UNITED STATES OPEN AT PEBBLE BEACH

Casey, Micheel, De Jonge share lead on 69 (-2)

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE

Paul Casey birdied the famous 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links, one of the most revered and challenging lay-outs in America, to card a two-under-par 69 and join American Shaun Micheel and Brendon De Jonge of Zimbabwe in the first-round lead at the Monterey venue on the Pacific shore of California.

The trio's 69s are the lowest leading first-round scores at a US Open since Colin Montgomerie posted the same at Winged Foot in 2006. And they lead a championship that, when held the previous four times on the Californian course, has produced champions of the calibre of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tom Kite and Tiger Woods.
"Certainly, I wanted to make that putt on the last," Casey (pictured above) said. "I'm not sure what anybody else has done but I thought leading would be quite cool, especially around Pebble Beach.
"This is a fantastic year for majors in terms of where we're playing," he added with reference to next month's Open Championship at St Andrews.
"I haven't been back here in a long time. It's moved up my list on courses because I must admit most of the times I've played here at the AT and T (annual US PGA Tour event in February) it's been a bit difficult to smile while going around this golf course because of the weather, but it was truly great out there today."
Casey's compatriots Ian Poulter and Luke Donald both preached patience as the key to US Open success.
The world numbers eight and six will start the second round at one under par and level par respectively, just off the pace.
Poulter crafted a three-birdie, two-bogey opening 70 on the Monterey Peninsula while Donald had two birdies and a double bogey on his card in a 71 as they began their bids for a first major victory.
"You have to stay patient or you will be going home pretty quickly around this place," Poulter said.
"If you get a little bit impatient and take on a shot you shouldn't, you can make triple bogey very quickly."
Patience was key for Poulter at the oceanside 18th, where he found sand three times on the way to a par at one of the most famous closing holes in championship golf.
"Well it's technically two bunkers, but it's just a very big one on the left there," he said with a laugh. "It was very bucket and spade like, wasn't it?
"But you have to grind. Obviously you're not going to miss it left off the tee, and the right bunker's not disastrous to go in. I mean I had a great lie with a four iron and really I should have put it in play.
"I hit what I thought was a nice shot, but it turned over in the wind and kind of had a ball that was sitting a little down from 99 yards.
"And that's never an easy bunker shot with a pitching wedge.
"I got a little lucky with a 18-footer that fell in the middle."
Donald was satisfied with his course management that set up a steady level-par start.
"Majors always demand full concentration and it's easy to lapse and you have to focus pretty hard," Donald said.
"You have to think through every shot around here.The rough is a bit shorter but whenever I missed a shot I missed in the right place.
"It's a good solid start, something to build on. It's encouraging to shoot level par when not playing your best."
Lee Westwood had a dreadful start - four over par after six holes - but settled to cover the remainder in one under par for an opening 74, the same score as Tiger Woods and Ross Fisher.
Phil Mickelson had a nightmare putting round in posting a 75. Rory McIlroy also had a 75.

SCOREBOARD

FIRST ROUND

Par 71

69 Brendon De Jonge, Paul Casey (Eng), Shaun Micheel

70 Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), Mike Weir (Can), K J Choi (Kor), Ian Poulter (Eng), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Alex Cejka (Ger)

71 Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell (NIrl), David Toms, Luke Donald (Eng)

72 Jerry Kelly, Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Jason Allred, Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson, Matt Bettencourt, Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn), Kenny Perry, Ricky Barnes, Justin Leonard, Jim Furyk, Bo Van Pelt, Tim Clark (Rsa), Scott Verplank, Ross McGowan (Eng)

73 Matthew Richardson (Eng), Sergio Garcia (Spa), David Frost (Rsa), Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Peter Hanson (Swe), Steve Marino, Russell Henley, Ernie Els (Rsa), Craig Barlow, Pablo Martin (Spa), Gregory Havret (Fra), Stuart Appleby (Aus), Y.E. Yang (Kor), Kent Jones, Hugo Leon, Lucas Glover, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Padraig Harrington (Irl)

74 Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Tiger Woods, Ross Fisher (Eng), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Steve Wheatcroft, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Vijay Singh (Fij), Lee Westwood (Eng), Stephen Ames (Can), Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Gareth Maybin (NIrl), Matt Kuchar, Fred Funk, Erick Justesen, John Rollins, Azuma Yano (Jpn), Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Robert Allenby (Aus)

75 Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Oliver Wilson (Eng), Ty Tryon, David Duval, Heath Slocum, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Scott Langley, Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Jon Curran, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Charles Warren, Steve Stricker, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Davis Love III, Eric Axley, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Phil Mickelson, Arjun Atwal (Ind), Jason Preeo, Morgan Hoffmann, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Brandt Snedeker, Robert Gates, Ryan Moore

76 Nick Watney, Kaname Yokoo (Jpn), Andrew Putnam, Hudson Swafford, Gary Woodland, Tom Lehman, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Kent Eger (Can), Stewart Cink, Simon Dyson (Eng), Simon Khan (Eng), Paul Goydos, Sean O'Hair, Jim Herman, Jason Gore

77 Michael Sim (Aus), Chris Stroud, Erik Compton, Adam Scott (Aus), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), John Mallinger, Bob Estes, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn), Marc Leishman (Aus), Rocco Mediate, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Rich Barcelo

78 Kenny Kim (Swe), Brian Gay, Soren Hansen (Den), Harrison Frazar, Ben Curtis, Jerry Smith, Ben Martin, Gary Boyd (Eng), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Tom Watson, Rhys Davies (Wal), Steve Allan (Aus), Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Derek Lamely, James Morrison (Eng), Hunter Mahan, Camilo Villegas (Col)

79 Francesco Molinari (Ita), J J Henry, Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Joseph Bramlett, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Daniel Summerhays, Alex Martin

80 Brian Davis (Eng), John Senden (Aus), Mathias Gronberg (Swe), Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Kevin Na, Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Ben Crane, Dan McCarthy, Paul Sheehan (Aus)

81 Bennett Blakeman, Travis Hampshire, Deane Pappas (Rsa)

82 Mark Silvers

83 Kevin Phelan

86 Blaine Peffley

Link to the US Open championship website:

http://www.usopen.com/en_US/scores/index2.html?refresh