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Open Bethpage

Golf-Open-Play suspended at saturated Bethpage

 Greens under water in first round

* Woods trails early leaders by two shots

(Adds more quotes, detail)

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

FARMINGDALE, New York, June 18 (Reuters) - Play was suspended at the rain-lashed U.S. Open on Thursday because of too much water on the greens, virtually ensuring the first round would spill over into Friday.

Although squeegees were being used on every green at Bethpage Black, organisers decided to call a halt at 1015 local time (1415 GMT) with only half the field of 156 out on the course.

Little-known American Jeff Brehaut led at one under par after 11 holes, level with Swede Johan Edfors (four holes), Canadian Andrew Parr (three) and American Ryan Spears (three).

Holder Tiger Woods, the heavy favourite this week in pursuit of his 15th major title, was one over after six holes.

Persistent rain over the last six weeks had saturated the hilly 7,426-yard layout and further showers and thunderstorms have been forecast on Long Island for the next four days.

"The volume of rainfall was outpacing our ability to squeegee the greens," chairman of the championship committee Jim Hyler told reporters.

"That was the bottom line. The greens became unplayable and we just needed to suspend."

Based on local weather forecasts, Hyler was optimistic the rain would ease considerably by 1330 (1730 GMT).

"We may still get some showers for a little bit beyond that but we're hopeful we'll get a window of maybe three to five hours this afternoon where we can play golf," he said. "We can then get a lot done."

LITTLE CHANCE

Although Friday's forecast was much more promising, Hyler said there was little chance of completing the second round before Saturday.

"If we lose half a day today it would be impossible to catch up tomorrow so we may be looking at Saturday morning to get the second round finished, get the cut and go from there," he added.

Hyler said the tees had been brought forward on the seventh, ninth, 10th and 12th holes for the opening round to give the players some relief on the sixth longest layout to stage a major championship.

Seven of the par-four holes are in excess of 450 yards with three of them measuring more than 500.

Although the tight fairways are flanked by graduated rough, extensive rain in recent weeks has left the tangly grass wet, making it difficult for players to escape without penalty.

"Five or six yards off the fairway is where the heavy stuff starts and that's really bad," said 2006 champion Geoff Ogilvy of Australia.

"The guy who gets it up-and-down from 100 yards is going to be in good shape this week because there's going to be a lot of hacking out of the rough."

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Greens under water in first round

Female (Stacy Lewis) in the US Open golf tournament?

Stacy Lewis, an LPGA player, appears to be in the field for the US Open this week at Bethpage. I can't find anything about it, other than her scorecard on Yahoo Sports. How did she qualify? Why isn't anything being mentioned about it?
Here is where I saw it:

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/players/Stacy+Lewis/8689/scorecard/2009/24

Must be a typo; thanks for the responses.

I am not sure where you are looking but I went to this site: http://www.usopen.com/en_US/players/index.html and there is no Stacy Lewis listed. There is a Scott Lewis.

Bethpage Black US Open Rocco Mediate Slo Mo