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.
U.S. Open scores 2013: Luke Donald leads, Tiger Woods struggles as play suspended Thursday night
With only half the field done with 18, it’s Phil Mickelson who holds the clubhouse lead at Merion.
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.
Luke Donald came on late, picking up three straight birdies on holes 11 through 13 before play was called for the day. Donald holds a one-shot margin over the clubhouse leader Mickelson, but still has five more holes to play. And those five are the toughest stretch on the course, Merion’s diabolical finishing five. Tiger Woods, who is currently 2-over, also has to play that stretch and will start Friday morning with a par putt on the 11th green. That’s where it went sideways for Woods on Thursday, as he struggled to get the green speeds down and looked lost with the putter at times.
The last groups out on the course are only through their first four holes, so there’s still a significant amount of the first round remaining when things restart at 7:15 a.m. Friday. But here’s your current leaderboard after the first day:
| Place | Player | Score | Thru |
| 1 | Luke Donald | -4 | 13 |
| 2 | Phil Mickelson | -3 | F |
| T3 | Adam Scott | -2 | 10 |
| T3 | Webb Simpson | -2 | 8 |
| T3 | Mathew Goggin | -2 | 6 |
| T3 | Alistair Presnell | -2 | 6 |
| T7 | Nicolas Colsaerts | -1 | F |
| T7 | Lee Westwood | -1 | 13 |
| T7 | Estanislao Goya | -1 | 11 |
| T7 | Peter Hedblom | -1 | 11 |
| T7 | Chris Williams (a) | -1 | 10 |
| T7 | Carl Pettersson | -1 | 9 |
| T7 | Steven Alker | -1 | 6 |
| T7 | Brandon Brown | -1 | 4 |
| T7 | Gavin Hall (a) | -1 | 5 |
| T16 | Tim Clark | E | F |
| T16 | Charl Schwartzel | E | F |
| T16 | Jerry Kelly | E | F |
| T16 | Jason Day | E | F |
| T16 | Rickie Fowler | E | F |
| T16 | John Senden | E | 11 |
| T16 | Rory McIlroy | E | 11 |
| T16 | Michael Thompson | E | 9 |
| T16 | Ernie Els | E | 8 |
| T16 | Kyle Stanley | E | 7 |
| T16 | Jung-gon Hwang | E | 5 |
| T16 | Morten Orum Madsen | E | 6 |
| T16 | Branden Grace | E | 7 |
| T16 | Matt Bettencourt | E | 5 |
| T16 | Hideki Matsuyama (a) | E | 7 |
| T16 | Adam Hadwin | E | 5 |
| T16 | John Nieporte | E | 5 |
| T16 | Jesse Smith | E | 4 |
| T16 | Bio Kim | E | 5 |
| T35 | Dustin Johnson | 1 | F |
| T35 | Bubba Watson | 1 | F |
| T35 | Steve Stricker | 1 | F |
| T35 | Justin Rose | 1 | F |
| T35 | George Coetzee | 1 | F |
| T35 | Charley Hoffman | 1 | F |
| T35 | John Huh | 1 | F |
| T35 | Ian Poulter | 1 | F |
| T35 | Scott Stallings | 1 | F |
| T35 | Kevin Phelan (a) | 1 | F |
| T35 | K.J. Choi | 1 | 9 |
| T35 | Jamie Donaldson | 1 | 8 |
| T35 | Kevin Streelman | 1 | 7 |
| T35 | Bo Van Pelt | 1 | 7 |
| T35 | Russell Knox | 1 | 5 |
| T35 | Brandon Crick | 1 | 5 |
| T51 | Hunter Mahan | 2 | F |
| T51 | Stewart Cink | 2 | F |
| T51 | Shawn Stefani | 2 | F |
| T51 | Nicholas Thompson | 2 | F |
| T51 | Mike Weir | 2 | F |
| T51 | Cheng Tsung Pan (a) | 2 | F |
| T51 | Angel Cabrera | 2 | 13 |
| T51 | Geoff Ogilvy | 2 | 13 |
| T51 | Jim Furyk | 2 | 12 |
| T51 | Marc Leishman | 2 | 11 |
| T51 | Tiger Woods | 2 | 10 |
| T51 | Scott Langley | 2 | 10 |
