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Luke Donald

Luke Donald, beaten by Tiger Woods by seven shots the last time they played together in a major, underlined the massive strides he has made in two years when the US Open began with a day of surprises at Pinehurst 2 on Thursday.

A one-under-par 69 tucked Donald in just two shots behind the first-round's leaders while Masters champion Woods had to be content with a level-par 70 which owed a fair bit - yet again - to his powers of recovery and left him three shots off the pace in a tie for 11th place in a logjam of seven that included World No 2 Vijay Singh, Australian young gun Adam Scott, and former PGA Champion David Toms.

Donald, meanwhile, finished a day full of activity at the top of the leaderboard in joint sixth place with a group of four that included World No 4 Phil Mickelson.

He trailed a sharp and ice-cool-as-ever Retief Goosen, the defending champion, England's flu-hit Lee Westwood and little known Brandt Jobe by one shot and was just two behind the surprise 1st-round leaders, Rocco Mediate and Olin Browne, two 40-something US PGA Tour work-horses who have distinguished themselves on occasion, but have never really made any major impact on the golfing world.

The duo upstaged the 'Big Five' and the other stars in the stellar field by going out early, setting the days target at 67 and then watching as player after player crept up to their score, and in the case of Jobe, surpassed it by a shot, only to fall back on a tough, tight course that is going to break a good few hearts before the week is out.

The big-hitting Jobe, who averaged 318 yards off the tee on Thursday, has won in Japan, Canada and Asia, but never in the US or Europe, led on 4-under with three holes to play, but dropped back with bogies at the 16th and 17th holes

And it was, only the top nine players broke par on day one - and this group did not include World No 3 Ernie Els who along with players of the calibre of Jim Furyk, the 2003 US Open Champion, Chris Di Marco, the runner-up to Goosen last year, and Spaniard Sergio Garcia posted 1-over 71s to share 17th place with 11 others.

Woods, like DiMarco and Els, was wayward off the tee from the start, but was still able to pick up where he left off at Augusta in April - with a birdie.

His opening drive missed the fairway on the right for the first of several times, but also missed the tangly rough and finished on a sandy path.

Just off the green in two at the 607-yard hole, he then chipped to 12 feet and made the birdie putt. But coming up short of the green on the short 15th and finding the rough at the next led to bogeys before he came back with a fine bunker shot to within three feet of the flag at the 565-yard fourth for the matching birdie that put him at level par..

Donald, who had to back off from a putt as early as the 12th because of clicking cameras aimed at Woods, almost holed his pitch to the 13th, but then stuttered as well.

He found the left rough at the 16th before chipping over the green and then three-putted the next for another bogey. Unflappable by nature, though, he birdied the first and fourth and came back from another dropped shot at the fifth with another birdie on the eighth.

In all the young Englishman posted three bogies to his four birdies.

England's Jonathan Lomas, who earned a debut by finishing joint first in the first European qualifier at Walton Heath last week, was level par with five to play, but bogeyed the 14th and 18th for a 72.

In the first group off at 7am the Ayrshire-based player commented: "I was up at 5.30, but my wife had to get me up. I wanted to stay in bed."

Three over after six he battled back superbly with birdies at the ninth, 11th and 13th, but could not keep it going. "Play a loose shot and this course bites you," he added.

Lomas was paired with Rory Sabbatini, the South African who made an apology to American Ben Crane on Monday after making his own protest about slow play the day before.

Sabbatini, who stormed ahead of Crane, the runner-up in the Booz Allen Classic, and played out of turn off the final tee, also shot an opening 72 with yet another
being posted by Liverpool's Nick Dougherty, who, playing his first US Open, was putting for an eagle at his very first hole, the 10th, but three-putted instead.

On a day when only a handful of golfers broke par, his was no mean start for a 23-year-old.

The same couldn't be said for England's Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Simon Dyson.

Casey virtually blew himself out of the championship with a horrendous 15-over total, Dyson carded a miserable 10-over and Poulter a 7-over.

ALL THE FIRST ROUND SCORES

(USA unless stated, par 70):

67 Olin Browne, Rocco Mediate

68 Retief Goosen (RSA), Lee Westwood (Gbr), Brandt Jobe

69 Steve Jones, Luke Donald (Gbr), KJ Choi (Kor), Phil Mickelson

70 David Toms, Tiger Woods, Tommy Armour, Adam Scott (Aus), Vijay Singh (Fij), Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Bob Estes

71 Ernie Els (RSA), Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn), Chris DiMarco, Bob Tway, Peter Lonard (Aus), John Cook, Jason Gore, Mark Hensby (Aus), Angel Cabrera (Arg), Stephen Ames (Can), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Fred Couples, Michael Campbell (Nzl)

72 Jonathan Lomas (Gbr), Rory Sabbatini (RSA), Nick Price (Zim), Nick Dougherty (Gbr), Jeff Maggert, Peter Jacobsen, Stephen Allan (Aus), Paul Claxton, Richard Green (Aus), Robert Allenby (Aus), Colin Montgomerie (Gbr), Steve Flesch, Nick O'Hern (Aus), Geoff Ogilvy (Aus)

73 Corey Pavin, JJ Henry, Michael Allen, Josh McCumber, Spencer Levin, Fred Funk, Stewart Cink, Ted Purdy

74 Bill Glasson, Yong Eun-yang (Kor), Tom Pernice, Bernhard Langer (Ger), Graeme McDowell (Gbr), DJ Brigman, John Mallinger, Rob Rashell, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn), Franklin Langham, Carlos Franco (Par), Shingo Katayama (Jpn), John Daly, Tim Herron, Lee Janzen, Zach Johnson, Steve Elkington (Aus), David Howell (Gbr), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Aaron Barber, David Oh

75 Thomas Levet (Fra), John Rollins, (x) Ryan Moore, Todd Hamilton, Kenny Perry, (x) Matthew Every, Matt Kuchar, Eric Meichtry, Kyle Willmann, Omar Uresti, Frank Lickliter, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Mike Weir (Can), (x) Trip Kuehne, JL Lewis, Casey Wittenberg, Ian Leggatt (Can), Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Derek Brown

76 Len Mattiace, Justin Leonard, David Duval, Scott Verplank, Jerry Kelly, James Driscoll, Arron Oberholser, (x) Michael Putnam, Lee Rinker, Scott Parel, Tim Clark (RSA), Scott McCarron, Peter Hanson (Swe), Chris Nallen, Paul McGinley (Irl), Ben Curtis, Euan Walters (Aus), Craig Barlow, Nick Gilliam

77 Craig Parry (Aus), Chad Campbell, Ian Poulter (Gbr), Steve Conran (Aus), (x) David Denham, Robert Gamez, Carl Pettersson (Swe), Tom Lehman, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Charles Howell, Davis Love, Padraig Harrington (Irl), Ryuji Imada (Jpn), JP Hayes, John Merrick, Scott Gibson, David Hearn, Clint Jensen

78 Steve Lowery, Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, Jerry Smith

79 Brandt Snedeker, (x) Lee Williams, Simon Dyson (Gbr), Patrick Damron, Joe Ogilvie, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Bart Bryant, Stephen Gallacher, Sal Spallone, Michael Ruiz

80 Rod Pampling (Aus), Conrad Ray, Nick Jones

81 Stuart Appleby (Aus), Eric Axley

82 (x) Luke List, Jay Haas, James Benepe, Wil Collins

83 Troy Kelly, (x) Pierre-Henri Soero (New Cal)

85 Paul Casey (Gbr)

(x) denotes amateur