PINEHURST, N.C. – Now that’s more like it.

After two days of lower-than-expected scores, the U.S. Open finally showed its bite at Pinehurst No. 2 on Saturday.

Japan’s Toru Taniguchi shot 88. Russell Henley soared to an 82. Boo Weekley struggled to an 80.

With no rain to soften the perilous turtleback greens and devious pin placements making it tough to get anywhere close to the flags, the storied course produced the sort of portly numbers that had been expected from the beginning of the tournament.

Martin Kaymer was set to tee off in the final group with a six-shot lead after posting consecutive 5-under 65s. That gave him the lowest 36-hole score in Open history and was tied for the lowest at any major championship

It was hard to envision him going that low again in these conditions, considering the greens were firming up even more on a warm, sunny afternoon. No one broke par among the first 18 players to finish.

Matthew Fitzpatrick, the only amateur to make the cut, settled for a 78 after shooting 71-73 over the first two rounds. He said the tee placements were also making things tough.

“A couple of tees are forward, but the ones that are forward on, they really don’t make too much difference,” the 19-year-old said. “But there’s a few that are back, and they make a big difference.”

The only player who seemed to be enjoying himself: Kenny Perry, who holed out an eagle from the waste area at No. 14.

Kaymer appeared to be playing an entirely different course over the first two days, making 11 birdies and only one bogey.

Brendon Todd was the closest challenger, Kevin Na and Brandt Snedeker faced a seven-shot deficit, and only nine other players went into the third round closer than 10 strokes behind.

The six-shot lead at the midway point tied the U.S. Open record first set by Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000 and matched by Rory McIlroy at Congressional three years ago. Woods wound up winning by 15 shots. McIlroy won by eight.

“I played Congressional and I thought, `How can you shoot that low?’ And that’s probably what a lot of other people think about me right now,” Kaymer said.

Phil Mickelson steadied his putting stroke a bit, playing the first 13 holes Saturday at even-par – a solid round on this day, but likely not the sort of score he needed to get in contention for his first U.S. Open title.

Lefty has been the runner-up in this championship a record six times, denying him the only title he needs to complete a career Grand Slam.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — In a back-and-forth affair, Taylor Pendrith defeated Team Canada teammates Garrett Rank and Adam Svensson to capture the 74th annual Monroe Invitational Championship (MIC).

 Pendrith, 23, traded birdies with Rank (26) all the way until the final 72nd hole. The Richmond Hill, Ont., native pulled ahead late in Saturday’s final round thanks in part to his eagle on the par-5 12^th. He finished at 11-under par, having finished each round in the 60s (67-67-66-69).

This could very well be the biggest win of Pendrith’s amateur career – he also won the prestigious Porter Cup in 2013. With the win, the recent Kent State graduate continues a very successful season that saw him earn Co-Mid-American Conference Golfer of the Year honours in addition to shooting up the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), where he currently sits at No. 46.

Svensson, a Surrey B.C. native, made his move up the leaderboard with a 66 on Saturday to climb into second place, sneaking past Team Canada teammate Rank. Svensson continues to impress after winning this year’s Jack Nickalus award for the most outstanding golfer in NCAA Div II golf for his remarkable seven-win season at Barry University.

Hailing from Elmira, Ont., Rank carded rounds of 66-66-68-72 to finish at 8-under for the tournament, dropping slightly to a tie for third after Saturday’s final round. The University of Waterloo graduate is playing great golf as of late – he won the National Golf Club Invitational one week earlier.

Chris Hemmerich of Kitchener, Ont., also cracked the top 10. The Guelph University graduate demonstrated strong consistency with rounds of 70-68-66-69 to come in at 7-under in a tie for fifth. The 21-year-old showed great poise after experiencing the tough competition at PGA Tour Canada’s PC Financial Open two weeks ago – his first professional event.

