Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell surged to the top of the leaderboard at The US Open Championship with a flurry of birdies on day two at Bethpage Black.
With play washed out after just three and a quarter hours yesterday there was a blanket restart on New York's Long Island this morning after groundstaff worked right up until the players resumed their rounds to get the waterlogged par 70 course up to scratch.
There were problems for the players to deal with as the 78 who began their rounds yesterday morning crowded the practice range as dawn broke in a bid to warm up for the continuation of play.
But McDowell, playing the back nine first in his opening round, restarted with a birdie at the par three 17th before picking up further shots on the second and fourth holes to move to two under.
A bogey at the sixth, his 15th hole, saw the 29 year old slip back to one under, but he still held the joint lead alongside American amateurs Drew Weaver and Ben Martin.
Sweden’s Johan Edfors, one of four overnight leaders, was among five players on level par after he followed bogeys at the fifth and sixth holes with a birdie at the eighth.
Defending champion Tiger Woods missed an eight foot par putt at his first hole of the day, the seventh, to slip to two over, but birdies at the 11th and 14th lifted him alongside Edfors at level par.
England’s Ian Poulter was well placed at one over with four holes of his opening round remaining, while Henrik Stenson, Angel Cabrera, Andres Romero and Lee Westwood were a shot further back at two over.
With the championship still playing catch-up, the other half of the field that was due to start on Thursday afternoon were due to begin their opening rounds at 10am local time (3pm BST), with the United States Golf Association hoping to get the second round under way at 4pm (9pm BST) in a bid to get back on track.
