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6.10pm: Long birdie putts for Day, on 15 to move to level par, and Rose, on 15 to move to +1. Oosthuizen and McDowell both give themselves makeable birdie chances on the final-hole 18th. Some trouble for Bubba on the par-three 7th; his ball nestles in the fringe at the back, and he sends his second straight through the green and inches away from a bunker.
6pm: In deep rough on 18, Casey allows the filth to turn his clubhead. He drops the club at the top of his follow through, then laughs ironically as he watches his ball dribble into the water down the left. A cavalcade of comedy. He's +1 at the moment, but won't be when he gets to the clubhouse. On 9, Harrington drops a shot after missing a short-ish par putt, a miserable end to an otherwise decent day for him. And on 6, Bubba is inches from making his eagle putt, but doesn't quite hit the straight-ish effort. Still, that's a birdie, and he's tied for the lead with Palmer and Yang. Here's the LEADERBOARD, on the hour:
-3
Watson (15*)
Palmer (14)
Yang (17)
-2
Love III (17)
-1
Cink (F)
Reavie (F)
McDowell (17)
Oosthuizen (17)
Stenson (16)
Edfors (16)
Jobe (13)
Cantlay (1*)
5.55pm: Donald fluffs his chip from behind the green at 7, dropping another shot. he's +4, and very frustrated. Westwood manages to scramble his par, but remains at +3. Much was expected of this pair, and nothing's been delivered. They won't be the last to suffer on this monster of a course this week. And of course there's still time.
5.52pm: On 6, Westwood dumped his second in the water. He was hitting a fairway wood. Bubba, by comparison, knocks in a languid iron to 15 feet. That's a very decent eagle opportunity. He's great to watch, is Watson, a real swashbuckler.
5.50pm: On 17, McDowell hits a delicious approach to ten feet, but hits his birdie putt too firmly, the ball not turning right to left as intended, railroading through the break instead. He'll have to make do with par. Alongside him, Oosthuizen records a steady par, while Uihlein bogeys, though the amateur's happy enough after fluffing his bunker escape.
5.45pm: The course is beginning to deliver some kickings hither and yon. The amateur Peter Uihlein, doing fantastically well at -1, drives into semi-rough on 17 - he's hit it too long, running out of fairway - and dumps his approach in a bunker. The ball's plugged, with a terrible downhill lie. Meanwhile on 13, Brandt Jobe, at -2, fluffs a chip from the fringe and can't make his long par putt. And on the par-three 7th, both Westwood and Donald find themselves in grave danger of dropping more shots, the wheels clattering off their challenges already.
5.40pm: Yang taps his ball and sends it skittering off down the glacial green. Luckily his aim is true and the putt drops for his birdie, otherwise that was sailing miles past the hole. He's tied for the lead at -3. On 16, Westwood drops a shot after finding the drink. Meanwhile, on 6, Bubba clatters his drive about six miles down the track. OK, about 330 yards. That was huge. The man's on fire at the moment.
5.35pm: Bubba is on a charge. He's just birdied 5 to move to -2, one off the leader Palmer. That's three birdies in a row. Meanwhile YE Yang has a tricky six-foot downhill putt on 7 - his 16th hole of the day - for birdie, and a share of the lead.
5.30pm: Once again, McDowell plays himself out of trouble. Hitting his third at the par-five 16th from thick filth, he does well to find the centre of the green, then knocks his long first putt dead. Another par saved. Alongside him, Oosthuizen hits his third to five feet and knocks in for birdie. Both men are -1 for their round, two holes from home.
5.25pm: Yang has just raked in a 25 footer at 6 for birdie to move to -2. Behind him, Westwood has just dumped his second in the water, front right of the green. He looks totally radged off with life at present, and no wonder; he's already +2, and heading in the wrong direction.
5.24pm: One hour until Sergio.
5.20pm: Padraig Harrington! Almost a totally forgotten man, despite winning two majors as recently as 2008, he's putting it together nicely today. Birdies at 3 and 6 have taken him to -1. It could have been even better, but he missed a makeable birdie putt on 7. This is stirring stuff. What a story this would be. OK, calm down, he's not even finished the first round yet.
5.15pm: Could hot act The Golf Boys already be in danger of splitting due to irreconcilable musical differences? Hunter Mahan, interviewed on Sky and grinning like a maniac, has admitted that Bubba Watson "really couldn't project the way we wanted him to". Haw. Like Bubba - sporting some funky patterned pants, incidentally - will care right now. He's just birdied 4, knocking a crisp approach to four feet, to move to -1.
