U.S. Open 2015: Leaderboard, live updates, scores from Thursday’s round at Chambers Bay

The U.S. Open is commonly referred to the “toughest test in golf.” The goal of the USGA is try and produce a champion that finishes four rounds at even-par. It varies from year to year and course to course, but this is typically the hardest tournament for scoring all season. Bogeys are everywhere and birdies are few and far between. That’s a dramatic departure from the other majors, which often let course and conditions dictate the kind of championship it will be and have no issue crowning a champion that finished double-digit under-par.

Some prefer the birdies and big leaderboard charges of the PGA Championship, while others like to watch the best in the world get punished on some of the USA’s most scenic and historic venues. We typically know what we’re getting at a U.S. Open, but this year is different.

It didn’t take Sergio Garcia long to commence harping about the conditions at Chambers Bay, specifically the putting surfaces, which are visually pleasing to no one.

Garcia ended his personal three-year U.S. Open over-par streak with a 70 Thursday to sit five shots off the opening-round 5-under pace set by Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson. But it took the former El Nino 33 putts to get there, and he went to Twitter to express his displeasure with the blotchy, erratic greens.

Heading into the 2015 U.S. Open, some predicted the winning score would end up over par. If the first round is any indication, that won’t be the case, although Chambers Bay did prove to be a challenge for many. Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson are tied for the first-round lead after they carded 5-under rounds of 65. While Johnson and Stenson went low, Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler had disastrous rounds and saw their U.S. Open chances evaporate.

The long-hitting Johnson was nearly flawless on the round. He moved to 6-under after 16 holes and hit the ball extremely well from tee to green. His only blemish on the round came when he bogeyed his final hole of the day. Johnson consistently found the fairway and hit greens in regulation. His length off the tee gives him a solid advantage, and if he continues to be accurate, he could be the one to beat moving forward. Stenson closed with a fury, carding four birdies in his final five holes to tie for the 18-hole lead.

Tiger Woods got off to a rough start at the U.S. Open and the problems only compounded as he made his way around Chambers Bay. The result was one of the worst rounds in his professional career, a 10-over round of 80. Contending is completely out of the picture and even making the cut will be an extreme challenge. Woods needs to rebound in a major way to avoid being among the bottom few on the leaderboard. He’s currently tied for 153rd place out of 156 players.

Woods’ game hasn’t been good for a while -- he carded a career-worst 85 in his last tournament -- and nothing he tried on Thursday worked. He couldn’t hit fairways, he couldn’t hit greens and he couldn’t putt when he finally found the surface. Woods didn’t make a birdie until his 16th hole and by then it was way too late.

Tiger Woods’ worst career U.S. Open round is coming to a fitting end. After making a birdie at the 16th, and grinding out a par at the 17th, Woods piped his drive into the fairway at the last. But he was not going to sneak out of Chambers Bay unscathed.

Tiger pulled a fairway wood and proceeded to top it -- just a complete junk ball right into a miserably deep bunker, known as Chambers basement, that sits in the middle of the fairway. It was the kind of shot that weekend hackers and chops hit with regularity, and one final touch of embarrassment on another gruesome day.

The Tiger train wreck has continued on the back nine of his first round at the U.S. Open. And FOX isn’t helping. One of the ways they sought to improve the broadcast in their first year as a rights holder was an increased use of ProTracer. It’s the technology that most close golf-watchers drool over, but the cost makes it hard for the networks to use extensively. Well, FOX was on the spot when Tiger strolled to the 13th tee and rocketed this low burner way off line. The ProTracer artwork made it look worse than the result, but Tiger angrily trudged off the tee after the shot on his way to another bogey.

Woods’ shot was bad, but it’s far from the greatest ProTracer tragedy of the U.S. Open. That belongs to Steve Stricker, who shanked one off into the trees at Merion two years ago.

The last time we saw Tiger Woods play competitively, he was all out of sorts at the Memorial including a round of 85, the worst in his professional career. Things aren’t going much better for him during the first round of the 2015 U.S. Open.

Woods opened the tournament with back-to-back bogeys on the opening two holes. He drilled his first tee shot of the tournament and split the fairway, but a poor second shot was a sign of things to come. He burned the lip on a potential par putt to open with a bogey. Those issues continued during his first six holes as he carded four bogeys to go along with two pars. The 4-over through six holes start is the worst of his U.S. Open career, according to Justin Ray of Golf Channel.

Tiger Woods is having a very rough go of it at the U.S. Open. How bad is it? Things like this are happening.

