- The Eleven:  U.S. Opens are famous for producing eclectic leaderboards, particularly in the early going, and this year is proving no exception.  First we have little-known co-leaders Kevin Streelman and Justin Hicks, the first having experienced one previous moment in the sun right here at Torrey Pines back in January, the latter a Nationwide Tour player of little repute.  Such is the group at three-under-par 68.  The foursome at 69 represents a more mixed bag: Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 champion at Winged Foot, must rate as strong a favorite as anyone not named Woods or Mickelson, and Stuart Appleby, a battle-hardened veteran who many have long considered capable of winning a Major championship – a pair nearly offset by young Eric Axley (a PGA Tour winner but hardly an Open favorite) and older Rocco Mediate, a five-time winner but, at age 45 (and sporting a perennially iffy back), another pronounced longshot.  And then we have the fivesome deadlocked at one-under-par 70, an interesting group that includes proven world-class talents like Robert Allenby and Lee Westwood, amateur Rickie Fowler, and a pair of fascinating challengers: world number four Ernie Els (whose game might be rounding back into form at just the right time, and Sweden’s pure-swinging Robert Karlsson, arguably the hottest player on the European Tour in recent weeks.  An eclectic collection to be sure – but with Phil Mickelson at even par and Tiger Woods at one over, how many of them will still matter come Sunday afternoon?

- Malpractice: In a Wednesday column which appeared both here and on the Los Angeles Times website, I took a casual swipe at “U.S. Open Doctor” Rees Jones’s missing the opportunity to build one of the all-time great Redan’s when he renovated Torrey Pines’ 195-yard third hole – and the more I looked at his work during Thursday’s first round, the more painful it got.  Unquestionably a scenic gem, the third plays downhill and across the corner of a canyon to a green situated on a promontory, with a beautiful view down the southward coastline as a backdrop.  Jones’s approach to this uniquely situated greensite.  Build the blandest of bunkers directly in front of the green…and that’s it.  There is virtually no angling of the putting surface to create interesting lines of play, rendering both the bunker and the deep canyon purely frontal hazards, the carrying of which is largely a formality for better players.  This could have/should have been one of the world’s great par threes, but instead one senses that Jones just gave it a quick glance, said “put a bunker here” and moved on.  Perhaps if the other 17 holes weren’t so equally uninspiring, I’d like the place more…
 
- Back, Back, Back, Back…: I guess I’m in the minority here, but I don’t mind ESPN using Chris Berman to anchor their Thursday/Friday U.S. Open coverage.  True, his golf knowledge hardly matches, say, the depth of his NFL wisdom, but his enthusiasm seems genuine and I generally find him an entertaining presence.  Heck, I’ll take Berman’s verbal meanderings over Bobby Clampett’s “brilliance,” Peter Kostis’s psycho-babble swing analysis or Gary McCord’s desperate attempts at humor anytime.  Granted, observing (as he did at Shinnecock Hills) that Japanese star Toru Taniguchi was not related ex-professional wrestler Toru Tankaka showed a certain lack of reverence for the purity of our national championship…but with the USGA signing sponsorship deals with Amex, Lexus, etc., Chris Berman represents the least of our “purity” problems...  
 
- The Masthead Says “Complete Coverage”: Because there must be somebody somewhere who’s interested…  The E Tour’s St. Omer Open is also being contested this week.  Oddly, it is an official event on both the European and Challenge Tours (tough to envision the PGA and Nationwide Tours doing that…) and, predictably, its field is…not the strongest.  To wit: the top 10 names on the board after Thursday’s opening round are Roope Kakko, Adrien Bernadet, Marcus Higley, Mikko Korhonen, John Morgan, Steven Jeppesen, Jan-Are Larsen, Gareth Maybin, Steve Benson and Lawrence Dodd – and with the possible exception of Benson, I do not believe I’ve even heard of any of them.  And just in case anyone thinks I arbitrarily cut it off at 10 to avoid a bigger name or two, the next name in line is one Thomas Feyrsinger.  “Complete Coverage” of this event, then, is on hiatus until Sunday.