Listowel, Ont. native Corey Conners rounded out the National Amateur team, finishing at a very respectable T17 in the strong field at the MIC, one of the more prestigious amateur golf events. The 22-year-old finished at 2-under – he also shares Co-Mid-American Golfer of the Year honours with Pendrith.

Canadians Josh Whalen (Napanee, Ont.) and Kevin Kwon (Maple Ridge, B.C.) also teed-it-up at the MIC, finishing T33 and 75, respectively.

For the full leaderboard, click here

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Team Canada is officially on fire after coming out of last week’s training camps on home soil. The women’s squad mirrored the success of the men in New York at the Porter Cup, where Brooke Henderson took the field by storm to win with a final round 62. All members of the women’s squad landed inside the top 20 at the event, as well.

PINEHURST, N.C. – Masters champion Bubba Watson avoided major mistakes, putted well and seemed more comfortable in his second run through Pinehurst No. 2 at the U.S. Open.

Too bad it came a day late.

Watson shot an even-par 70 on Friday, not enough following an opening 76 that ultimately cost him a shot of playing on the weekend.

“It’s easy today,” Watson joked. “After you’re out of it, it’s kind of easy just to go around and play golf.”

Watson finished at 6-over 146 to miss the cut by a stroke.

Jason Dufner, Luke Donald, Charl Schwartzel and Hunter Mahan – – done in by a two-shot penalty for playing the wrong ball on his ninth hole – also dropped out after finishing at 6 over. Dufner has missed the cut in two straight majors after winning the PGA Championship.

Watson won his second green jacket in three years in April – his second PGA Tour victory this year – then led late at the Memorial before faltering and finishing third. He arrived at Pinehurst hoping to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to win the year’s first two majors.

But he never gave himself a chance, his stay cut short by Thursday’s miserable round of five bogeys and one double-bogey – a performance that had Watson lamenting that the course “is better than me right now.”

He got off to a better start Friday on a layout softened by overnight rain with birdies on two of his first three holes. He was more accurate hitting fairways and greens while also making more putts than a day earlier, but three bogeys in four holes just before the turn did him in.

Watson tied for fifth at the U.S. Open in 2007 at Oakmont, but has missed the cut three times since.

“The greens are very difficult,” Watson said about Pinehurst. “For me personally, I don’t like the look of it. The targets are really small to try to hit the greens. You’ve got to hit the ball really straight I believe to hit it in the 10-foot circles on each green. So for me, it’s just a very difficult course.”

Donald was worse off than Watson after a 7-over 77 in his first round. He was much better Friday with only one bogey and a 69, but missed the U.S. Open cut for the second time in three years.

Meanwhile, Schwartzel – paired with Watson and top-ranked Adam Scott – went the opposite direction. After an even-par 70 on Thursday, he had five bogeys and two double-bogeys en route to a 76 on Friday.

Dufner, who missed the cut by six shots at the Masters, had 11 bogeys over two rounds and shot 74 on Friday. He had tied for fourth in the past two U.S. Opens.

Then there was Mahan.

A year after playing in Sunday’s final group, Mahan was penalized when he and Jamie Donaldson each mistakenly played the other’s ball in the 18th fairway following their tee shots. That two-shot penalty dropped Mahan below the cut line.

John Wood, Mahan’s caddie, took the blame because he was the first one to reach the ball.

“You can’t imagine yourself doing something colossally as stupid as that, but I did it,” Wood said. “I won’t forgive myself very soon after this.”

Donaldson also missed the cut, shooting 81 on Friday after an even-par first round to finish at 11-over 151.

PINEHURST, N.C. – At least Phil Mickelson probably won’t face another close call at the U.S. Open.

The six-time runner-up and zero-time champion slipped well off the pace Friday with a 73 that left him at 3 over – 13 strokes behind record-setting leader Martin Kaymer.

It’s mostly because of his putter.

After ditching the claw grip in favor of a more traditional one, Mickelson missed a series of putts that would have put him at least a little closer to Kaymer.

“The hole looks like a thimble to me right now,” Mickelson said. “I’m having a hard time finding it.”

