US Women's Open Stat Pack for Round One

Oakmont alone is a naturally compelling host course for a tournament of any kind.  For a national championship like the US Women's Open, it becomes even more interesting and grueling.  That showed on day one, where just five players finished under par for the day.

The par 71 for the ladies played to a course average of just over 77 strokes.  On the average, a player posted +6 today.  Sure, two rounds of 86 skew the average a bit, but that is still substantial.  And this is just the first round.

Just one hole played under par today, and that was by 0.1 stokes.  The sub-500 yard par 5 ninth played to 4.9.

Distance was not that much of a factor.  Among the leaders, Brittany Lang was 143 in the field off of the tee.  MJ Hur was 64th.  Inbee Park - the '08 champion - was the exception.  She leads the field in driving distance.

Putting was not the problem, as players averaged 1.8 putts per hole.  It was hitting the greens.  Most leaders hit two-thirds of the greens or better.  Leader Brittany Lang is the exception at 61%.

Missing the fairway was a half-stroke penalty - what one would expect for an Open.  Just over half of the greens were hit in regulation today.  In fact, Meaghan Francella led the field with 86% fairways hit.  She is 50th right now.

This Open is just beginning to take shape, but day one can tell us a lot about what a course may give during tournament week.  Oakmont, though, just takes.  If a player can find a way to hit a lot of greens, the field is stroking it conservatively enough to lead to pars.

And this week, perhaps even more so than at Pebble, pars will win the Open.