Little-known American Andrew Landry upstaged the game’s biggest names by seizing an early three-shot lead at the US Open yesterday as play was twice suspended due to threatening weather.
PGA Tour rookie Landry, competing for the first time in the year’s second major championship, piled up five birdies in 13 holes on a rain-softened layout at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh to get to five under in the opening round.
Twice Masters champion Bubba Watson was one of four players bunched at two under, the American left-hander having mixed five birdies with three bogeys after 10 holes. Also at two under were England’s Lee Westwood, after nine holes, New Zealand’s Danny Lee, after eight, and American Bryson DeChambeau, after seven.
DeChambeau was playing in the same group as defending champion Jordan Spieth, who was a frustrated figure when the horn sounded for a second time to halt play 12:07pm ET (7:07pm Qatar time) as thunder rumbled overhead.
The American world number two, level for the day after offsetting a birdie at the par-five 12th with a bogey at the par-four 14th, had just watched his approach into 17 spin back a good 40 feet before rolling into the right greenside bunker. “You’ve got to be kidding me! How is that in the bunker. That’s such crap!”
Spieth grumbled to himself moments before the horn sounded to suspend play. Making matters even worse for Spieth was that he and his playing partners, DeChambeau and British Open Zach Johnson, had been warned by a rules official to pick up their pace of play as they walked off the 16th tee, their seventh hole of the day.
Among the other big names at Oakmont, world number three Rory McIlroy was two over after eight holes and 2014 US Open champion Martin Kaymer level after nine. Yesterday’s opening round was already likely to spill over into today after an earlier weather delay of just over an hour and a quarter while a line of storms that brought about half an inch of rain (1.27cm) passed through the area.
The treacherous Oakmont layout, known for its lightning-fast greens and sloping contours, had been softened by more than an inch of rain overnight and further thunderstorms have been forecast for today afternoon.

Mickelson out to shatter jinx
Oakmont, United States: Phil Mickelson seeks to end 26 years of US Open misery at Oakmont Country Club in the Pittsburgh suburbs this week, while battle is rejoined for golfing supremacy between the new spearheads of the sport – Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.
No other golfer has endured such heartache at one tournament as Mickelson has at the second of the year’s four majors. He has finished second a record six times since he first played it in 1990, and having captured the British Open in 2013 to go with his three Masters titles and one PGA Championship, the US Open is all that is stopping him from becoming just the sixth golfer to complete a career Grand Slam.
To do so, though, he will have to conquer one of the world’s finest and toughest golf courses in Oakmont. Opened in 1904, the rugged par-70 layout features 210 bunkers that swallow up balls and aspirations in equal quantities, greens that confound the best of putters and rough so thick that sprained wrists are not uncommon.
On top of that it has the longest par-three in US Open history that can be stretched to 300 yards and the second longest par-five at a mind-boggling 667 yards. Mickelson will know the dangers he faces when he steps out for the first round – he was to tee off late afternoon yesterday – on his 46th birthday.
“I think that it accomplishes the goal that the members want, which is to have the hardest course in the world or in America or wherever, and I think they’ve accomplished that,” he said on the eve of the tournament.
“I think that there’s no reprieve off the tee, there’s no reprieve into the greens, and there’s certainly no reprieve on the greens. These greens are way more difficult to putt than Augusta’s.”
Still, Mickelson feels that he has the craft and the experience to finally come good in what would provide one of the most compelling golf stories in recent years.
Defending champion Spieth and McIlroy, the winner in 2011, have already been victorious in the US Open, both in their early 20s, while Day has time on his side too. All three have wins under their belts this year already and all three say they are primed for the battle ahead at Oakmont.
Spieth in particular will seek to banish the nightmare memories of the last major to be played, when he blew a five-stroke lead down Augusta National’s back nine to let in England’s Danny Willett for a huge upset win.
The 22-year-old Texan says that he has already moved on from that collapse and that his win in the Colonial proves that.
Day meanwhile admits that he is feeling as stressed as he has ever felt despite consolidating his top ranking position. McIlroy believes that he can rein in his natural aggressive game and grind out a win that he believes would represent his “biggest accomplishment in the game.”