Now, at a tournament where everybody’s seemingly playing for second, he’s facing quite a climb to claw back within striking distance on a Pinehurst No. 2 course that 15 years ago was the site of the first of his many second-place finishes.

Teenage playing partner Matthew Fitzpatrick called Mickelson “the master” of “getting out of trouble” and that ability certainly will be put to the test this weekend.

“I feel like I’m playing well enough to win the U.S. Open,” Mickelson said. “Except for putting.”

Mickelson has been saying his putting could use some tweaking. He’s 100th among PGA Tour players in total putting this year after finishing 11th in that stat in 2013.

So in an attempt to get his stroke back, he switched to a claw grip for the Open.

Even after he shot even par during the first round, he said he wasn’t sure how long he’d stick with it.

All of 18 holes, it turned out.

“I felt like I identified what I was struggling with, and I thought it was my eye line had gotten well over the golf ball,” Mickelson said. “So as I moved the ball away and put my eyes over the ball instead of over the top, I felt like that’s how I putted last year, so I went back to my regular grip.”

Reverting back to the conventional grip for Round 2, Mickelson got off to an encouraging start with birdies on consecutive early holes.

Then came the pesky par-3 sixth that “shook me a little bit.”

Mickelson plopped his tee shot onto the green, but three-putted for a four after his short par attempt hugged the lip of the cup before spinning out.

Two holes later, he pushed his short putt wide left and settled for bogey – the second straight day he bogeyed both holes.

“After that,” he said, “I was really fighting it.”

He added bogeys on two holes he birdied a day earlier – on the par-5 10th, and on the 14th after spinning another short par putt around the lip of the cup.

He ended his round by missing an 11-foot par putt on the 18th and tapping in for his fifth bogey.

“Whenever you putt well and you make short ones and you make those 5-, 6-footers and you’re running a couple of 20-footers in, the game feels easy,” Mickelson said. “You don’t put pressure on yourself to hit it close. You can hit more of the middle of the greens. Your ball striking then becomes a lot easier. Your targets are a lot bigger.”

Because that hasn’t happened here yet, it sure looks like when Mickelson turns 44 on Monday, he’ll still be one victory shy of the career Grand Slam.

The three-time Masters champ, 2005 PGA Championship winner and 2013 British Open champion began his run of runner-ups at this course 15 years ago when it staged its first Open.

He was preparing for a playoff with the late Payne Stewart when Stewart sank a memorable 15-foot putt for par and the win – and a statue of Stewart in that moment stands just beyond the green on 18.

Mickelson led by a stroke heading into the last hole at Winged Foot in 2006 but finished with a double bogey. Last year, at Merion he led during the final round but finished two strokes behind Justin Rose.

But after the way his putter struggled in Round 2, second place doesn’t sound too bad.

Besides, he’s only seven strokes behind Brendon Todd for second.

“I’m not overly optimistic. Obviously I’m not in good position, but more than that … you can’t fire at a lot of the pins,” he said. “You’ve got to make 25-, 30-footers, I’m just not doing it. I’m not going to give up. You just never know. I’ve had rounds that kind of clicked. … Tomorrow, I need to shoot 6- or 7-under par to have a realistic chance.”

Brooke Henderson rallied back from a nine-stroke deficit firing a 9-under 62 on Friday afternoon to win the Porter Cup at Niagara Falls Country Club in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont. carded two eagles and five birdies during her final round to win by three strokes over Calgary’s Jennifer Ha. The Team Canada member finished at 205 for the championship after rounds of 75-68-62 and was the only player to post a sub-70 round on the final day.

Brooke Henderson – 2014 Porter Cup Champion

The 16-year-old has been on an impressive run in 2014 having already won the Spirit Invitational and the South Atlantic Amateur. She also finished tied for 26^th at the LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship and T45 at the LPGA Manulife Financial Classic. She will play in the U.S. Women’s Open next week at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina after making it through qualifying in May. Henderson finished tied for 59^th at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open.

