The top-three players in the world were paired together for the first two rounds at the U.S. Open Championship. After Thursday's first round, at least two of them might like to run and hide. World No. 3 Lee Westwood had the best round of the group as he carded a three- over 73 to end tied for 40th.
Rory McIlroy, the second-ranked player in the world, carded just one birdie en route to a seven-over 77. The defending champion missed more greens in regulation (12) today than he did in four rounds last year at Congressional Country Club (10).
World No. 1 Luke Donald went birdie-free in his round of nine-over 79.After one round, the cut line would be plus-four. That will likely move higher. Donald will likely have to break par tomorrow if he hopes to play the weekend, while McIlroy will need no worse than an even-par round to stick around for the final two rounds.Westwood stumbled out of the gate with a double-bogey on the first. He also dropped shot on the fourth and sixth to slide to plus-four.The Englishman posted his first birdie at the short seventh, but he tripped to a bogey on the ninth. Westwood parred seven in a row from the 10th. He birdie No. 17 to get back to plus-three. He parred the last to end there.McIlroy bogeyed the first. He birdied three of five holes from the fifth to finish nine holes at plus-four. After a bogey at 12, he carded his only birdie of the day at the par-three 12th.The Northern Irishman stumbled to three bogeys in his last four holes to end in a tie for 109th.
Four times in his round, Donald posted back-to-back bogeys. He did it at one and two, then again at five and six. He parred the next three to post 38 after nine holes.On the back side, he bogeyed two straight from the 10th and again from the 13th. Donald's final bogey came on the long par-five 16th.
2012 US Open
Jun 14-17 - Purse: $8,000,000
Olympic Club - Lake Course - San Francisco, California, United States
Leaderboard - Ongoing R1 R2 R3 R4 Total Thru
1 Michael Thompson -4 – – – -4 18
T2 Tiger Woods -1 – – – -1 18
T2 David Toms -1 – – – -1 18
T2 Justin Rose -1 – – – -1 18
T2 Graeme McDowell -1 – – – -1 18
T2 Nick Watney -1 – – – -1 18
T7 Jim Furyk E – – – E 18
T7 Robert Karlsson E – – – E 18
T7 Matt Kuchar E – – – E 18
T7 Ian Poulter E – – – E 18
