The greens at Erin Hills were double cut and rolled Thursday morning.
Day, who pulled out of the WGC Dell Match Play to be with mother while she battled cancer, has slowly found some form following a tie for 60th at the Players with a runnerup finish at the Byron Nelson.
Golf's second major of the season, the US Open, has courted controversy before anyone has even teed off. "If you're coming from behind, you need to press, you obviously need to execute the best plan that you can to make that birdie".
The 47-year-old South African has struggled this year; he hasn't finished better than 35th.
Emergency crews responded to a blimp crash in Erin, Wisconsin Thursday, just east of where the U.S. Open is being held.
Balls that don't hit the unusually large fairways are at risk of being lost in the giant fescue garss that seems to grow exponentially with each time it rains, which it did Monday and Wednesday.
"All of a sudden I shot one over and was pretty happy and I was lying 50th and miles off the leaders".
However, Masters champion Garcia got off to a sensational start, eagling the first hole. "I'm excited to come back and defend this week".
Weather forecast not working in Phil Mickelson's favor at US Open
The course also was soft at the last two majors he won, the British Open at Hoylake and PGA Championship at Valhalla. Open buildup but on Thursday the spotlight will be back on the leaderboard and the year's second major.
"We didn't have the ocean, so we put in erosion bunkers", said writer/architect Ron Whitten, who helped design Erin Hills. It did not end well. That meant Johnson played the last seven holes not knowing what his score would be.
One shot behind are Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka and Charley Hoffman. A few days and a few dozen phone calls later, he was settled in northwest of Milwaukee, ready for a week of major championship golf.
It took him to 1-under par after his first six holes - two shots off the lead. He needs a a strong showing here to get "back in the game", so to speak.
"What Erin Hills doesn't have is history yet", Davis said.
Newly branded as the "ultimate test in golf", the U.S. Open has always been famed for its toughness and Erin Hills, the longest ever layout for a U.S. Open, was expected to add to that hard-man reputation.
He opened with a tricky par save on the par-4 10th hole, getting up and down from a sliver of tangled rough after he hit his approach past the green.
Even with Lefty out of the field, a raft of superstars lie in wait to tee off later on in Round 1, with Dustin Johnson (2016), Jordan Spieth (2015) and Martin Kaymer (2014) making up a star-studded group of previous U.S. Open winners. The usual form is to take the easiest par five and make it a par four. The Northern Irish star has played only one event since the Masters after rib and back problems forced him to withdraw from the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Following the third round of the 2017 Memorial Tournament, Mickelson announced that he will likely not be competing in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills, due to a time conflict with the high school graduation of his daughter, Amanda. Mickelson was replaced by Roberto Diaz of Mexico. "It's a little bit of a different challenge than what we faced in U.S. Opens in the past".
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