MAMARONECK, N.Y. _ Of all the golf courses that have hosted multiple U.S. Opens, Winged Foot Golf Club is known as a backbreaker that can make grown men weep. Who can forget how Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie finished with double bogeys in 2006 to lose by one to Geoff Ogilvy's 5-over par? And of course, the 1974 U.S. Open is recalled as the "Massacre at Winged Foot," producing Hale Irwin's winning 7-over number.
That's the sort of carnage that was expected for the 120th U.S. Open that began on Thursday, but it turned into a surprising birdie barrage as 32 players shot par-70 or better. Leader Justin Thomas started his 5-under 65 with a birdie at No. 1 and ended it with a birdie at No. 18 while putting together a streak of three straight birdies from the 9th through the 11th.
Playing just in front of Thomas in the morning wave, Patrick Reed scored a hole-in-one at the par-3 7th and shot 66, a number matched in the afternoon by Thomas Pieters and Matthew Wolff. Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy was 3-under on the par threes on his way to a 67 along with Lee Westwood and Louis Oosthuizen.