Team Canada’s Jennifer Ha of Calgary finished in a tie for second with Princess Superal of the Philippines after a final round 74, while Augusta James of Bath, Ont. and Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont. ended the tournament in fourth place with a 211 total.

For final results click here.

PINEHURST, N.C. – Wearing a target at the U.S. Open is nothing new for Adam Scott.

He had a green jacket-shaped bull’s-eye on his back as last year’s Masters champion at Merion.

As the world’s top-ranked player at Pinehurst No. 2 this week, it comes with much more stress.

“Last year, I felt the weight of the world off my shoulders – I had just won my first major, so I thought everything was bonus from there,” Scott said Friday. “Certainly a little bit of expectation on myself and maybe from everyone else as being the No. 1 player at the moment, to perform like that. That’s something I’ve tried to adjust to after the last few weeks since being No. 1.”

During a round dominated by Martin Kaymer’s record-breaking second straight 65, Scott had an under-the-radar 67 that marked his best score at a U.S. Open, and just the third time in 13 years that he’s been under par there.

That helped him move to even par – 10 strokes behind Kaymer.

“I needed a good one today,” Scott said. “I think I probably got the better end of the draw on the first two days, coming out early after a bit of soaking rain overnight and that front nine certainly we could fire a little more aggressively at the pins. Hit some good shots and made some putts today and it still felt like hard work, but I’m very happy with the score.”

It’s been 42 years since someone other than Tiger Woods (2002) won the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year. Jack Nicklaus was the last to do it in 1972.

Scott couldn’t do it last year, finishing in a tie for 45th at Merion, and current Masters champion Bubba Watson wrapped up his second round at 6 over.

“They are both such demanding tests of your game, and to be in that kind of form those two weeks in the one year is asking a lot,” Scott said. “The competition is getting stronger and stronger and only a guy with Tiger’s record has been able to do that, and it shows you how hard that is.”

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IN IT TO QUINN IT: Fran Quinn will get to spend some quality time with his son on Father’s Day.

The 49-year-old Web.com Tour journeyman followed his opening-round 68 with a 74 that left him 2 over and assured of making the cut.

That means he’ll get to play Sunday with his 15-year-old son Owen as his caddie.

“It’s the U.S. Open. You go out there … all the stands are packed, people are cheering for you,” Quinn said. “People are rooting for you. People love the story. And, you know, it’s pretty neat to see a father playing with his son caddying on the bag on Father’s Day weekend.”

Simply making the cut is a huge deal for Quinn, a Massachusetts player who failed to make it to the weekend of his only Web.com Tour event this year and is in his first U.S. Open since 1996.

He had to play his way to Pinehurst this year at a sectional qualifier in Purchase, New York.

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BATTLE OF THE BLUES: Leave it to the USGA to stoke one of the nation’s most intense rivalries in college sports.

This is a region where school ties run deep. And perhaps with that in mind, one of the Friday morning groupings included former University of North Carolina player Mark Wilson and Duke graduate Joe Ogilvie.

The USGA resorted to a bit of wordplay with the final member of the threesome – Ken Duke.

That led Ogilvie to quip that playing with Ken Duke “is much better than playing with Ken Carolina.”

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USGA FAREWELL: Joe Ogilvie has played his final round at a USGA event.

The former Duke player tweeted after his round Friday that this U.S. Open would be his final USGA event as a player.

Ogilvie shot a 76 and was at 9 over through two rounds.

PINEHURST, N.C. –

Martin Kaymer is playing a brand of golf rarely seen in the U.S. Open. It might even be enough for soccer-mad Germany to pay attention.

The other 155 players at Pinehurst No. 2 certainly are.

Kaymer set the 36-hole scoring record at the U.S. Open on Friday with another 5-under 65 – this one without a single bogey – to build an early eight-shot lead and leave the rest of the field wondering if the 29-year-old German was playing a different course, or even a different tournament.

