U.s. Open Notes: Scott Happy with Round

Scott happy with roundThe “other guy” in the U.S. Open's marquee threesome was happy with his opening round, considering he is playing with a broken bone near his right pinkie.

Australian Adam Scott, ranked No. 3 in the world, shot a 2-over-par 73 and tagged along as Tiger Woods posted a 72 and Phil Mickelson had a 71. Woods and Mickelson are ranked 1-2.

Scott's injury was the top topic after his round.

“Well, it's broken,” he said. “It's not my finger anyway; it's my hand. It doesn't really affect my golf swing, so I'm pretty lucky to be playing.”

Scott, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, said he broke the bone when a friend slammed his hand in a car door in London in mid-May.

Angel skies — sort ofAngel Cabrera opened the defense of his U.S. Open title with a thud. He shot an 8-over 79 and didn't make his first birdie until the par-5 13th.When Hicks in not HicksJustin Hicks went to the golf course, walked around, had a beer and a sandwich. Five hours later, he spotted his name atop the leader board.

Indeed, it was quite a day to be Justin Hicks at Torrey Pines — even if you weren't the Justin Hicks at Torrey Pines.

Turns out, there were two of them out there Thursday.

One was the Nationwide Tour professional, who shot 3-under 68 to share the lead with Kevin Streelman after the opening round. The other was the club professional at Stadium Golf Center in San Diego, who simply drove up the road to watch the action.

“I got home, I had three or four e-mails saying, 'Congrats on the Open,' ” said Hicks, the teaching pro. “I had students saying, 'Wow, you're playing fantastic.' “

But in fact, it was the other Justin Hicks who was making a name for himself.

He is the 33-year-old from Royal Palm Beach, Fla., who has been playing the Nationwide on and off for the past four years. He made it here through qualifying earlier this month.

The other Justin Hicks, a 38-year-old who was born and raised in San Diego, was one of those up-and-comers once, too. He went to UC-Santa Barbara in the early '90s and then transferred to UCLA, where he played golf as a walk-on. In 1995, he went to Q-school and made it to the second round. After that, he played on the Hooters Tour for five or six months.