U.S. OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP : Crenshaw Has 67 and Leads the Big <i> Par</i> ade : It’s a Field Day of Sorts on Olympic Club Course

SAN FRANCISCO —  Par ? Lucky to make par ? The U.S. Open is going to be won by anybody who can make par ? Golfers are known for improving lies, but they can hardly improve on these. When they told these whoppers, they must have had their fingers crossed.

The big story Thursday, after the U.S. Open’s opening round, was who hadn’t made par. Par was literally par for the course.

Ben Crenshaw, the leader, broke it by three strokes with a 67. Six other guys broke it, also, including Seve Ballesteros, Tommy Nakajima and defending champion Raymond Floyd with 68s. And 10 others ended the day at even par. Good thing par wasn’t 71 or 72, or everybody from Bill Buttner to Steve Gotsche would have made it. And they would be chasing Masashi Ozaki.

Jay Don Blake shot par. Lennie Clements shot par. Jim Thorpe, Mark Wiebe, David Frost, Bob Tway, John Cook, Sandy Lyle, blah, blah, blah. All God’s children shot par.

Jack Nicklaus shot par. “If you had told me on Tuesday I’d shoot 70, I’d have laughed in your face,” Nicklaus said. “I’d have said, ‘Make it 72 or 73, and that’d be just fine.”’

Even Dale Douglass shot par. He is 51 years old. He belongs on the Seniors Tour. He belongs in a cart. He hasn’t won a PGA event in seven years. He only qualified for this thing because he won the Senior Open. “I don’t dream about the U.S. Open,” Douglass said. “I dream about the Seniors Tour. This is kind of a vacation for me.”

Come on, vacationers. Visit beautiful San Francisco. Drop by the Olympic Club. Register to play. It might not be too late. Jack Fleck, who won the 1955 U.S. Open here, was among those in the gallery Thursday. Quick, somebody fetch him a box of Titleists and some tees. Jack can make par.

Oh, how cruel the Olympic Club’s Lake course was supposed to be. How rough it was, with all that rough. All that wind. All those tiny, speedy greens. Let’s see, what was it Nicklaus said Tuesday? Oh, yeah. “I’ll be lucky if I shoot 100.” Uh huh. Sure he will. For 27 holes.

These people even took that mean old 428-yard 17th hole and transformed it from a par 5 to a par 4 for the Open. The dirty rats. Poor old Payne Stewart reached that 17th green in three shots and required four putts just to tap the ball into the hole. He triple-bogeyed that sucker. The man who stalked off in his knickers so annoyed with himself wound up shooting . . . 80? 78? Nope. 74.

Oh, Olympic. It brings golfers to their plaid polyester knees. Picture this kid Jay Don Blake, 28 years old, 1980 National Collegiate Athletic Assn. champion out of Utah State, never a winner in a pro tournament. He comes to the U.S. Open, and, on his very first day, four-putts a par 3. Double bogeys the 8th hole. Poor kid. Got him so rattled, the best he could do for the day was a 70.

Or, pity unlucky Lennie Clements. Won the California state high school championship a dozen years ago. Tied for third in a tour event once. Played in the same group with Nicklaus once. Nice fellow from San Diego, hopes to play respectably at the U.S. Open, reaches the 17th hole and bogeys it in 5, a hole that ought to be a 5. Ends up stuck with an ordinary old 70, just like everybody else.

Fifteen other players got 71s, and could have matched par with another inch of roll on a putt here or there. Johnny Miller double-bogeyed 17, bogeyed 18, and still managed 71. Curtis Strange, Sam Randolph and Jim Woodward toured the front nine in 38, and still managed 71s. Bobby Wadkins bogeyed the 16th and 18th, and still managed 71.

“The course was very forgiving today,” said Floyd, the defending champion.

Amen to that.

And why was it forgiving? Because, for one thing, the wind off the ocean died a little. For another thing, Olympic’s greenskeepers went out and watered the greens. Slowed them down. Even slowed down the down-we-go 18th, the green with the grade that slants downhill like a water slide. The green of which Lee Trevino says: “It’s unputtable--forget it.”

Nicklaus, who, had he not bogeyed the final hole, would have joined Nick Price, Bernhard Langer and Denis Watson at 69, said: “It is not what I expected when I got here this morning. They definitely changed the golf course, and I think for the better. For the best interests of the tournament.”

Nothing about the day was what Nicklaus expected. He started making putts on the front nine--from 12 feet, from nine, from eight, from six. “I haven’t been doing that. I’ve been making bogeys. When I walked down the 10th fairway, I almost felt I knew what I was doing.”

Nicklaus curled in a 15-footer at the 15th, then a 20-footer at the 16th. He was so pleased with himself that missing a six-footer for par at the 18th didn’t disturb him a bit. “I’d already made my fair share,” he reasoned.

It was a lovely experience, just as Floyd’s 68 was. “I played a round that’s probably dreamable,” said Floyd, who hit 16 greens in regulation. Yet, the pros were still out there raving and raging about Olympic. Denis Watson called it one of the greatest courses he has ever seen. And they all agreed that if the wind picks up, scores will balloon.

“It’s safe to say we’re in for a stern test. My gosh, it’s difficult out there!” Crenshaw said. “I set a target score for myself of 70, so I feel like I’m three ahead.”

Crenshaw could do no wrong as the back nine began, making birdies with a 60-foot uphill putt at the 11th hole and a 35-foot downhiller at the 13th. “You don’t expect those things in the Open,” he said.

No, what you expect is what happened at the 14th. Crenshaw’s drive went into the left rough, and his seven-iron found the left bunker. Because the sand there was softer than he thought it was, Crenshaw said he “fluffed” the next shot short of the green. He pitched five feet from the cup, but missed the putt. Double bogey.

“You cannot go to sleep for one single second,” said Crenshaw, who has never won the Open. “Not with any part of your game, or with any part of your thought process. It’s almost like you can’t prepare yourself for enough patience.”

Ballesteros knows what he means. At a glance, his nine pars on the front nine made him look steady as a rock. The reality of it was, Ballesteros missed the fairway with his tee shot on seven of the first eight holes. He was all over the place.

The first hole, for instance. The 533-yard par 5, with the panoramic ocean view. Ballesteros opened the Open with a drive into the rough. Then came a seven-iron into the rough. Then came a four-iron into a bunker, still 60 feet from the flag. He blasted to within 10 feet, then sank a tricky putt. And this is Olympic’s easiest hole.

“It’s the easiest hole on the course,” said Ballesteros, who also has never won the Open. “It’s one of the few holes where you can make birdie. If you start with a 6 there, it would be a pain in the . . . uh, ear.”

Once he negotiated the front nine, Ballesteros birdied three of the first four holes on the back and finished at 68. When someone wondered if he gladly would take three more 68s, Ballesteros replied: “I’ll take three 70s. How about that?”

Seventy, Seve?

Well, it isn’t asking much, but at least he’d be breaking 100.

Open Notes Seven holes into the tournament and already seven over par, Corey Pavin withdrew with lower back pain. . . . Dale Douglass passed up a Seniors invitational with a $100,000 first prize on Long Island, N.Y., to play here. When Douglass won $96,000 over a three-week stretch last summer, it was more than he won in any year on the PGA tour. His last tour victory was the 1970 Phoenix Open. . . . “The last time I played here was in the National Amateur in 1958,” Douglass said. “Tommy Aaron beat me in the first round. I told Tommy the other day I was going to beat somebody here in at least one round. Well, I beat somebody today, though I don’t know who.” . . . Bob Tway and Chip Beck both eagled the par 5 first hole. . . . There were only nine birdies all day at the 17th, in 155 chances.