By Lou Aguila (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Jun 14, 2013 08:43 AM EDT

Luke Donald's quest for his first Grand Slam title has been solid so far, finishing the rain-delayed opening day on top of the leaderboard at four under 13 holes. The bad news is he might not be able to hold his position any longer because Phil Mickelson seems just starting to heat up.

Mickelson completed his first 18 holes at Merion with his best score in relation to par in the opening round of the US Open since 1999. A five-time US Open runner-up, Mickelson shot a 3-under 67 despite starting the day with a bogey in the first hole.

The impressive thing about Mickelson's steady first round outing is he didn't even need to spend more practice time at Marion. Lefty decided to use the last three days before the tournament to sharpen his game at his home in San Diego, allowing him to attend the eight-grade graduation of his daughter Amanda on Wednesday.  

"Yeah, it might be abnormal, but it actually worked out really well," Mickelson told reporters after finishing the first round, as reported by ESPN. "I got all my work done at Merion when I was here a week and a half ago. I knew exactly how I wanted to play the golf course, given the conditions, given different wind conditions, clubs I was going to be hitting, where I was going to be and the shots I was going to have.

Tiger Woods, on the other hand, experienced a rough opening hole of his US Open campaign. Woods apparently badly tweaked his left hand as he grimaced in pain after trying to get the ball out of a rough in the first hole.

The world's top golfer bogeyed thrice through the first five holes before pulling off a 50-foot birdie putt in the sixth hole. However, Woods didn't sustain his momentum in the succeeding holes as his injured hands continued to bother him the rest of the day.  Woods shot a 2 over thru 10 when rain postponed the rest of the first round.

"I've got a lot of holes to play tomorrow," Woods said of his unlikely first round showing on Thursday. "And, hopefully, I can play a little better than I did today."

Meanwhile, reigning Masters champion Adam Scott stood out as the best performer out of the marquee group, which features Woods and another Grand Slam titlist, No.2 world-ranked Rory McIlroy. Scott was 3 under thru 11 holes while McIlroy was 1 under. Defending US Open champ Webb Simpson is still looking good at 2 under through eight holes.

After substantial rains and lightning graced the opening day of the US Open Championship, a drier weather forecast is anticipated to prevail for the rest of the week at Merion.

The first round is scheduled to resume at 7:15 a.m ET Friday.

US Open Tee Times (Round 1 and 2)

Group Time Players
53 6:45 am Hicks, Justin Howell, David Stuard, Brian
54 6:56 am Goya, Estanislao Hedblom, Peter Steele, Brendan
55 7:07 am Fraser, Marcus Leishman, Marc Senden, John
56 7:18 am Hoffmann, Morgan Langley, Scott Williams, Chris
57 7:29 am Thompson, Michael Weaver, Michael Wittenberg, Casey
58 7:40 am Choi, K.J. Molinari, Francesco Pettersson, Carl
59 7:51 am Chappell, Kevin Donaldson, Jamie Piercy, Scott
60 8:02 am Points, D.A. Streelman, Kevin Van Pelt, Bo
61 8:13 am Bae, Sang-Moon Grace, Branden Henley, Russell
62 8:24 am Horschel, Billy Matsuyama, Hideki Spieth, Jordan
63 8:35 am Alker, Steven Goggin, Mathew Presnell, Alistair
64 8:46 am Hall, Gavin Harmon, Matt Kim, Bio
65 8:57 am Crick, Brandon Fischer, Zack Sullivan, Ryan
66 12:30 pm Colsaerts, Nicolas Johnson, Dustin Watson, Bubba
67 12:41 pm Bradley, Keegan Mickelson, Phil Stricker, Steve
68 12:52 pm Kuchar, Matt Rose, Justin Snedeker, Brandt
69 1:03 pm Clark, Tim Oosthuizen, Louis Schwartzel, Charl
70 1:14 pm Cink, Stewart Garcia, Sergio Harrington, Padraig
71 1:25 pm Dufner, Jason Poulter, Ian Weekley, Boo
72 1:36 pm Day, Jason Fowler, Rickie Manassero, Matteo
73 1:47 pm Fujita, Hiroyuki Jacobson, Fredrik Yang, Y.E.
74 1:58 pm Karlsson, Robert Peterson, John Stallings, Scott
75 2:09 pm Blake, Jay Don Campbell, Michael Jobe, Brandt
76 2:20 pm Hearn, David Van Zyl, Jaco Weir, Mike
77 2:31 pm Collins, Wil Phelan, Kevin Varner, III, Harold
78 2:42 pm Hughes, Mackenzie Pan, Cheng Tsung Sisk, Geoffrey
Group Time Players
79 7:00 am Clarke, Darren Olazabal, Jose Maria Toms, David
80 7:11 am Cabrera, Angel Lawrie, Paul Ogilvy, Geoff
81 7:22 am Donald, Luke Kaymer, Martin Westwood, Lee
82 7:33 am Furyk, Jim Johnson, Zach McDowell, Graeme
83 7:44 am McIlroy, Rory Scott, Adam Woods, Tiger
84 7:55 am Fdez-Castano, Gonzalo Jaidee, Thongchai Olesen, Thorbjorn
85 8:06 am Els, Ernie Fox, Steven Simpson, Webb
86 8:17 am Guthrie, Luke Ogilvie, Joe Stanley, Kyle
87 8:28 am Pepperell, Eddie Teater, Josh Tsukada, Yoshinobu
88 8:39 am Hwang, Jung-gon Loar, Edward Madsen, Morten Orum
89 8:50 am Bettencourt, Matt Homa, Max Knox, Russell
90 9:01 am Hadwin, Adam Herman, Jim Nieporte, John
91 9:12 am Brown, Brandon Murray, Grayson Smith, Jesse
92 12:45 pm Kresge, Cliff Tambellini, Roger Yip, Ryan
93 12:56 pm Karlberg, Rikard Parry, John Ueda, Yui
94 1:07 pm Hanson, Peter Mahan, Hunter Watney, Nick
95 1:18 pm Casey, Paul Glover, Lucas Haas, Bill
96 1:29 pm Baddeley, Aaron Lingmerth, David Sabbatini, Rory
97 1:40 pm Coetzee, George Laird, Martin Siem, Marcel
98 1:51 pm Hoffman, Charley Huh, John Kelly, Jerry
99 2:02 pm Garrigus, Robert Moore, Ryan Stenson, Henrik
100 2:13 pm Khan, Simon Palmer, Ryan Potter, Jr., Ted
101 2:24 pm Kim, Michael Stefani, Shawn Thompson, Nicholas
102 2:35 pm Doak, Chris LaBelle II, Doug Svoboda, Andrew
103 2:46 pm Hutchison, Randall Sutherland, Kevin Weibring, Matt
104 2:57 pm Hahn, John McElyea, Cory Nelson, Ryan

US Open TV Schedule

TV Schedule: WATCH Friday, June 14, 2013: U.S. Open on ESPN, 8:30 a.m. ET | NBC, 3 p.m. ET

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