Tiger Woods is in the midst of what started as a lousy first round at the U.S. Open. While he makes his way around Chambers Bay, a plane is flying overhead toting a “Cheater” banner. No, seriously.

You can kinda, sorta make out the sign in this picture from SB Nation’s Brendan Porath:

No player may have any history or relationship with Chambers Bay and these Pacific Northwest fans, but one marched around Thursday as the king of the U.S. Open championship.

Phil Mickelson strolled through the first round of his national championship, in a region where he’s never played, owning the place. We’re used to identifying a player with a specific tournament or championship based on their dominance or relation to the region (e.g. Arnie at Augusta, Tiger at Torrey). But the inverse has occurred with the U.S. Open. Mickelson’s repeated failures and close calls have made this tournament his big week every year, and it will be so until he wins one. At 45-years-old, with a record six runner-up finishes and one outstanding gap in the career slam, he’s the headliner of this championship and the tournament’s most compelling player.

The U.S. Open is a lot of things. It is the so-called toughest test in golf. It is a tournament that anyone can play (in theory). It is also the last time Tiger Woods hoisted a major championship trophy. And just as we discuss firm greens, deep rough, and the relativity of par this time of year, we now also have to examine the years since Tiger’s last major victory.

It has now been seven years since that victory at Torrey Pines. At the time, it was a heroic effort that stunned pundits and doctors alike. On a broken leg, Tiger Woods endured the toughest test in golf and prevailed in a 19-hole playoff against journeyman Rocco Mediate. At the time, it seemed Tiger was well on track to win several more majors and zip past Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championship victories.

It turns out a little water did wonders for scoring conditions at the U.S. Open. The USGA watered the course overnight and used relatively tame pin placements for the first round, leading to several players dipping well into the red during the first round. The field is currently led by Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson who both managed to shoot 5-under rounds of 65.

Johnson was nearly flawless in the first round, carding two birdies in his first three holes. He made the turn at 3-under and continued to pile up birdies with four more dipping him to 6-under through 16 holes. With a Par 5 among the final two holes, it appeared Johnson might go really low. Instead, he limped in with a par at No. 8 and a bogey on his final hole of the day.

Chambers Bay is hilly, slippery and difficult to watch actual golf at. We knew this from the U.S. Amateur in 2010, when looser rope rules led to fans sliding off hills and suffering injuries. The USGA learned from five years ago and was more conservative about where fans can be when roping the course this time -- safety is the reasoning and it’s the correct reasoning.

But that doesn’t mean that fans who came to Chambers Bay to watch the U.S. Open understand or are happy with the decisions regarding the spectator area.

Thursday was a grind for Bubba Watson at the U.S. Open as he opened with a double bogey and was forced to battle his way back. He was able to do that, despite another double bogey, but by No. 18 the long, slow grind caught up to him. The course is playing just a bit more than five hours and Watson was forced into a wait on No. 18 as he attempted to go for the green in two at the Par 5. He wasn’t very happy about it.

Watson hit a decent-but-not-great shot, and then blamed it on the slow play ahead of him. “Waiting thirty minutes. Man, this is pathetic professional golf.”

Chambers Bay is indeed proving to be a difficult challenge during the first round of the 2015 U.S. Open, but scoring hasn’t been as bad as some expected. There are birdies to be made, and several players in the morning wave have dipped into red numbers. That includes Phil Mickelson, but Lefty has run into some recent issues.

Mickelson got off to a tremendous start with three birdies and no bogeys on his first nine to make the turn at 32 and 3-under. That was good enough to jump him atop the early leaderboard. The back nine, however, has been a much taller task. After not dropping a shot during his opening nine, Mickelson bogeyed three of his first five holes on the back nine. He was able to mix in a birdie, but he fell from the lead at 3-under to just barely in the red at 1-under. Mickelson has run into some short game problems, with a few poor chips and bunker shots costing him in the early going.

Chambers Bay is a difficult golf course, but becomes nearly impossible when players make it harder than it needs to be. That’s exactly what Bubba Watson did on No. 10 when he opted against using a backdrop to filter the ball to the pin and instead attempted a hero flop shot out of a bunker.

It did not go well.

Hi, imagine yourself at age 15, playing one of the biggest sporting events in America, something you’ve been dreaming about your whole life.

It’d be like that. Go get ‘em, Cole Hammer.

Shortly after Chambers Bay opened in 2007, I played with someone who had been out at the course. After asking about the setup and how it played, the person offered some unsolicited advice: “Get a caddie. You have to play it with a caddie.”

