In almost a repeat performance of his first round at the Masters in April, Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy shot an impressive bogey-free 65 to take a three shot lead at the U.S. Open at Congressional.
McIlroy began on the back nine on Thursday, racking up three birdies on each nine. Rory even had a three-hole streak of them between the 17th and the 1st, and looked solid with his long and short game, and had the flat stick going as well. McIlroy is being chased by South Korea's Y.E. Yang and South Africa's Charl Schwartzel at -3, while seven players currently sitting at -2 including Americans Ryan Palmer and Christopher DeForest.
In fact, Palmer and DeForest are the only two Americans inside the top ten. Not a good start for defending the home championship.
As for the Bay Area boys at the U.S. Open, well, none of them fared all that well on Thursday. San Jose native John Ellis finished the best out of the Bay group at +3, Fresno State Alum Nick Watney is at +4 , and Stanford University's David Chung shot a disappointing +11, but is playing as an amateur.
Phil Mickelson struggled on day one, finishing at +3, as did Anthony Kim, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, and current number one in the World Luke Donald.
For more discussion and analysis of the U.S. Open, head over to S.B. Nation's golf blog, Waggle Room, to get in the action.