As forecasted, some nasty weather hit Merion Golf Club on Thursday, precluding completion of the first round of the U.S. Open. The first weather delay came just two hours into the tournament before 9 a.m. ET and forced the players to sit around for more than three hours as the Philadelphia area was dumped on. When play finally resumed after Noon, all hope of getting 156 players through 18 holes was lost. There was another shorter delay early in the evening, and play was finally called due to darkness around 8:20 p.m.
The U.S. Open is a logistical challenge even without weather interruptions, as the USGA is forced to send threesomes off split tees for golf from dawn until dusk in order to get 156 players cut down by the weekend. With just over half the field done with their opening round, it will be impossible for the entire field to complete 36 holes by Friday night (that's with no further weather delays). The forecast is much better for the remaining three days at Merion, but the USGA will have to make up ground on the weekend. The last group out on Thursday still has 15 holes to play before the first round can be officially closed. That round will resume at 7:15 a.m. ET.
With that in mind, the USGA has pushed the originally scheduled second round tee times back three hours. These, of course, are tentative and very dependent on how quickly things move during the conclusion of the first round in the morning. It's a bit of a disadvantage for the group of players who have to go off back-to-back with very little rest in between rounds. The wave of players who did finish 18 on Thursday, however, will sit around for most of the day as they're flipped to the second wave on Friday -- the last group estimated to tee off just before 6 p.m.
The power trio of Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, and Rory McIlroy are scheduled to start their second round at 10:44 a.m. With seven holes left to play at 7:15 a.m., that will likely leave them with just over an hour in between rounds. Tiger, who has to putt out on the 11th green, scuffled through the start of his week at Merion. He could never get comfortable on the greens and sent a couple wayward drives early that forced labored punch outs from the East Course's thick rough. On two separate occasions in his first five holes, he was seen shaking off his left wrist or hand. Through spokesmen on Thursday night, Woods claimed he was fine and did show some flashes of form after the second rain delay. But he'll have a long day of work on Friday, particularly as he plays Merion's tough final five holes consecutively (he begins the second round on No. 11) to start the day.
Phil Mickelson, who went to sleep with the clubhouse lead on Thursday night, will have the entire day to watch the opposite wave try and chase his number of 67. Luke Donald passed him on the leaderboard to get to 4-under late Thursday, but the Englishman still has the toughest stretch of the course ahead of him and could give a shot or two back coming into the house. Mickelson, who was questioned over his pre-tournament routine and red-eye flight on Wednesday night, will not tee off until 3:41 p.m., paired again with Keegan Bradley and Steve Stricker.
With the caveat that these are tentative based on how the 7:15 a.m. restart progresses, here are your second round tee times for Friday:
Tee Time (tentative) | First Wave off No. 1 | ||
09:45 AM | Justin Hicks | David Howell | Brian Stuard |
09:56 AM | Brendan Steele | Estanislao Goya | Peter Hedblom |
10:07 AM | Marc Leishman | John Senden | Marcus Fraser |
10:18 AM | Scott Langley | a-Chris Williams | Morgan Hoffmann |
10:29 AM | Michael Thompson | a-Michael Weaver | Casey Wittenberg |
10:40 AM | K.J. Choi | Francesco Molinari | Carl Pettersson |
10:51 AM | Scott Piercy | Kevin Chappell | Jamie Donaldson |
11:02 AM | Bo Van Pelt | Kevin Streelman | D.A. Points |
11:13 AM | Branden Grace | Sang-Moon Bae | Russell Henley |
11:24 AM | Hideki Matsuyama | Billy Horschel | Jordan Spieth |
11:35 AM | Mathew Goggin | Steven Alker | Alistair Presnell |
11:46 AM | Matt Harmon | a-Gavin Hall | Bio Kim |
11:57 AM | Zack Fischer | Ryan Sullivan | Brandon Crick |
Tee Time (tentative) | First wave off No. 11 | ||
10:00 AM | David Toms | Darren Clarke | Jose Maria Olazabal |
10:11 AM | Geoff Ogilvy | Angel Cabrera | Paul Lawrie |
10:22 AM | Luke Donald | Lee Westwood | Martin Kaymer |
10:33 AM | Jim Furyk | Graeme McDowell | Zach Johnson |
10:44 AM | Tiger Woods | Rory McIlroy | Adam Scott |
10:55 AM | Thongchai Jaidee | G. Fernandez-Castano | Thorbjorn Olesen |
11:06 AM | Webb Simpson | a-Steven Fox | Ernie Els |
11:17 AM | Kyle Stanley | Joe Ogilvie | Luke Guthrie |
11:28 AM | Josh Teater | Yoshinobu Tsukada | Eddie Pepperell |
11:39 AM | Edward Loar | Morten Orum Madsen | Jung-Gon Hwang |
11:50 AM | a-Max Homa | Russell Knox | Matt Bettencourt |
12:01 AM | Adam Hadwin | John Nieporte | Jim Herman |
12:12 AM | Brandon Brown | a-Grayson Murray | Jesse Smith |
Tee Time (tentative) | Second Wave off No. 1 | ||
03:30 PM | Bubba Watson | Dustin Johnson | Nicolas Colsaerts |
03:41 PM | Phil Mickelson | Steve Stricker | Keegan Bradley |
03:52 PM | Matt Kuchar | Justin Rose | Brandt Snedeker |
04:03 PM | Louis Oosthuizen | Charl Schwartzel | Tim Clark |
04:14 PM | Sergio Garcia | Stewart Cink | Padraig Harrington |
04:25 PM | Ian Poulter | Jason Dufner | Boo Weekley |
04:36 PM | Rickie Fowler | Matteo Manassero | Jason Day |
04:47 PM | Y.E. Yang | Fredrik Jacobson | Hiroyuki Fujita |
04:58 PM | Scott Stallings | John Peterson | Robert Karlsson |
05:09 PM | Jay Don Blake | Brandt Jobe | Michael Campbell |
05:20 PM | David Hearn | Mike Weir | Jaco Van Zyl |
05:31 PM | a-Kevin Phelan | Wil Collins | Harold Varner III |
05:42 PM | a-Cheng-Tsung Pan | Mackenzie Hughes | Geoffrey Sisk |
Tee Time (tentative) | Second Wave off No. 11 | ||
03:45 PM | Cliff Kresge | Roger Tambellini | Ryan Yip |
03:56 PM | Rikard Karlberg | Yui Ueda | John Parry |
04:07 PM | Nick Watney | Peter Hanson | Hunter Mahan |
04:18 PM | Lucas Glover | Paul Casey | Bill Haas |
04:29 PM | Aaron Baddeley | Rory Sabbatini | David Lingmerth |
04:40 PM | George Coetzee | Martin Laird | Marcel Siem |
04:51 PM | Jerry Kelly | Charley Hoffman | John Huh |
05:02 PM | Henrik Stenson | Ryan Moore | Robert Garrigus |
05:13 PM | Ryan Palmer | Simon Khan | Ted Potter Jr. |
05:24 PM | Shawn Stefani | a-Michael Kim | Nicholas Thompson |
05:35 PM | Chris Doak | Andrew Svoboda | Douglas LaBelle II |
05:46 PM | Kevin Sutherland | Matt Weibring | Randall Hutchison |
05:57 PM | a-Cory McElyea | Ryan Nelson | John Hahn |
More golf from SB Nation:
• Can Tiger win his 15th major with one arm?
• Westwood first victim of Merion's wicker baskets
• Tiger playing with injured wrist? | Golfers get weird during rain delay
• Highlights from Thursday's round