2017 U.S. Open: Live scores, leaderboard updates and more from Thursday at Erin Hills

The 117th U.S. Open is upon us, and this year the prestigious event makes its Wisconsin debut. Erin Hills, a course that served as a cow pasture just 13 years prior, is the 2017 host of one of the sport’s four major tournaments.

The Open’s charm lies in its accessibility. Anyone, from professionals to amateurs to weekend duffers with an official USGA handicap can try their hand at qualifying through regional tournaments. This year, 13 amateurs will attempt to boost their careers by lasting all the way to Sunday’s final round.

The story was supposed to be the golf course. Through half a day at the U.S. Open, it’s about the stars at the top of the leaderboard. In fact, the lamentations and handwringing about Erin Hills’ thick fescue perhaps seems like much ado about nothing.

Still in search of his first major win, Rickie Fowler sits two shots clear of all others after firing a 7-under, course-record 65 to open America’s national championship. It was a flawless, bogey-free round for Fowler and a masterful ball-striking performance at a track that’ll demand such for anyone that hopes to take home the title on Father’s Day. Rickie only missed two of Erin Hills’ commercial-jet-landing-strip-sized fairways — nearly a prerequisite for contention this week. If you’re looking for a compelling tournament, one of the game’s biggest names at the top puts us well on our way this weekend.

Storms rolled through central Wisconsin again on Wednesday night, forcing players and fans off the U.S. Open Erin Hills course earlier than expected. The USGA shut down the driving range, moved people indoors, and called it a day with an early Thursday start to the real action coming.

That didn’t stop Dustin Johnson from getting a few more cuts before his title defense. DJ came to Erin Hills later than most, waiting for fiancée Paulina Gretzky to give birth to their second son. That boy arrived late on Monday, and DJ was on the grounds by Tuesday afternoon for a practice round. But apparently the world’s No. 1 player wanted to work on a few more things late Wednesday from his rental home.

Erin Hills’ first U.S. Open is primed to be a good one. With several former champions and every member of the world golf top 10 rankings in the fold, the 2017 tournament is slated to be a shootout.

The 2016 winner, Dustin Johnson, can solidify his grip as the planet’s best golfer by defending his title and earning his second major championship. He’ll face a challenge from a 156-man field that includes reigning Masters champ Sergio Garcia, 2015 Open winner Jordan Spieth, and the record holder for the tournament’s lowest winning score (-16), Rory McIlroy.

Two months have passed since Sergio Garcia validated a long, storied career by donning the green jacket as winner of this year’s Masters. The question now is whether the Spaniard can roll that momentum into victory at a second straight major.

Garcia is just one member of a stacked field at the 2017 U.S. Open. The tournament begins Thursday morning when every member of the World Golf Ranking’s top 10 tees off in the quest to raise the championship trophy. Dustin Johnson, last year’s winner, is the early favorite to walk off the course with his second major victory on the PGA Tour.

There’s no major event in golf quite like the U.S. Open. As the name implies, anyone -- from professionals to amateurs to junior members at a local course — can win.

This year’s 156-man field features a wide range of golfers, including each of the world’s top 10 golfers. It will also include 13 amateurs looking to make their impact on one of the game’s greatest stages.

Playing the U.S. Open is difficult enough without beating yourself before you even get to the first tee in round one. Yet, according to Rory McIlroy, that’s exactly what Kevin Na and other would-be contenders this week at Erin Hills have done by lamenting how gosh darn tough the rough is on the Wisconsin track.

“This is one of those tournaments that if you let it [course conditions] get into your head I feel like you’re already defeated before your tee off,” said McIlroy, who shared with reporters on Tuesday his dismay that maintenance crews had trimmed the thick, high fescue on four holes. “There have been a couple of times where I have let it get in my head: 15 at Chambers [Bay in 2014], even though I made a bit of a round of it, I was a little bit disillusioned along with some other guys with the way the course was and everything. But if you let it get into your head you really have no chance.”

It seems like we were just watching Sergio Garcia pour in that putt at the 18th hole after sunset in Augusta. But the Spaniard has been strutting around in his green jacket for two months now and that means the second men’s major of the season is here.

The U.S. Open tees off Thursday from Erin Hills, a new venue to the national championship rota and one that almost no player in the field has experience playing under competitive conditions. Players, caddies, media, and maybe even the USGA are trying to figure out what this public course is all about in the middle of Wisconsin. What kind of game will it favor? Will we avoid the controversy, or disaster, similar to the last time the U.S. Open visited a new venue, Chambers Bay, in 2015?

We’re having a big debate about mowing the grass, so it must be U.S. Open week. This is what happens every year, whether it’s setup, conditioning, or weather, the course is always the star at the U.S. Open. It leads us into hours of coverage and thousands of words about things like “wiregrass” and “native sandy areas” and “fescue.”

This week at Erin Hills, an 11-year-old course that will be viewed with some skepticism just because it’s new, the big uproar has centered around the knee-high rough. It’s the kind of high stuff you might see off the fairway at a U.S. Open or British Open, but the problems here have centered around how thick its grown in Wisconsin. Wes Bryan gave us the first look a couple weeks ago, when he demonstrated just how fast it can gobble up a ball that’s really not too far off one these uncharacteristically wide fairways.