more to Stewart than a jaunty cap and plus-fours and more to his legacy as a golfer than what happened to him last year when he lost a four-shot lead on the final day of the U.S. Open and was defeated by one shot.

*--* Double Hole Yards Par Avg. Rank Eagles Birdies Pars Bogeys Bogeys 1 404 4 4.269 7 0 40 264 127 12 2 447 4 4.354 6 0 31 245 152 17 3 335 4 4.045 17 2 62 303 72 7 4 566 5 4.926 18 0 103 281 55 6 5 482 4 4.549 1 0 15 209 191 24 6 222 3 3.395 4 0 17 252 162 14 7 398 4 4.191 12 0 45 283 107 10 8 485 4 4.500 3 0 21 239 147 26 9 179 3 3.260 8 0 35 281 110 19 Out 3518 35 37.489 -- 2 369 2357 1123 135 10 610 5 5.092 16 0 52 307 81 6 11 453 4 4.179 13 0 53 275 108 6 12 447 4 4.

So what's David Duval's motto this week? "Strike while the fire is hot"? "Wake up and smell the coffee"? "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen"? "Burn, baby, burn"? All right, so Duval wants to win the U.S. Open in the worst way, but second-degree burns probably aren't the best way to get ready. Maybe it's not going to matter that Duval burned his right thumb and index finger on a teapot last Friday and couldn't play at all until his practice round here Tuesday morning.

After three days, 54 holes and enough layers of pain and suffering to pave Tobacco Road, the U.S. Open lurched toward conclusion today at a mean old place called Pinehurst that has Martha's Vineyard left nearly every one of the finest collection of golfers in the world dazed, confused and way over par.

John Cook finished with a 77 and you couldn't exactly say he enjoyed the experience. He also predicted a difficult day for everybody else. "I played this as a par 88," Cook said. "I had 12 birdies. A birdie today is out of the question unless you are off the green and chip it in or hole a bunker shot or make a 30-foot putt. You're not going to get it close from anywhere on the fairway." Cook went from seven over after two rounds to 14 over after three.