Weir one off lead at U.S. Open

CP

There's a three way share of the clubhouse lead late in the first round of the U.S. Open. Shaun Micheel, Brendon de Jonge and Paul Casey all carded 2-under 69s on Thursday.

All three sit one shot up on a group of six golfers including Canadian Mike Weir.

The former Masters champion recovered from a lukewarm start to turn red-hot on the back nine, with four birdies in five holes including a delicate flop shot from the rough on 16. However, back-to-back bogeys on 17 and 18 left him with an opening score of 1-under 70.

"You don't want to finish a round like that. It's never a good thing," Weir said. "But it wasn't because I was looking at the scoreboard and looking at where I am in the tournament. Because it's Thursday, and I just happened to hit a couple of poor shots."

Weir is tied with Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello, South Korea's K.J. Choi, Englishman Ian Poulter, Czech Alex Cejka and 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa from Japan.

Earlier in the week, Choi said his goal was to shoot par all four days, and if he did that, he figured he'd be in pretty good shape. After one day, he was holding to that thought.

"Every day," he said, "even par is a good situation."

Choi also had praise for his playing partner, Weir.

"Mike is a good friend of mine, long time on the PGA TOUR, and Presidents Cup twice, and very, very nice man, play very well," Choi said. "His short game is great. "

Stephen Ames had a difficult start on the back nine, bogeying three of the first five holes he played. Despite a more consistent second nine, he finished the day 3-over.

Kent Eger from Regina, the third Canadian in the field, has three bogeys and a double-bogey to leave him 5-over for the day.

Tiger Woods finished 3-over thanks to three bogeys including two on his last three holes. Only twice in his career has Woods not recorded a birdie or better in a major - the 2003 Masters and the 1999 British Open.

Phil Mickelson, in search of the second leg of the 2010 Grand Slam, spent most of his round in trouble.

He hit long and left onto the beach on No. l7 and had to take a drop en route to bogey. Then, after tucking his tee shot behind the two trees on the right side of the 18th fairway, he tried to draw a shot between them and toward the green. It didn't work enough and instead drifted into the hazard and hit the top of the rocky beach wall before ricocheting far out into the Pacific Ocean. He made his third straight bogey there to reach the turn at 3-over par.

From there, things didn't get much better.

On No. 4, Mickelson left his second shot in the bunker, then absent-mindedly smoothed out his footprints and had to check things out with a rules official to be sure he wouldn't get penalized for improving his stance in a bunker. No penalty there, but he still made bogey. Then, on the par-5 sixth, he missed a 4-foot birdie putt.

The Masters champion limped home at 4-over par after a round of 75. It's the first round of the U.S. Open in which he's failed to make a birdie since the first 18 holes in 2007 at Oakmont - where he failed to make the cut.

"I don't believe I should have shot over par," Mickelson said. "I putted horrific. You're going to make some bogeys, going to hit a couple of bad shots here and there. But I gave myself plenty of opportunities and just couldn't get the ball in the hole."