5.05pm: Paul Casey has been on a rollercoaster so far: after opening with two bogeys, he birdied 5, then bogeyed 9 and 11 to fall back to +3. But he's rallied, with birdies at 13 and 15, and is right back in the mix. His more-fancied compatriots are dragging each other down as they go round together: Lee Westwood has just suffered back-to-back bogeys on 3 and 4; he's +2 through 13. His playing partner Luke Donald has steadied the ship after dropping six shots between the 13th and 18th - since the turn, he's followed up his birdie at 1 with three pars - but the world number one's still +3 for his round. So much for the European invasion. But in fairness, who cares? Kevin Rowland Bubba Watson of the Golf Boys has just birdied 3 to move to level par through 12. Swingin' like a boomerang-atan!
5pm LEADERBOARD:
-3
Palmer (11)
-2
Edfors (13)
Overton (11)
-1
Reavie (17)
McDowell (14)
Yang (14*)
Cink (14*)
Love III (12)
Day (11)
Henry (11)
Jobe (10)
4.55pm: A brilliant par 3 for Edfors on 13 from an incredibly tricky position just off the back. From the thicker cut, he had to nudge the ball an inch onto the putting surface with his rescue club, and let the lightning-fast slope do the rest. Even so he was left with a tricky left-to-right six-footer, but he made it to remain at -2, in joint second for the tournament.
4.45pm: There are only 12 players under par at present. They're all American, apart from Edfors, McDowell, YE Yang, Jason Day, and Christo Greyling of South Africa. A timely charge from the home nation, albeit one that means less than the square root of bugger all at this stage, because if an American doesn't prevail this weekend, it'll be the first time the USA have gone five majors without winning one since the dawn of time.
4.40pm: On 3, Westwood nearly chips in from a bunker, the ball clattering into the pin and squirming away from the cup. He follows it up by pulling the three footer wide of the hole. The bogey drops him back to +1 for the tournament through 12. On 13, McDowell gets up and down from a tricky spot yet again, this time in tight rough just behind the green, and stays at -1. Oosthuizen can't save his par on the hole, though; he's now bogeyed the last two and is back at level par.
4.35pm: We have a new sole leader of the US Open: Ryan Palmer has made his third birdie of the day, this time at 10, to move to -3.
4.30pm: Monty is snapping. Sky have just put up a caption of Ernie Els' 1997 tournament stats, causing the sensation of extreme unhappiness to course through our hero's head. "I was having a five-minute break from it there. Thanks for that." The top notes are of humour, but there's pain in there too. Searing pain. This isn't going to end well.
4.20pm: A nice steady start from Padraig Harrington, who's been out of sorts for a while now after fiddling around with his swing. It's about time he came back. Well, early doors and all that, but he's right among it all here, level par for the day, bouncing back twice from bogeys with birdies, this time at the par-four 3rd. Here are the early leaders on -2: Chez Reavie (15), Louis Oosthuizen (11), Johan Edfors (10), Ryan Palmer (9), Jeff Overton (9).
4.10pm: Monty is on the Sky commentary mic again. And he's talking about his three US Open runner-up spots again. They really shouldn't put him through this, you know. I'm not sure being there's doing him any good. The man's clearly hurting, issues remaining unresolved. Four days of this, and he'll be carted off the course and away to the Special Home.
4.07pm: After going out (or coming in, whichever way you want to look at it) in 39 shots, Donald now rakes in a huge birdie effort on the 1st. He's +3 for the tournament through 10, and smiling again, albeit with a modicum of frost on the teeth.
4.05pm: Cink makes his birdie putt on 2, but Cabrera misses a tiddler. What eejitry. Both men are level par for the tournament through 11 holes. (Split tees, remember.) Ernie Els isn't faffing about, though; he's -1 for the tournament at the turn, and pin high at the par-three 10th, albeit with a tricky 25-footer for birdie. The former US Open champ is one off the pace, behind Edfors, Overton, Palmer and Oosthuizen, who taps in for his birdie on 11. That really was a wonderful approach to a very difficult hole. Oosthuizen's playing partner, McDowell, scrambles from a bunker from the second time in two holes to remain at -1; he's not the reigning champion for nothing.
3.55pm: The veteran Davis Love is half a dimple from joining the leaders with his birdie effort on 9; he stays at -1. On the par-three 2nd, Angel Cabrera and Stewart Cink pass the time by peppering the flag. Shot of the day so far by Oosthuizen, who guides in a long iron at the lengthy par-four 11th to inches. A beautiful stroke, a slight draw to circumvent the bunker at the front left of the green, just about as perfect as you can get. Very easy on the eye.
3.50pm: Some movement at the top of the leaderboard, such as it is at this early stage. The leader Edfors, like his compatriot Jacobsen before him, drops a shot at 9 to move back to -2, where he's joined by Jeff Overton and Ryan Palmer.
