Fog pushed the start of the 126th US Open back by two hours at Shinnecock Hills, and when play finally resumed the Pga Leaderboard was already beginning to move. Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler were on course as the opening round unfolded under the kind of weather that can turn a major into a scramble.
That timing is why readers are checking the board now. The late tee times meant the first round was still in motion deep into the day, with Rai set for 20:14, M Fitzpatrick for 20:25 and Rose and Rahm for 21:09, all of them part of the wave still trying to make sense of a course being shaped by fog and forecast winds. The live updates showed the round had not settled; it was still changing hole by hole as the field worked through Shinnecock Hills.
The early names at the top reflected that movement. Ludvig Aberg was leading when Kristoffer Reitan arrived with a birdie at the second, his 11th hole, to join him at the top. That sort of change matters in a major where every opening stretch can redraw the board, and it is the kind of live shift that has also driven interest in other tournament races, from the LPGA leaderboard coverage of Jennifer Kupcho to recent PGA leaderboard tracking when McIlroy has been in contention.
There were also signs that the day was already exacting a price. Sam Burns was short of the green with his tee shot at the second and needed two putts to save par, while Tyrrell Hatton matched him with par. Brooks Koepka, despite the sense that his putting had improved, missed a four-foot putt for bogey. That miss mattered because it cut against the story around his game and because Shinnecock Hills rarely leaves much room for recovery once a putt like that slips away.
Hamilton Coleman carried a different kind of pressure. The 18-year-old had played nine holes in practice with McIlroy the previous day, then found himself 10 over par through 13 holes. In a field where the pace can swing quickly, that is the kind of score that shows how unforgiving the course has already been to players trying to settle into the round.
Gavin Andrews was reporting from Shinnecock Hills for Sport NI, and his live coverage showed the opening round still in flux rather than moving toward a clean finish. The delay, the wind and the changing board all pointed in the same direction: this was never going to be a tidy start. With the round still alive and the later groups still coming through, the immediate question is not who led early, but who could survive long enough to stay there by the end.