“If he does it for two more days, then we’re all playing for second spot,” Adam Scott said.

Kaymer was at 10-under 130, breaking by one shot the record set by Rory McIlroy at rain-softened Congressional in 2011.

“I played Congressional and I thought, `How can you shoot that low?’ And that’s probably what a lot of other people think about me right now,” Kaymer said.

A fast-moving thunderstorm dumped rain on Pinehurst overnight, though it didn’t make the course that much easier. The pins were in tougher locations. Trouble is waiting around any corner at Pinehurst No. 2. Kaymer rarely found it.

He opened with a short birdie on the par-5 10th hole, added birdie putts from 20 and 25 feet, and then hit a gorgeous drive on the par-4 third hole, where the tee was moved up to make it play 315 yards. His shot landed perfectly between two bunkers and bounced onto the green to set up a two-putt birdie.

And the lead kept growing.

“I look at the scoreboards. It’s enjoyable,” Kaymer said. “To see what’s going on, to watch yourself, how you react if you’re leading by five, by six. … I don’t know, but it’s quite nice to play golf that way.”

It looks like a typical U.S. Open – except for Kaymer.

Dustin Johnson opened with a pair of 69s, a score he would have gladly taken at the start of the week and perhaps thought it would be good enough to lead.

“I wouldn’t have thought it would be eight shots behind,” Johnson said.

Brooks Koepka, the American who is carving his way through the European Tour, birdied his last hole for a 68 and joined the group at 2-under 138 with Johnson, Brendon de Jonge (70) and former PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who played in the same group with Kaymer and rallied for a 69.

“He’s as dialed it as I’ve seen,” Bradley said.

The U.S. Open record for largest 36-hole lead is six shots by McIlroy at Congressional and by Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000, when he won by 15 shots.

A group of players was trying to at least keep in close in the afternoon.

Kevin Na reached 4 under and was on the back nine, with Brandt Snedeker, Matt Kuchar and Brendon Todd close behind. Phil Mickelson was tied for second – that should sound familiar – early in the second round until he fell back with a pair of bogeys.

Mickelson is trying to win the U.S. Open after a record six runner-up finishes. Kaymer put a damper on those hopes.

“Martin seems to be playing a different golf course,” Koepka said. “Ten under is incredible.”

Kaymer already won the PGA Championship in 2010 at Whistling Straits, and he added the next best thing to a major last month at The Players Championship. It’s tough for any golfer to make headlines in Germany, especially in a World Cup year.

At least Germany doesn’t start in Brazil until Monday.

“That’s the first game, so maybe I got a little bit of some … things in the newspapers about me,” Kaymer said. “Football is our biggest sport, and I can’t wait to watch the first game. I think golf, it’s not that important, but not much I can do. I can just try my best and hopefully I can put myself out there.”

And if were to win?

“It will probably last until Monday, 12 o’clock, and then that’s it,” he said with a smile.

This is the “Germanator” everyone expected when he won the PGA Championship, and then a year later rose to No. 1 in the world. Kaymer felt his game was not complete enough, so he set out to develop a draw – his natural shot is a fade – and it took two years of lonely hours on the range to get it right.

At the moment, he can do no wrong.

Each time he looked to be in trouble, Kaymer escaped. He drove toward the lip of a bunker on the 14th and did well just to reach the front of the green, some 70 feet away. The long putt on the turtleback greens Donald Ross created was so difficult that his first putt nearly ran off the putting surface. He made a 12-footer for par.

Kaymer felt tired toward the end of the round, and it showed. He hit into bunkers on the sixth and seventh holes, and both times blasted out to short range. He also converted a difficult two-putt from the front of the eighth green.

He spent the whole day going forward. Now, everyone else is going to need him to come back to have any chance.

Kaymer doesn’t want to change his strategy.

