U.S. Open 2013: Phil Mickelson holds clubhouse lead, Tiger Woods struggles on Thursday at Merion

It was a sun-up to sun-down golf day at Merion, as the first round of the 2013 U.S. Open was interrupted twice by inclement weather before play was suspended due to darkness just before 8:30 p.m. ET. The clubhouse leader is none other than Phil Mickelson, a five-time runner-up at America’s national championship who is hoping to capture the white whale of his career at the historic Philadelphia course. Mickelson’s wild day started before dawn, when his red eye flight from San Diego landed around 4:30 a.m. local time, just hours before his tee time.

There was some consternation about Mickelson’s travel arrangements and preparation, but the veteran lefty obviously felt comfortable with the course and didn’t care much for those critiques. Phil opened with a three-putt bogey that would be his only dropped shot of the a long day. Less than two hours into his round, a severe derecho line of storms hit Philly and caused a three-plus hour rain delay. It was not even 9 a.m. and there was some thought that the entire day would be washed out but Mother Nature did relent, allowing the morning wave to finish up 18. Mickelson carded four birdies, including two over his final four holes to finish the day with only one of the two rounds in the 60s.

Thursday’s second rain delay at Merion may have come at just the right time for Tiger Woods, who walked off the fifth green with a potentially injured wrist and facing his third bogey in five holes. Unlike the morning delay, which lasted more than three hours, the USGA opted to hold the players in place, sending them back out just under an hour after the horn was sounded.

Tiger went back to the fifth green and cleaned up his bogey, a dropped shot that he immediately got back on the next hole. The No. 1 player in the world put his drive in the fairway, but his approach shot was off and landed nearly 75 feet from the hole. Woods was facing a lag situation down to the front left corner of the sixth green, but instead he jarred the putt — a potential turning point after a miserable start:

Tiger Woods is 1-over through his first five holes at Merion, but more concerning than his score is what appears to be a wrist or hand injury. On two separate occasions early in his opening round, Tiger has grimaced in pain and shaken his wrist coming out of shots from the thick rough.

Already over par, Tiger sent his drive off the fairway at No. 5, landing in some thick stuff that required a blast out approach. He went down and dug it out but spent several seconds shaking off his left arm after the shot:

For the second time on Thursday, the 2013 U.S. Open is in a weather delay. A morning delay pushed opening-round play back three-and-a-half hours and now players have been taken off the course a second time.

Rain has been an issue all week at the Merion Golf Club and the issue persists. A storm pushed through, but officials aren’t ruling out getting back on the course on Thursday. An official said players will be held in place as officials monitor the weather radar and determine how to proceed. Regardless, the weather has had a major impact as many players are still in their first nine holes while 15 players have yet to tee off.

Better luck next time, Lee.

The majority of the players are finally on the course, but Phil Mickelson’s 3-under 67 is still good enough to lead the 2013 U.S. Open.

While Mickelson still leads, a few players in later groups have gotten off to solid starts. Estanislao Goya, Carl Pettersson and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott are one stroke back at 2-under. After opening with two pars, Scott recorded back-to-back birdies to move to 2-under through four.

Sergio Garcia got what many observers believe he had coming, when notoriously raucous Philadelphia fans let Tiger Woods’ BFF know how they felt about his fried chicken comment.

NBC reported that hecklers were out in force during Garcia’s first round in the U.S. since he made his racially tinged crack about what he would serve Woods if the two were to dine together this week. Security officials accompanying Garcia during his opening round offered to toss the bums out, but Sergio declined.

After eschewing the chance to sit around the locker room in the rain at Merion Golf Club the last two days, Lefty flew across country to attend his daughter’s eighth-grade graduation, took a red-eye (yeah, it was on his private jet) back from San Diego to Philadelphia for his early-morning tee time on Thursday, and promptly played his way to the top of the U.S. Open leaderboard.

Starting his day with a bogey on the par-4 11th, it appeared that Mickelson may have sacrificed the opportunity for his first Open win with his jet-setting Father of the Year performance. But he got the shot back with a birdie on the 13th. He added three more birdies on the front nine to end his day at 3-under 67 and take the early lead in the clubhouse with Tiger Woods and the rest of the afternoon wave yet to play.

Phil Mickelson is the current leader in the clubhouse after shooting a 67 to open the first round of the 2013 U.S. Open. Mickelson, one of six players currently under par, leads at 3-under.

Mickelson started his round with a bogey at No. 11, but that turned out to be the only shot he dropped on the day. He spent most of the round at even or 1-under, but closed strong with birdies on two of his final four holes to take over the lead. Mickelson’s 67 came just hours after he flew cross-county on a red-eye flight.

Phil Mickelson’s cross-country redeye flight doesn’t seem to be impacting his play in the first round of the U.S. Open as he’s taken over the lead at 2-under.

Mickelson opened the round with a bogey, but quickly rebounded with a birdie two holes later. After five pars to close his back nine, Mickelson birdied No. 1 to move into the red. After another stretch of five straight pars, Mickelson made a short birdie putt at No. 7 to take over the lead.

Being tall is usually considered a disadvantage for a golfer, with length simply creating more room for error on the swing plane. But Tim Clark, who’s generously listed at 5 feet, 7 inches, could have used that length at Merion’s fifth hole, where he found himself in one of those patented U.S. Open uncompromising positions:

Predictably, the result was not positive as his ball landed in more of Merion’s thick rough on the other side of the fairway.

Well, that didn’t take long. A day after the USGA, with great fanfare, debuted a new initiative to speed up play, Bubba Watson was part of a lengthy logjam on the first hole in the weather-delayed opening round of the U.S. Open.