| T51 | Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano | 2 | 10 |
| T51 | Michael Weaver (a) | 2 | 10 |
| T51 | Luke Guthrie | 2 | 7 |
| T51 | Eddie Pepperell | 2 | 7 |
| T51 | Josh Teater | 2 | 7 |
| T51 | Yoshinobu Tsukada | 2 | 7 |
| T51 | Edward Loar | 2 | 6 |
| T51 | Sang-Moon Bae | 2 | 6 |
| T51 | Max Homa | 2 | 6 |
| T51 | Billy Horschel | 2 | 7 |
| T51 | Jim Herman | 2 | 5 |
| T51 | Grayson Murray (a) | 2 | 4 |
| T51 | Matt Harmon | 2 | 5 |
| T51 | Zack Fischer | 2 | 5 |
| T51 | Ryan Sullivan | 2 | 5 |
| T78 | Nick Watney | 3 | F |
| T78 | Paul Casey | 3 | F |
| T78 | Marcel Siem | 3 | F |
| T78 | Sergio Garcia | 3 | F |
| T78 | Padraig Harrington | 3 | F |
| T78 | Fredrik Jacobson | 3 | F |
| T78 | Michael Kim (a) | 3 | F |
| T78 | John Peterson | 3 | F |
| T78 | Chris Doak | 3 | F |
| T78 | Kevin Sutherland | 3 | F |
| T78 | Jaco Van Zyl | 3 | F |
| T78 | Ryan Nelson | 3 | F |
| T78 | Jose Maria Olazabal | 3 | 14 |
| T78 | David Toms | 3 | 14 |
| T78 | Paul Lawrie | 3 | 13 |
| T78 | Brian Stuard | 3 | 11 |
| T78 | Martin Kaymer | 3 | 13 |
| T78 | Zach Johnson | 3 | 12 |
| T78 | Graeme McDowell | 3 | 12 |
| T78 | Morgan Hoffmann | 3 | 10 |
| T78 | Thongchai Jaidee | 3 | 10 |
| T78 | Casey Wittenberg | 3 | 10 |
| T78 | Francesco Molinari | 3 | 9 |
| T78 | Joe Ogilvie | 3 | 7 |
| T78 | Kevin Chappell | 3 | 8 |
| T78 | Russell Henley | 3 | 6 |
| T78 | Jordan Spieth | 3 | 6 |
| T105 | Peter Hanson | 4 | F |
| T105 | Lucas Glover | 4 | F |
| T105 | Matt Kuchar | 4 | F |
| T105 | Brandt Snedeker | 4 | F |
| T105 | David Lingmerth | 4 | F |
| T105 | Martin Laird | 4 | F |
| T105 | Jason Dufner | 4 | F |
| T105 | Henrik Stenson | 4 | F |
| T105 | Simon Khan | 4 | F |
| T105 | Robert Karlsson | 4 | F |
| T105 | Jay Don Blake | 4 | F |
| T105 | Brandt Jobe | 4 | F |
| T105 | Randall Hutchison | 4 | F |
| T105 | Steven Fox (a) | 4 | 9 |
| T105 | Scott Piercy | 4 | 8 |
| T105 | D.A. Points | 4 | 7 |
| T121 | Cliff Kresge | 5 | F |
| T121 | Aaron Baddeley | 5 | F |
| T121 | Louis Oosthuizen | 5 | F |
| T121 | Boo Weekley | 5 | F |
| T121 | Matteo Manassero | 5 | F |
| T121 | Ryan Palmer | 5 | F |
| T121 | Doug LaBelle II | 5 | F |
| T121 | Matt Weibring | 5 | F |
| T121 | John Hahn | 5 | F |
| T121 | Mackenzie Hughes | 5 | F |
| T121 | Darren Clarke | 5 | 14 |
| T121 | Justin Hicks | 5 | 11 |
| T133 | Ryan Yip | 6 | F |
| T133 | John Parry | 6 | F |
| T133 | Ted Potter, Jr. | 6 | F |
| T133 | Hiroyuki Fujita | 6 | F |
| T133 | Michael Campbell | 6 | F |
| T133 | Wil Collins | 6 | F |
| T133 | Harold Varner, III | 6 | F |
| T133 | David Howell | 6 | 11 |
| T133 | Brendan Steele | 6 | 11 |
| T133 | Marcus Fraser | 6 | 11 |
| T143 | Keegan Bradley | 7 | F |
| T143 | Bill Haas | 7 | F |
| T143 | Rory Sabbatini | 7 | F |
| T143 | Y.E. Yang | 7 | F |
| T143 | Thorbjorn Olesen | 7 | 10 |
| T148 | Rikard Karlberg | 8 | F |
| T148 | Yui Ueda | 8 | F |
| T148 | David Hearn | 8 | F |
| T148 | Geoffrey Sisk | 8 | F |
| 152 | Ryan Moore | 9 | F |
| T153 | Roger Tambellini | 10 | F |
| T153 | Robert Garrigus | 10 | F |
| T155 | Andrew Svoboda | 11 | F |
| T155 | Cory McElyea | 11 | F |
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