The 2012 US Open first round has now been played, with Tiger Woods in the box seat after an impressive 69 in San Francisco
Tiger Woods is now a best price 11/4 with
bet365 to win his fourth US Open title after shooting a round of 69 on Thursday at the Olympic Club.
Woods sits on one under with a host of other players following an accomplished round which saw the American birdie the 4th and 5th holes, while he played the 17th well enough to go one under after bogeying 6 and 14.
However, it is Michael Thompson that leads the way by three shots after an excellent 66 and this round included no less than seven birdies, with the US player actually 2 over at one point before a clutch of birdies on the back nine.
Thompson can be backed at 28/1 (Sportingbet) despite his three-shot lead and there are some excellent golfers queuing behind the overnight leader including 2010 winner Graeme McDowell who also managed a round of one under.
Nick Watney, Justin Rose and David Toms are the other players who shot 69 on Day One of the US Open although Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood have some work to do if they are going to contest the second major of 2012.
Westwood could only manage a round of 73 in California, although he is effectively four shots off the pace if you ignore Thompson’s stupendous round, while Donald had a nightmare 79 which means he is likely to be packing his bags after the second round.
McIlroy could only manage a 79 and could also miss the cut depending on how he plays this evening, with the British challenge looking pretty feeble on day one of the Open.
Perhaps Rose now represents the best challenge and he can be backed at 9/1 (
Paddy Power) to claim his first ever major title, while Matt Kuchar is 14/1 (
Blue Square) and sits just off the pace.
Collated first round scores (USA unless stated, par 70):
66 Michael Thompson
69 Nick Watney, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose (Eng), Graeme McDowell (NIrl), David Toms
70 Robert Karlsson (Swe), Jim Furyk, Alistair Presnell (Aus), Beau Hossler, Ian Poulter (Eng), Matt Kuchar, J B Park (Kor), Jason Bohn
71 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Martin Flores, Casey Wittenberg, Branden Grace (Rsa), John Peterson, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), Michael Allen, Jonathan Byrd
72 Anders Hansen (Den), Robert Garrigus, Blake Adams, Charles Howell III, Webb Simpson, Rickie Fowler, Jason Dufner, John Senden (Aus), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Angel Cabrera (Arg), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Alberto Sanchez, D.A. Points, Hunter Mahan, Aaron Watkins, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe), Morgan Hoffmann
73 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Kyle Stanley, Steve Le Brun, Davis Love III, Joe Ogilvie, Garcia Sergio (Spa), Keegan Bradley, Marc Warren (Sco), K J Choi (Kor), James Hahn, Jeff Curl, Lee Westwood (Eng)
74 Spencer Levin, Gary Woodland, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Peter Lawrie (Irl), Simon Dyson (Eng), Bob Estes, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Jordan Spieth, Nicholas Thompson, Y.E. Yang (Kor), Stephen Ames (Can), Rodney Pampling (Aus), Tim Herron, K.t. Kim (Kor), Matthew Baldwin (Eng), Kevin Chappell, Kevin Na, Charlie Wi (Kor), Casey Martin, Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Tommy Biershenk
75 Justin Hicks, Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Colt Knost, Jesse Mueller, Paul Claxton, Vijay Singh (Fij), Robert Rock (Eng), Alexander Noren (Swe), Ernie Els (Rsa), Roberto Castro, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Darron Stiles, Scott Piercy, Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Jason Day (Aus), Dustin Johnson, Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Carl Pettersson (Swe)
76 Matteo Manassero (Ita), Anthony Summers (Aus), Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Patrick Cantlay, Matt Bettencourt, Edward Loar, Samuel Osborne (Eng), Scott Langley, Bill Haas, Steve Stricker, Adam Scott (Aus), Lucas Glover, Brendan Jones (Aus), Mark Wilson, Kevin Streelman, Phil Mickelson
77 Cameron Wilson, Tadahiro Takayama (Jpn), Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Brian Harman, Stewart Cink, Brooks Koepka, Ben Crane, Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Sang-moon Bae (Kor), Martin Laird (Sco), Hunter Hamrick, Olin Browne, Brian Gaffney, Dong-Hwan Lee (Jpn), Tim Clark (Rsa)
78 Tim Weinhart, Scott Smith (Aus), Bubba Watson, George Coetzee (Rsa), Alex Cejka (Ger), Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Peter Hanson (Swe), Joe Durant, Thomas Bjorn (Den), David Mathis, Bo Van Pelt, Brice Garnett, Jim Herman, Nick Sherwood, Shane Bertsch
79 Michael Campbell (Nzl), Andy Zhang (Chn), Luke Donald (Eng), Lee Slattery (Eng)
80 Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Dennis Miller, Cole Howard, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Chez Reavie
81 William Lunde, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Hunter Haas
82 Kyle Thompson, Mark Mccormick
84 Steve Marino
85 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Brian Rowell