This isn’t just because Chambers is devoid of flat spots and built along the counters of a gravel pit that makes it difficult, even dangerous, to walk at times. Instead, the caddies were so full of information about the course that it made playing it well next to impossible without knowing the nooks and crannies around each hole.

Rory McIlroy may have mocked USGA executive director Mike Davis for warning some weeks ago that anyone hoping to win this week’s U.S. Open better get his butt to Chambers Bay early and often.

“What’s Mike Davis’ handicap,” McIlroy asked sarcastically back in May.

This isn’t your typical U.S. Open. From the off-the-beaten-path location in the Pacific Northwest to the style of Chambers Bay, things are going to look new this year. The 2015 U.S. Open requires an atypical skill set more likely suited for The Open than … The Open That Likes Punishing Rough And Trees And Precise Target Golf.

If you want the best sampling of what Chambers Bay has to offer during the U.S. Open, there are some specific things to watch. Along with the nuances of the course, and all its nooks and crannies and punishing spots for misses, there are some unique shots to be played and strategies to be deployed.

When Graeme McDowell talked about the “carnage” that could ensue this week at the “fast and fiery,” burned-out Chambers Bay he did not mean it literally. He could have, though, since caddies for Henrik Stenson and Stephen Gallacher both fell and suffered injuries during practice rounds on Wednesday afternoon.

Gareth Lord, who loops for Stenson, slipped as he was leaving the 16th tee box and fell on his wrist.

Chambers Bay will take center stage of the golf world on Thursday when players tee it up and the 2015 U.S. Open begins. The 8-year-old course is hosting its first major championship and figures to be the center of attention as the field attempts to master the challenging setup. The uniqueness of the links-style course in the U.S. Open combined with a field loaded with the best players in the world should make for must-see action on Thursday.

Fortunately for viewers, there will not be any Masters-like restrictions of coverage. Instead, FOX will make it’s U.S. Open coverage debut with a full slate of live action. That includes both on television and online with multiple stream options available. FOX won the rights to broadcast the U.S. Open with a lucrative 10-year deal beginning this year. That means no more NBC and ESPN at the U.S. Open. It will also mean several new voices covering the action with Joe Buck and Greg Norman headlining the television coverage.

If you tune in to the first round of the U.S. Open golf tournament on Thursday and expect traditional U.S. Open coverage from a traditional U.S. Open type course, you’re in for a major surprise. Not only will the course look a little different with the links-style Chambers Bay hosting, but television coverage will be significantly different with Fox making its major championship broadcast debut.

While ESPN and NBC combined to broadcast the U.S. Open for a number of years, FOX won the bid for the rights as part of a 10-year deal worth a reported $1.2 billion. This is the first year of the deal with Joe Buck, Greg Norman and others making their coverage debuts in place of Chris Berman and the typical ESPN crew. Although the voices will be different, there won’t be a lack of first round coverage. FOX Sports 1 and FOX will combine to air nearly 12 hours of live television coverage. FOX Sports Go will provide a simulcast online stream of the television coverage with an additional stream for featured groups, holes and the “U.S. Open 360” coverage. Those without access to FOX Sports Go can watch featured group streams, featured hole streams of Nos. 12 and 15 and the “U.S. Open 360” coverage on USOpen.com.

In the days leading up to the 2015 U.S. Open, the focus has been on the course at Chambers Bay and the challenge its unique layout will provide. That will change some on Thursday with players finally begin to make their way around the links track for the first 18 of 72 championship holes.

The course will still be a major factor, especially depending on how the USGA decides to set it up, but the world class field will begin to steal the attention away. A total of 156 players are set to tee off in the first round, ranging from the world No. 1 Rory McIlroy to 15-year-old sectional qualified Cole Hammer. The field is loaded with possible story lines, headlined by Phil Mickelson who will make yet another run at the career grand slam. Mickelson is a U.S. Open victory away from winning every major championship. That’s despite his best efforts, including six second-place finishes in this event. He came close again two years ago at Merion Golf Club and finished second at the Masters this season.

Marijuana is legal in both Washington and Colorado, and shops to buy legal weed are all over the Seattle area at this point. With the U.S. Open in Tacoma at Chambers Bay, I wondered if fans could just walk in with their completely legal marijuana.

So at the risk of getting put on some kind of list you don’t want to be on, I asked. Turns out fans are allowed to come through the security gates with marijuana -- bags are run through scanners and anyone entering the grounds has to walk through metals detectors after emptying pockets at checkpoints around the perimeter of the course.