Temple alum Sisk opens with disappointing 78
Geoffrey Sisk was only 2-over through eight, but struggled during the latter part of his first round.
THE GOOD NEWS for Geoff Sisk was he birdied the 10th hole yesterday at Merion East.
The bad news was that was his final hole of the first round of his seventh U.S. Open. And it left him at 8-over-par 78. But hey, it's something.
Sisk, 48, who calls Massachusetts home, went to Temple a long time ago. This is the sixth time he's made the national championship field via the qualifying process. He made the cut twice, in 1999 (a tie for 30th) and 2004 (t-40). He's made half his career earnings (some $56,000) at this major. He played 1 year (1999) on the PGA Tour. In 2011, he lost his card on the Web.com Tour, and took the next year off. So as he explained in his news conference on Monday, he basically came here with few expectations.
But it was Merion, which he'd never played before despite his time as an Owl.
Sisk was actually only 2-over after eight holes, having made bogeys at two par-4s, 14 and 18. But the front nine was not kind. He bogeyed the par-5 second, which was playing easy compared with most of the course. Then he took a double at the par-3 third. He also bogeyed Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 9 before salvaging something to take home with him to sleep on.
Like a lot of other guys out here, he'll try to do better today.