“Because if you think of defending anything, then you’re pulling back, and that’s never really a good thing,” he said. “You just want to keep going. You want to keep playing. You want to challenge yourself. If you can stay aggressive and hit the right shots. And that’s quite nice that it’s a battle against yourself.”

That’s what this U.S. Open is right now. A one-man show.

Graham DeLaet, the only Canadian on the course this week, carded a pair of 75’s in the opening rounds to end the day at 10 over par.

PINEHURST, N.C. – Graeme McDowell watched countryman and playing partner Rory McIlroy boom shot after shot, attacking the treacherous greens at Pinehurst No. 2 every chance he got.

Was McDowell tempted to try the same?

Not at all.

McDowell hardly dazzled with the way he struck the ball but kept putting it right where he wanted, setting up a 2-under 68 that left him solidly in contention at the U.S. Open on Thursday.

“I spent the last few days just preparing myself mentally for the challenge, really knowing that this golf course wasn’t going to give much and it was only going to take,” said McDowell, looking for the second Open title of his career after winning at Pebble Beach in 2010.

He stumbled only once with a bogey at the 529-yard fourth, the longest par 4 at Pinehurst. He bounced right back with an eagle at the par-5 fifth, made his lone birdie of the round at the 14th, and put down par on everything else.

McDowell held a share of the lead much of the day, until Martin Kaymer birdied three of the last five holes for a 65.

Still, this was just the sort of round McDowell had in mind when coming up with a game plan.

“It wasn’t my best ball-striking display,” he said. “You don’t have to strike it amazing around here. You just have to position the ball correctly at all times.”

The 34-year-old from Northern Ireland played in a group with two other former U.S. Open champions, McIlroy and Webb Simpson.

McIlroy kept hitting it farther than his countryman, which is usually the case. But that wasn’t a huge advantage on a course with narrow fairways tinged with brown at the edges, areas that presented all sorts of potential hazards and sloping greens that send most approach shots sliding away from the cup.

McIlroy settled for a 71.

“I played the golf course very conservatively, if you compare my round to Rory’s round,” McDowell said. “I generally kept the ball exactly where I wanted going into the flags, short of a lot of greens but on the correct side of most of the flags.”

After the bogey at No. 4, McDowell unleashed one of his better tee shots of the round at the next hole. That was followed by a 3-wood that spun up onto the green, stopping about 12 feet short of the flag. He sank the uphill putt for an unexpected eagle.

At most of the holes, McDowell was content to just grind it out. He is aware that the last two Open champions, Justin Rose a year ago and Simpson in 2012, claimed the title with scores that were above par. McDowell certainly remembers his own victory four years ago, when even-par was good enough for the victory.

“This golf course is difficult and good shots are going to finish in bad spots,” he said. “I think the winner of this tournament is going to make 10 to 12 birdies, maximum. That’s only three a round. That’s what I mean by preparing yourself mentally for the fact that you’re not going to get a pat on the back very often at this golf course.”

McIlroy was impressed by McDowell’s performance.

“He gets the most out of it, misses it in the right places, has a really good short game and holes big momentum putts to keep his run going,” McIlroy said. “He always seems to be able to make those. This is his ideal sort of tournament – grinding it out and the winning score not being too much under par. He knows how to do that well.”

PINEHURST, N.C. – There’s no escaping the feeling that Phil Mickelson is setting himself up for another fall.

It’s happened a half-dozen times before at the U.S. Open, almost always following the same script. Mickelson digs a foothold near the top of the leaderboard in the opening round, hangs on, hangs on and then plays the last few holes on Sunday a stroke or three on the wrong side of par. Inevitably, somebody else squeezes by and instead of a trophy, he takes home another “best supporting actor” title.

Almost on cue, Lefty shot an even-par 70 on his first competitive tour across the scruffy, renovated Pinehurst No. 2 layout, and predicted once again this could be the year.

“This is a special tournament, a tournament that means a lot to me,” he began. “I don’t know if it will be this week or next year or the year after. I do still have a hundred percent confidence that I’ll be able to break through and get one.

“I do feel, though, that this tournament gives me a great chance on this golf course,” he added, “because I don’t feel like I have to be perfect.”

Mickelson was close to that Thursday with nearly every club in the bag, save the putter. He even surprised himself by hitting every fairway every time he leaned on his normally wayward driver. Golfers like to say they make their own breaks, but Mickelson caught one early in the day after a report in The New York Times said federal authorities found no evidence that he had traded in the stock of a company, Clorox, that is part of an insider-trading probe.

The same report said Mickelson, as well as famed sports gambler Billy Walters, are still under investigation over separate well-timed trades they made in a second company, Dean Foods, in 2012 just before its stock soared. Mickelson was asked about that after the round and he replied the way he has since reports that both the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission were looking into those trades first surfaced.

“Like I said before, with an investigation going on, I’m not going to comment any further on it. But I’ll continue to say that I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.”

When pressed about whether he’d pocketed $1 million by trading Dean Foods’ stock, he essentially gave the same answer: “I do have a lot to say and I will say it at the right time.”

And either way, Mickelson said a few moments later that he’s got more than enough on his plate at the moment.

“It hasn’t affected my preparation or anything for this tournament. I know I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said, “so I haven’t been stressed about it.”

We’ll take Mickelson at his word on this one, since his history at the U.S. Open – let alone at this venue – is the kind of stuff that winds up on the cutting-room floor of a horror flick. He was playing alongside the late Payne Stewart here in 1999 and getting ready for a playoff when Stewart rolled in a 15-footer for par and the win.

Mickelson’s wife, Amy, was very pregnant when he arrived and his caddie, Bones Mackay, carried a beeper that had it gone off, would have sent Lefty scrambling to the nearest airport for the next flight home. Turns out his daughter, Amanda, who’s now almost 15, was born later that day, and just like the rest of us, all she knows is that when comes to the U.S. Open, her father has a funny way of finishing second a lot.

Mickelson figures the fastest way to end that streak is to get hot with the putter. He’s switched to the claw grip for this tournament, and while it didn’t hurt his chances inside 10 feet or so, he didn’t make anything longer and Pinehurst’s turtleback greens rarely let approach shots settle any closer. How long he stays with the new grip is anybody’s guess.

“It might be weeks, it might be months, it might be days, hours, I don’t know,” Mickelson said. “It’s just one of those things. Last year I putted just so well for a year and a half, and I’ve kind of over-done what I was doing. I’ve got to kind of settle back in.”

Mickelson turns 44 on June 16 and isn’t likely to master too many new tricks. He’s already captured the other three legs of the Grand Slam and fortuitously, the absence of rough and the premium on chipping here now make Pinehurst his kind of setup. But he’s not about to refuse help from any quarter.

On the par-5 fifth, Mickelson’s approach putt rolled over the marker of playing partner Matthew Fitzpatrick, an amateur who’s young enough to be his son, and stopped right in front of it.

“He came over and he said, `Is that all right there?'” Fitzpatrick said, “and he was obviously joking, but I didn’t think he was. I said, `I’m going to need that moved.’ And he said, `Don’t worry, I’m only joking.'”

A moment later, Mickelson told Fitzpatrick that hitting the marker had probably saved him from rolling the ball another two feet past the hole.

“I guess if he does win,” Fitzpatrick said, brightening, “I’ve contributed to it a little bit.”

PINEHURST, N.C. – Much to his delight, Martin Kaymer discovered Pinehurst No. 2 was even more different than he imagined in the U.S. Open.

This wasn’t the beast of a course that Kaymer and so many other players were expecting.

This was a day for scoring.

Kaymer made six birdies Thursday afternoon, three on the final five holes, that sent the 29-year-old German to the lowest score in three Opens held at Pinehurst No. 2. He made a 6-foot par putt on the 18th hole for a 5-under 65 and a three-shot lead.