Watson and playing partners Dustin Johnson and Nicolas Colsaerts, members of the first threesome off the 11th tee at 7 a.m. ET Thursday, got seven holes in before the horn sounded. Making good time ahead of the intermission, the three finished 18, only to find themselves in a 25-minute, two-group backup on No. 1.

On Tuesday night at Merion, former U.S. Open winners gathered for a champions dinner. Unlike the Masters, which has a highly-anticipated closed-door traditional dinner at Augusta, this was only the second such champions dinner for the season’s second major. There was a good turnout in Philadelphia, with 27 of the 36 living past champions on hand. The two highest profile attendees were Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who continue their 12-month tour of unrelenting public displays of affection. Tiger, while an intimidating monster on the golf course, remains a huge dork off of it.

h/t Business Insider

Rory Sabbatini wasn’t happy with his shot on No. 7, so naturally he took it out on his glove.

Hopefully his caddie stocked the bag with a few spares.

Sergio Garcia wondered if the distraction of the latest iteration of his long-time spat with Tiger Woods would affect his play at this week’s U.S. Open.

“I don’t know, we’ll see,” Garcia told reporters on Tuesday about whether he would be able to contend this week. “It obviously doesn’t help, but it’s my own fault so I don’t have anyone to blame other than myself.”

Rain already caused one weather delay at the 2013 U.S. Open, but Merion Golf Club is holding up well, including No. 11, despite the delay.

The 11th hole sits at the lowest elevation of the course, leading to some concern that Cobb’s Creek, which borders the green, would flood. So far, that hasn’t been the case.

Tiger Woods will have to wait until late Thursday afternoon -- or more likely Friday -- to get a start on winning his 15th major championship.

Stormy weather forced officials to evacuate Merion Golf Club some two hours into the first round of the U.S. Open, pushing Woods’ official tee time back to 4:48 p.m. ET. Forecasts calling for more bad weather, however, will likely delay his star-studded slugfest with Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott until Friday. With the three-plus hour rain delay early Thursday, there’s a good possibility that the entire afternoon wave, half of the field, does not hit a shot. The first time of the afternoon wave, originally scheduled for 12:30 p.m., is now set for 4:04 p.m. (IF there are no more delays).

It’s pouring over Merion this morning, which means US Open golfers like Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson are stuck waiting for the weather to change. Like children confined to the school bus on a rained-out field trip, they’re getting a little stir crazy:

And even when you let these rascals outdoors, they just can’t behave themselves:

It didn’t take long for the first weather delay at the 2013 U.S. Open. A little under two hours into the opening round, the players were called off Merion’s East Course as the horn sounded with a severe line of storms bearing down on the Philadelphia area.

The weather trouble is not unexpected, as yesterday’s forecast called for a 100 percent chance of rain on Thursday. The nasty line of storms moved through the midwestern part of the country on Wednesday night, and rolled in to the Philly area moving at 60 miles-per-hour. The horn was officially sounded at 8:36 a.m. ET, moving the crowds and players off the course.

When Tiger Woods is playing well, he’s typically the first name people mention when predicting a winner. Woods is once again the No. 1 player in the world and the betting favorite to win the 2013 U.S. Open, but he’s not a runaway favorite, according to the experts.

There was a time when it was not only rare to find an expert not picking Woods, but some would pick him over the entire field heading into a major tournament. Woods is once again the favorite, but only narrowly. Here’s a compilation of expert picks from ESPN.com, PGATour.com, Golfweek.com and CBSSports.com.

All the early morning drama at the start of the U.S. Open centered around two decidedly non-golf stories -- the weather, and Phil Mickelson’s travel arrangements. The incoming line of severe storms that’s rolled through the midwestern part of the country and expected to hit the Philadelphia area by mid-morning has had all the golf writers on-site making their best, and corny derecho jokes. Mickelson’s “bold” attempt to fly a redeye through the night and make his 7:11 a.m. ET tee time was the other item that had the assembled press holding their breath.

Mickelson, however, made it to Merion with plenty of time to spare and was on the grounds and ready to roll by 5:30 a.m., just an hour after his plane from San Diego touched down in Philly. Mickelson, a five-time runner-up at America’s national championship, opted to fly back home for his daughter’s eighth-grade graduation on Wednesday night. His flight itinerary was updated throughout the day on Wednesday, with the latest “reports” that FigJam might not land until close to 5 a.m. The severe weather line moving across the country could have complicated things, but of course, Mickelson was rolling in a comfortable private jet and he had no issues jumping right off the plan and up to Ardmore.

You don’t need to have a TV or be at the Merion Golf Club to watch parts of the first round of the 2013 U.S. Open, because there are options for online and mobile streaming. Viewers won’t be able to watch all of the action live via online streams, but they will be able to follow Thursday’s two marquee groups.

The U.S. Open website has plans to provide an online and mobile stream of two star-packed groups in the first round. The first marquee trio on Thursday includes the pairing of Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Keegan Bradley teeing off at 7:11 a.m. ET.

Annika Sorenstam has a starring role in the “Caddyshack”-inspired “While We’re Young” campaign that the USGA launched on Wednesday, the eve of the U.S. Open. Now, the LPGA Tour Hall of Famer expects golf’s governing body to practice what it preaches if slow players clog up the fairways at Merion as they are wont do do during major championships.

“The USGA [has] to kind of follow through because it wouldn’t look good if it was extremely slow and then you have these campaigns running this week,” Sorenstam told SB Nation in a phone interview.