Mickelson and Duval fruitful partnership

It is a long way from Walker Cup combat at Portmarnock to the top of the leaderboard in the blue riband of American golf. But after a lapse of eight years, David Duval and Phil Mickelson completed the journey together here at Pinehurst No 2 yesterday with opening rounds of 67 - three under par - in the 99th US Open.

Billy Mayfair and Paul Goydos joined them in a share of the lead and Tiger Woods was in close attendance on 68, after salvaging his round with birdies at the 17th and 18th. Meanwhile Darren Clarke struggled with his game while shooting 73 in the company of John Daly and the most frenzied gallery of the day.

"This is one of the best US Open courses for me," said Daly, who birdied the first three holes on the way to a 68. "Even if I hit it off line, I have a chance to recover."

The comment was more apt than he intended, given that a wild lash off the 18th tee was blocked into a tree about 70 yards away, and then rebounded directly left. From there he got line-of-sight relief and went on to card a closing bogey.

Duval and Mickelson, friends since their college days, are in the same three-ball for the first two rounds. And their chat was dominated by a situation which could have a profound impact on the championship this weekend. "I'vegot my co-pilot ready to fly and we'll go," said Mickelson, a qualified pilot.

This was a reference to the fact that Michelson's wife, Amy, is expecting their first child 2,000 miles away in Phoenix, at the end of the month. But if the baby decides to arrive early, the prospective father intends to be present, even if he happens to be in contention here.

"I've got a plane standing by and I figure I can be at the hospital in about five hours 15 minutes from the time I get the beep," he said. "When I was 20, I thought that, gosh, the majors would be so important. But the birth of our first child is a once-in-a-lifetime thing that I don't want to miss."

His caddie, Jim Mackey, is in charge of the beeper and a mobile phone. And to guard against any errors, Mickelson and his wife have a special dialling code worked out. "Q", the hi-tech specialist from the James Bond movies, would be proud of the arrangements.

All of which contrasted sharply with a day when mother nature contrived to scupper the carefully laid plans of course presentation. Torrential rain on Wednesday evening, which lightened to showers yesterday morning, rendered the greens decidedly receptive, with the result that a formidable course was at its least difficult.

But it remained far from easy, as Europe's leading challengers discovered. Colin Montgomerie, who three-putted four times, escaped with a 72 only after a birdie, birdie finish in which he sank putts of 10 feet at the short 17th and 20 feet at the last. "The difference those birdies made is that I can now look forward to tomorrow," said the Scot.

For Jose-Maria Olazabal, the problem was keeping the ball in play on the way to a 75. And after scrambling furiously to be one over par for the round after the 14th, he dropped four strokes in the remaining holes. A particularly painful six at the last was the product of a dreadfully wayward drive to the right, followed by three putts.

"I hit the ball all over the place and there's no way you can compete in the US Open doing that," said the Spaniard.

So it was left to the Smurfit European Open champion, Mathias Gronberg, to become Europe's standard-bearer with a splendid 70. He birdied the 10th, 11th and 13th to share with Woods the distinction of a back nine of 32.

Instead of holing 20-footers for birdies, Clarke found himself sinking them to save par at the eighth and 12th. He appeared to lose confidence after hitting a three-wood into the right rough for a bogey at the first, and had to wait until the 13th for his only birdie of the round, when a 30-footer found the target.

One sensed the rowdy gallery wasn't helping his cause, but he took the opposite view, possibly in the interests of diplomacy. "If anything, the crowd got me going," he said. "John was playing well and the atmosphere was good, but I just seemed to lose my way. Still, I haven't done serious damage."

Duval and Mickelson took different routes to the same score, with the left-hander producing some of his renowned, L-wedge recovery shots from around the greens. But Duval was not especially impressed. "I try not to have to do that sort of thing," said the world number one. "I find my way is less stressful."

His way was certainly impressive: he hit 15 greens in regulation and had 30 putts, six of them singles. He had no bogey and saved par by recovering from a greenside bunker to a foot at the seventh, chipping to two feet at the 13th and putting up to three feet from a hollow beside the 14th.

He sank an eight-footer for a birdie at the second and finished with a 10-footer at the last. And, in between, was his best shot of the round - a glorious five-iron of 204 yards which came to rest two feet from the pin at the short 15th. But he complained at having had to hit a four-iron second shot at the 489-yard 16th, because of the dampness of the course.

As a scene-setter, it was an extremely interesting day.