“It was more playable than I thought,” he said. “I think that made a big difference mentally, that you feel like there are actually some birdies out there, not only bogeys.”

So much was made of the new look at No. 2, which was restored to its old look from more than a half-century ago. There also was plenty of talk that this U.S. Open would be as tough as any U.S. Open.

When he finished his final day of practice Wednesday under a broiling sun, Kaymer was asked what it would take to win.

“I said plus 8 because the way the golf course played on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” he said. “But obviously, they softened the conditions a little bit so it was more playable. So hopefully, I’m not right with the plus 8. I would be disappointed.”

Former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell took the conservative route on his way to a 68 that featured 15 pars, one bogey, one birdie and one eagle. He was joined by Kevin Na, Brendon de Jonge and Fran Quinn, a 49-year-old who last played a U.S. Open in 1996, when Tiger Woods was still an amateur.

“This was a golf course where I spent the last few days just preparing myself mentally for the challenge, really, knowing that this golf course wasn’t going to give much and it was only going to take,” McDowell said. “I’m assuming they put some water on this place this morning. And we were able to take advantage of that a little bit early on and actually think about getting at some of those flags.”

Brandt Snedeker, who had a chance at 30 on his front nine, had to settle for being part of a large group at 69 that included 20-year-old Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson, Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson.

The 15 players to break par were the most for an opening round at the U.S. Open since 24 players did it at rain-softened Olympia Fields in 2003.

Phil Mickelson, in his latest quest to win the one major keeping him from the career Grand Slam, shot a 70. He was among the early starters, who received additional help by cloud cover that kept moisture in the greens. Mickelson doesn’t expect Pinehurst to be any easier the rest of the week.

“There was some low scoring out there – some good scoring, I should say,” he said. “Anything around par, it’s usually a good score.”

Masters champion Bubba Watson was among the exceptions. He shot a 76 and said, “This course is better than me right now.”

The sun broke through shortly before noon and began to bake the course, though not enough to stop Kaymer. He watched some of the tournament on television in the morning, and he was particularly struck by the sight of Stenson’s 6-iron into the par-3 15th only rolling out a few feet. Kaymer expected it to roll off the green.

“Last night I thought that it’s going to be very, very firm in the afternoon,” he said. “But actually, it was more playable than I thought.”

Not everyone was able to take advantage.

Defending champion Justin Rose had a 72, making his bid a little tougher to become the first repeat winner in 25 years. Adam Scott, the world No. 1 who has been formidable in every major the last two years except the U.S. Open, had a 73.

Scott wasn’t about to panic. Pinehurst only figures to get more difficult.

“You know how it’s going to be at the end of the week,” Scott said. “We’re going to be looking at even par, or something around that.”

Kaymer picked up four birdies with relative ease – three wedges to inside 3 feet, and a high draw with a 3-wood to about 20 feet on the par-5 fifth for a two-putt birdie. A few longer putts at the end really dressed up the score.

He hit a 6-iron at the flag on the 16th hole and made a 12-foot birdie putt, and then hit another 6-iron at the par-3 17th to about 10 feet for birdie.

Kaymer tied the course record with a 63 in the opening round when he won The Players Championship last month, ending a drought of some 18 months. That only boosted his confidence, and the 65 on Thursday only adds to it.

Even so, he realizes it’s only one round, and that the course probably won’t be so kind or gentle the rest of the way.

“I would have never expected myself to shoot such a low round at Pinehurst … but it’s a good round of golf,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it. I’m not freaking out about it. It’s the first round of a very, very important tournament. I put myself so far in a good position, but we have three rounds to go. The golf course can change a lot.

“If other people want to make more out of it, it’s fine,” he said. “But for me, it’s a great start into one of the most important weeks of the year.”

Canada’s lone Canadian in the field – Graham DeLaet – opened with a 5-over 75.

Defending champion Justin Rose, who held off Mickelson a year ago at Merion, shot 72. There hasn’t been a repeat winner in this championship since Curtis Strange in 1988-89.