FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The applause started 22 strides before Phil Mickelson reached the 18th green during his practice round, crescendoing until he tipped his cap and nodded in appreciation.

No one, least of all Mickelson, seemed to mind that his ball was in a front bunker.

Mickelson isn't from New York, but for the next week, those strangers behind the ropes at Bethpage Black are his new best friends. For his lone practice round Wednesday, many wore pink shirts and ribbons to show support for his wife Amy's fight with breast cancer, shouted encouragement whenever the world's No. 2 player walked past and even sang a day-late verse of "Happy Birthday."

The U.S. Open began today with Tiger Woods as the favorite — but Mickelson favored by the people.

"I'm putting everything I have into this week, because I don't anticipate being able to play for a little while," Mickelson said. "And the fact that my normal support system, Amy and the kids and so forth, aren't going to make the trip this week, I'm kind of hoping to have that or feel the support to kind of help me through the week."

Mickelson isn't planning to play the British Open, since his wife begins treatment for the recently diagnosed cancer July 1. After this, he doesn't know when or where he'll play again.

He's not here for appearances sake.

He wants to win, believes he can win, believes he can make his wife's request — to bring her that silver championship trophy — happen.

The weight of her cancer looms, though, surely set to make the tough-enough chore of winning a major even more pronounced.

"Hats off to how he's handled it because certainly it's so hard to do," Woods said. "Everywhere you go people are reminding you of it, and you can't get away from it. And you think that the golf course would be your escape, but it's not. You're surrounded by people wishing you well the entire time. ... You just can't get away from it. It's hard."

Woods' defense of his championship started with an adventure.

He pulled his tee shot 50 yards left into the rough before scrambling for an improbable par on his opening hole this morning, as steady rain pelted an already-moist Bethpage Black.

Playing alongside fellow reigning major winners Padraig Harrington and Angel Cabrera, Woods' first shot was so far off line he considered playing a second ball from the tee.

He wound up playing his second from the front of a merchandise tent and got up and down from a greenside bunker for par.

This national championship started with a record 9,086 players sending in entries, eventually getting whittled down through qualifying tournaments and a handful of withdrawals.

At the end, 156 held entries for the U.S. Open.

And now, 155 have the world's No. 1 on their radar.

Woods has never shrouded the fact that major championships are the weeks he builds his year — his career, really — around. Jack Nicklaus, he quickly says, is the greatest golfer of all-time, based on Woods' most simple measuring stick.

"He's got 18," Woods said. "I'm at 14."