The U.S. Open golf championship from Merion Golf Club was delayed by rain twice and while the course wreaked havoc on players, Phil Mickelson stood above the rest on the leaderboard, finishing ahead of Luke Donald and Nicolas Colsaerts with a one under to take the clubhouse lead.
Tiger Woods struggled with an early two over as he had to get back on the course on Friday to finish the first round and after possibly injuring his wrist, the star said that he was fine and now he will try to storm back on Friday in the second round. Many felt that the birdies would be in full supply with the slow course but so far that has not happened and payers are looking to try and make up some shots on Friday after the delays on Thursday. Mickelson is now in position to get his first Open if he can keep things up through the weekend.
Woods and Rory McIlroy were playing on Friday morning and Mickelson has the chance to save himself his past heartbreak, as he has come in second five times by a combined nine shots and now he will try to get his first Open major. Merion has not hosted the major in over 30 years and the course showed off its toughness due to the weather and a number of players had issues on the greens and on the course on Thursday, including Rickie Fowler and Adam Scott, who had to deal with a possible violation, but was cleared.
Donald and Colaserts had solid rounds and now Fowler, Woods and others must rally to get in front on the leaderboard ahead of Mickelson, who will try to hold onto things into Sunday. Scott comes into the tournament after winning the Masters, while Woods has won four times on tour this year and has the chance to get his first major since 2008, which was also the US Open and he won that in a playoff. Scott had to deal with a possible rule issue when some viewers said he may have grounded his club in a hazard after hitting a tee shot and once it was looked at they ruled that he did not ground the club and after the round was getting close to done, him and McIlroy were one off the leader while Woods struggled.
"What I love about Merion and what they did to Merion in the setup is they made the hard holes even harder," the left-hander said.
"They moved the tees back on the more difficult holes, which made it even tougher pars. I love that because if you're playing well, you're going to be able to make pars and you're going to be able to separate yourself from the field by making pars.
"But on the easy holes, they didn't trick them up and take away your birdie opportunities. They gave you birdie opportunities to get those strokes back.
"So I think it's the best U.S. Open setup I've ever seen."
"I think that (people) in that commentary box have never given this golf course enough respect," said Englishman Ian Poulter, who started out Thursday morning with three birdies in a row after teeing off from the 11th before finishing with 71.
"They were joking around laughing at 63s and 62s and just look at the board. I mean they need to respect this golf course. It's brutal.
"The long holes are severely long. Yes, we're making birdies on those short holes, but look what we have to contend with out there on those long holes. It's not easy."
