Meet Your Current US Open (Co) Leader: Jeff Brehaut

46 year old journeyman Jeff Brehaut leads the open with three other players at -1.  Brehaut is the only player in that lead group at the top to have played more than four holes.  He is through 11.  Given that he leads the championship right now, he would seem fine with how the course played today.

"Through the first ten holes, it was wet, but the course was holding up pretty well.  But when we got to the second green [his 11th hole], we all looked at each other and said, 'It can't handle it anymore.'"

Brehaut powered through the extra distance created by the weather.  He was hitting medalwoods into holes for approach shots instead of long irons.  He said, "The ball just wasn't going very far."

Despite the fact that ball didn't fly all that far, Brehaut said that the greens actually were faster today than yesterday.

"Yesterday, they picked up about a foot and a half in speed.  Today, they were surprisingly faster, how much water they had on there.  Even after it had rained for an hour and a half they were quicker than they were on Monday and Tuesday."

Brehaut will have to finish his round tomorrow on a course that will be heavily worked overnight so that it can be playable.  Regardless of how tomorrow goes, he will be happy to have the opportunity to get a second crack at the Open.  His first appearance in the Open was at Oakmont in 2007 at age 44.  Brehaut finished T17 then and is off to a good start in improving on that finish here at Bethpage.

"To get a second crack at [the Open] after playing pretty well at Oakmont...to be here right now is pretty cool."