Rory McIlroy surges atop U.S. Open leaderboard with bogey-free 65

Yang, ranked 110th when he won the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, played after a shower softened the course but did not force a delay. He recorded five birdies
including at each of the four par 3s
while making the most of the favorable conditions.

“I’m more impressed with the weather, actually,” Yang said through a translator. “It helped me a lot. It softened the green, which we were anticipating would be really hard after all they went through last week. I anticipate it won’t get any easier than today unless it starts to rain a lot.”

Six were tied for fourth at 2-under, including Sergio Garcia, who booked entry to the tournament through a qualifier last week. Also in the group was 2010 British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen, who overcame consecutive bogeys to open his round and offered a preview of the opportunities McIlroy would exploit later in the day with birdies at two of the final three holes.

“The wind helped,” Oosthuizen said. “I think those last few holes, you’re going to see good scores around.”

Not everyone enjoyed as much success, including a group of the world’s top three players. Top-ranked Luke Donald and 2010 PGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer both shot 74. So did Phil Mickelson, who scrambled to get to 3-over despite missing 10 of 18 greens while playing in McIlroy’s group.

McIlroy didn’t have such problems. Instead, he placed himself in a position to quickly apply some hard-earned lessons in a major setting
a task which will possess a growing degree of difficulty as the week progresses.

“It’s not going to be that easy every day, I know that,” McIlroy said. “And everyone else knows that. It is nice when all the parts of your game are [solid] and you can put together a low round.”

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