European Tour Open ??? at Congressional

Is this the US Open ?? or the European Tour Open..

Rory McIlroy, Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell, YE Yang, Alex Rocha, Scott Hend, Sergio Garcia, Lois Oosthuizen, Johan Edfors, Robert Rock, Alvaro Quiros, Henrik Stenson.....Ryan Palmer, oops there's a Yank..

Your 2 American favourites...Phil Mickelson +3 74, Steve Stricker +4, 75.... Still there is a lot more of this story to be told..

On a perfect day for scoring, Congressional was clearly the winner. Masters champ, Charl Schwartzel was at was at -3 68, joining a small group that included Sergio Garcia, YE Yang, Brazilian Alex Rocha and Ryan Palmer, the lone American among the nine players who broke 70 only 12 more broke 71, or par...


It is raining on and off this evening and tonight with a high of 31*c and t'storms in the forecast for Friday PM...

It was the brilliant Rory McIlroy who led the European Tour charge in Washington. He made this long tough course look easy without a single bogey, he missed only one green and was the only player in the 156-man field without a single bogey. His -6, 65 was good for a 3 shot lead, the biggest 18-hole lead at the U.S. Open in 35 years.

"It felt like quite a simple 65," McIlroy said. "I didn't do much wrong."

Of course he was inundated with questions about his final round collapse at the Masters where he also lead after the opening round..  "I took the experience from Augusta, and I learned a lot from it". said McIlroy..

For me this US Open, like the PGA Tour is wide open with Luke Donald being about the closest thing to dominant in the men's game..there is no clear cut leading favourite ala Tiger Woods in golf anymore...

The top three players in the world, Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer are playing together for the first two days and they combined to go 10-over par. Donald started off birdie, birdie as they played the tougher back nine first but he struggled with his accuracy and couldn't cope with the thick rough to shoot 74. Kaymer also had a 74, while Westwood was still upbeat after his +4,75, his worst opening round at the U.S. Open in 10 years.

McIlroy who has dominated the leaderboard in the last 4 majors and must surely be a contender for the next world #1 dominant player, was invited to lunch with Jack Nicklaus in Florida last month... "He emphasized so much to me about not making mistakes. That was his big thing. He said people lost a lot more majors and gave them to him than he actually won. It was a good piece of advice to have"

Canadian scores, and by the way when you look up their scorecards on the leaderboard, they are so unknown the USGA has a shadow where their picture is supposed to be !!

T84 - Wes Heffernan +4 9:12 am ET* - 75 - - - 75
T84 - Adam Hadwin +4 2:41 pm ET* - 75 - - - 75
T111 - Jon Mills +5 8:50 am ET* - 76 - - - 76
Projected Cut - lowest 60 scores and ties, plus those within 10 strokes of leader

Robert Rock, the Englishman with the best hair in golf, who won in Wales last week, had serious visa issues, and had to get a special reporting time extension from the USGA just to play, barely made it to DC, had never seen Congressional yet went out and shot -1 70, incredible when you watched how tough this course is..

Speakng of the USGA, they really had tough pins today, tucked and around the edges, I don't think they can be much tougher tomorrow, however if Rory goes low tomorrow, with pars being at a premium around Congressional, he will really give the field a tough score to match..but then again we can't forget the Masters can we..

I'll be back with more from the European, eh... US Open in the morning.. Here's the top 10 leaderboard, for the full one just click on PGA Tour over there to the right..

1 - Rory McIlroy -6 7:55 am ET - 65 - - - 65
T2 - Charl Schwartzel -3 8:06 am ET - 68 - - - 68
T2 - Y.E. Yang -3 1:35 pm ET - 68 - - - 68
T4 - Alexandre Rocha -2 7:00 am ET - 69 - - - 69
T4 - Scott Hend -2 7:22 am ET - 69 - - - 69
T4 - Kyung-tae Kim -2 7:22 am ET* - 69 - - - 69
T4 - Sergio Garcia -2 7:44 am ET* - 69 - - - 69
T4 - Louis Oosthuizen -2 1:35 pm ET* - 69 - - - 69
T4 - Ryan Palmer -2 2:19 pm ET* - 69 - - - 69
T10 - Bubba Dickerson -1 7:00 am ET - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Robert Garrigus -1 7:22 am ET - 70 - - - 70
T10 - John Senden -1 7:22 am ET - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Alvaro Quiros -1 7:44 am ET* - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Brandt Snedeker -1 8:28 am ET* - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Robert Rock -1 8:39 am ET* - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Chez Reavie -1 12:40 pm ET* - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Stewart Cink -1 1:24 pm ET - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Graeme McDowell -1 1:35 pm ET* - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Johan Edfors -1 1:46 pm ET* - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Henrik Stenson -1 1:46 pm ET* - 70 - - - 70
T10 - Davis Love III -1 1:57 pm ET* - 70 - - - 70

Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles