US Open snippets - Day One

TaylorMade's Open hats.

Each player keeps the bag he uses in the tournament and autographs the other to be auctioned for charity. Among those representing the brand are Fred Couples, Mike Weir, Darren Clarke, Rich Beem, K.J. Choi, Sergio Garcia, Tom Lehman, Justin Rose, Retief Goosen, Peter Lonard and Kenny Perry.

With so much at stake at the US Open, there are unlikely to be repeats of the Rules violation that has seen four players on the European Tour penalised two shots for accidentally putting croquet style.

Brian Davis - competing at Olympia Fields today - was disqualified during the Deutsche Bank event in Germany last year, while Soren Hansen (Spanish Open), Marcel Siem and Anders Forsbrand (British Masters) were penalised for putting out between their feet while trying to avoid another player's line.

Rule 16-1(e) demands that a player shall not make a stroke on the putting green from a stance astride, or with either foot touching the line of putt or an extension of that line behind the ball."

But John Paramor, officiating this week, and the chief referee on the European Tour, is asking R&A to consider changing the rule.

"It seems almost illogical that you penalise a player for doing something which saves time and prevents standing on someone's line and which is being courteous. It gains no advantage and I have a slight problem with it as it stands.

"It's unusual that the Rules punish you for doing something which the rules are trying to encourage. I'd like to see a different wording."

It's likely that a notice will be posted for players at future European Tour events as a reminder about the Rule.

Padraig Harrington believes the US Open course has been set up to produce a boring winner and says it could even be him!

"The courses we play in Europe definitely require more flare, and that's the last thing you want in a US Open. You want to be a sort of machine, just hit it down the fairway, hit it on the green. Bit like me, really...You want to be the most boring golfer around this week," says the Irishman who has two top-10 finishes at the Open in the last three years.

"It's great to see if you can stay focused and disciplined and not make mental errors over four days."

Soft yellow on Thursday, pistachio on Friday, white on Saturday and deep red and white on Sunday: Tiger Woods has revealed the colours he'll be wearing this week on the course and Nike is preparing for a rush of golfers wishing to emulate him.

Any one of Tiger's 2003 US Open Shirt collection will set you back a minimum of $49.95 and as much as $69.95 for Sunday's scarlet number!

It echoes Jack Nicklaus in his hey-day when the Golden Bear's clothing-makers supplied him with colour co-ordinated boxes of outfits several weeks in advance.

Back then it wasn't necessarily for commercial purposes - merely that Nicklaus is colour-blind!

Masters champion Mike Weir is feeling confident about claiming a second successive major.

He told his TaylorMade colleagues: "The golf course, for me, sets up pretty well. There's obviously a premium on accuracy out here, as at all U.S. Opens, but you're not beaten to death with length. There are some holes that are long, but it's not each and every hole. So I think you're going to see a good mix of players in contention this week, compared to last year."