SAN FRANCISCO — The putt on the last hole hurt, and so did Casey Martin's leg. He limped off the final green uncertain of his chances of playing on the weekend, though that didn't seem to matter to the crowd gathered on the hillside.

They rose to applaud the effort, if not the score that missed the cut by one stroke.

He shot two respectable rounds on a brutally tough golf course, not bad for a guy who hadn't competed seriously for six years.

His rounds of 74-75 shouldn't have been too surprising, because the talent has always been there. It's the leg that's always been the problem, though Martin wasn't about to use it as an excuse.

"The biggest thing is actually just thinking like a great player," he said. "That's the challenge when you haven't done it and you have some bad shots that creep in there."

Martin is 40 now, and his day job is being the golf coach at Oregon, not chasing Tiger Woods in the majors. That he was able to get through qualifying rounds and make the Open for the first time since it was held here 14 years ago was remarkable enough, even if he didn't have a circulatory disorder that he thought by now might have taken his right leg.

"These are experiences that don't come around very often, to get to play in a U.S. Open in these conditions. So it's a special week."

Big names gone

The record-setting U.S. Open winner. The Masters champion. The top-ranked player in the world.

Gone. Gone. Gone.

The Olympic Club clobbered Rory McIlroy (10 over), Bubba Watson (9 over) and Luke Donald (11 over) in two rounds at the U.S. Open.

"Disappointed," said McIlroy, the second-ranked player who finished at 268 last year at Congressional to break the 72-hole record by four shots. "It wasn't the way I wanted to play."

Not even close.

ELSEWHERE

• Sihwan Kim of South Korea birdied his last two holes to shoot a 2-under 69 and lead by a stroke at 6-under 136 at the Saint-Omer Open in France.