Oakmont and the weather keep Jordan Spieth off balance at the U.S. Open

OAKMONT, Pa. -- At times, it felt like Mother Nature colluded with Oakmont’s course designers and groundskeepers to make Jordan Spieth angry during his two-day first-round at the U.S. Open.

Spieth’s Thursday wasn’t an easy one, virtually from the start. He went into a bout of sneezing just as he was strolling to open his round on the 10th tee, and he couldn’t sink a birdie putt on that first hole. Then it started to rain, and Spieth’s round was interrupted with three delays, including one overnight. He didn’t finish until Friday morning, by which time he was 2-over and six shots back of leader Andrew Landry, the No. 624 player in the world.

Spieth wasn’t bad by any stretch -- a 72 at Oakmont is solid -- but he never found a rhythm, and Thursday’s torrential downpours didn’t help him.

Spieth’s 14th hole took about 90 minutes because of a weather delay. When play resumed, so did Spieth’s annoyances, at least until weather formally ended the day later in the afternoon.

What appeared to be a brilliant approach shot on a short par-4 17th spun past the hole and into a deep bunker.

“How is that in the bunker?” Spieth said immediately, in a pitch between talking and yelling.

Oakmont’s lightning-quick greens had made quite a first impression, even on what had been playing as the easiest hole on the course throughout the morning, almost exactly averaging even par.

Just as Spieth was going to play his bunker-bound ball, the horns sounded to mark the tournament’s second stoppage of the day, at 12:08 p.m.

Spieth was already irked about the spin that pushed his second shot into a trap, and he half-heartedly kicked his golf bag when officials called for the pause in play. Spieth had an animated-looking conversation with a rules official, but at least he was allowed to mark his ball in the sand before retreating to shelter for the break.

Oakmont took on 1.1 inches of rain overnight before Thursday, and the softer course met players’ expectations by aiding lower scores than a drier Oakmont ever could have. The first round of the championship’s last visit here, in 2007, saw two players shoot under par in the opening round. Several more were in the red Friday morning, and around 10 or 12 could be expected to be below par by the time the first round finally ends later on Friday.

There were some encouraging signs for Spieth, however. He mostly avoided the course’s deep fairway bunkers, even though only narrowly sometimes. He only hit eight of 14 fairways -- 57 percent, down from his usual 61 percent on the PGA Tour -- and didn’t do anything easily, but he still had no blowup holes like his playing partner Bryson DeChambeau. He’s still obviously very much in the tournament, and at Oakmont, that’s sometimes all the world’s No. 2 player can reasonably ask.