SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Reuters) – South African Louis Oosthuizen returned to Torrey Pines early on Friday to put the finishing touches on his first round with a pair of pars that left him in a two-way share of the U.S. Open lead with Russell Henley.
After early-morning fog on Thursday caused a 90-minute delay to the start of play at the year’s penultimate major, Oosthuizen was among the 36 players who were still on the course and unable to complete the round before play was halted due to darkness.
The former British Open champion, who began his round on the back nine, showed no ill effects of the interruption as he found the green with his tee shot at the par-three eighth where he two-putted from 34 feet.
At his final hole, Oosthuizen avoided the thick rough that lines the narrow fairway of the par-five ninth before rolling in a five-foot par putt.
Oosthuizen’s opening four-under-par 67 left him level with American Henley and one shot clear of Italy’s Francesco Molinari and Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello after the first round.
Co-leader Henley was scheduled to begin his second round from the 10th tee at 1:03 p.m. PT (2003 GMT) with former British Open champion Molinari one group behind.
Oosthuizen already started his second round while Cabrera Bello was going off at 2:20 p.m. in the third-to-last group.
Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, who was two strokes off the pace set by Henley and Cabrera Bello, began his second round with a double-bogey at the par-four 10th where he snapped his belt during his second shot.
Among those two shots back on a crowded leaderboard after the first round are world number three Jon Rahm, twice U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and world number six Xander Schauffele.
(Reporting by Andrew Both; Writing by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