3.45pm: McDowell's bunker shot at 10 is majestic, hitting the pin from a very tricky position. That could so easily have rolled in. Unlucky in some respects, but should be viewed as a great par save. On 18, Westwood bogeys, while Donald can't get up and down from the bunker, and drops two shots. He's had a complete nightmare since opening with two birdies: four bogeys, followed by a double at 18. Oh dear. He's out in 39 strokes, +4 after only nine holes of this tournament. That first major already looks a very long way away.
3.40pm: A rocky couple of minutes for some of the European challengers. Justin Rose has just missed a tiddler on 8 for birdie; he stays at even par. McDowell has found the back bunker at the par-three 10th; he's left with a very tricky splash back. Lee Westwood and Luke Donald are making a pig's ear of 18; expect them both to drop shots there, with Donald's approach particularly poor, giving himself an awkward stance in a greenside bunker. And on 9, Jacobsen drops a shot to move back to -1.
3.30pm: Neither Oosthuizen nor McDowell can make their birdie putts; the two reigning Open champions make do with par fives, both reaching the turn in 35 strokes, -1.
3.25pm: There's no other way of putting this: McDowell and Oosthuizen's balls have been rubbing up against each other. Their second shots at the par-five 9th have nestled together on the fairway, forcing G-Mac to mark his ball so Oosthuizen - further from the pin by a matter of millimetres - can play his approach. You don't see that too often. After that saucy assemblage, the hot golf frottage, both men give themselves birdie opportunities with decent wedges to the green, McDowell nearly chipping in for eagle as his approach bites and spins back past the hole. Neither putt a gimmie, though.
3.20pm: Freddie Jacobson has just raked in a right-to-left breaker from 20 feet on 8 to move to -2, but no share of the lead for him: his playing partner and fellow countryman Johan Edfors has knocked in a 12-footer for birdie, and sole ownership of the lead at -3. The greens are like lightening, despite the rain; the US Open, folks, the US Open.
3.10pm: Our Open champion, Louis Oosthuizen, started abysmally, dropping shots at 1 and 2, but he's birdied 4, 7 and now 8 to move to -1 for the championship. On Sky, they're forcing Colin Montgomerie to sit through all of his near misses in the US Open. This is heartbreaking. He's on about the eight minutes he had to wait before playing that dreadful second shot on the 18th at Winged Foot in 2006. "WHAT KIND OF SHOT IS THAT?" Nobody's mentioned his abysmal third-round 75, the real cause of his failure that year. Probably just as well. Poor Monty.
3pm (all times BST, just because): An outright leader to start our coverage. Johan Edfors stands alone at -2; the Swede has birdied 5 and 6, having previously opened with a birdie before bogeying 3. There's a huge pack behind him at -1, but Congressional is one hell of a course - and there's been rain, making it even longer and tougher - so don't be expecting any birdie blitzes.
You wanna play with the pros now? OK. McDowell has handed back the trophy ? in a needlessly ostentatious style, it has to be said, bogeying the first hole of his defence ? and we're off, swingin' like a boomerang-atan. There's not really much to say so far, other than Luke Donald opened with birdie-birdie at 10 and 11 ? we're starting on split tees ? but followed up with bogeys on 13 and 14. Oh, and G-Mac bounced back from his appalling opening hole to birdie 2 and 6 to move into a share of the lead at -1 with US journeyman Kevin Streelman, dreamwrecker Stewart Cink, former USPGA champ YE Yang, fellow Europeans Frederik Jacobsen and Johan Edfors, two-time US Open winner Ernie El... hold on, there's loads of them, I can't be doing with this. You get the picture: there isn't one yet. But it surely won't be long before the tournament takes some sort of shape, so stay strong like G-Mac and stick with us.
This year, though? Not so simple. Sure, we'd like another European winner, please: a first major for world number two Lee Westwood or world number one-and-a-half Luke Donald, perhaps. Or a second for Martin Kaymer. And there's not a soul among us who wouldn't happily pay cash money to see Rory McIlroy bounce back from his Masters nightmare and pick up the prize this weekend. But there's been a game changer. I am, of course, referring to this:
What are we supposed to think now? Is there anyone left who doesn't want one of Ben Crane, Hunter Mahan, Kevin Rowland Bubba Watson or Rickie Fowler to win this thing, as reward for their exceptional contribution to this seminal cultural artefact? I'm all for Europe, but suddenly I'm very confused, like a heterosexual after a few pints, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Am I being unfaithful? Untrue to myself? Possibly. But I'm caught up in the moment, it's a heady rush, and to hell with it, you only live once.
Last year life was so simple. At Pebble Beach, our man Graeme McDowell became the first European winner of the US Open for 40 years. YES. His final round 74 was unspectacular but staunch; he held his nerve majestically as playing partner and third-round leader Dustin Johnson skittered hysterically around the course in the style of a Keystone Kop, and ended the day a deserving winner. It was the result we all wanted. Who failed to shed a salty tear of joy as G-Mac hugged his dad, then the trophy, after taking his rightful place alongside the elite?
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