14 Jun 2013

Wild weather delays opening round at US Open

6:43 am on 14 June 2013

As predicted it's been a stop-start opening round at the US Open golf championship in Philadelphia with nearly four hours play lost because of wild weather.

South Africans dominate the leaderboard at Merion with Charl Schwartzel and Tim Clark sharing the pace with a Chinese amateur Cheng Tsung Pan the pacesetters at 2-under par through nine holes, one shot clear of a group that includes Phil Mickelson and the Englishman Ian Poulter.

The 2005 champion New Zealand's Michael Campbell is three over par after only five holes, although that's just outside the top-40 on a high scoring day, and the other Kiwi the field Steven Alker is among the late starters, with another four hours to while away before his tee time.