THE SQUEEGEES remained untouched, the water pumps turned off. Yesterday, a long old day that ran from dawn to dusk, those inside the ropes at Bethpage Black were grateful for small mercies as the sun – for the most part – shone, and the 109th US Open made up lost ground after Thursday’ s monsoon-like disruption.

This was a place transformed. We had golf. Lots of it. And if those players who’d been asked to wade through puddles on the weather-marred day one could feel aggrieved at the golfing gods for giving them the perceived wrong side of the draw, among them Tiger Woods, at least there was sufficient progress made to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel in the journey towards determining a champion.

On a day when the storm clouds relented, the first round was completed in its entirety and half of the field commenced their second rounds before fading light brought play to a halt. The expectation is that the championship won’t finish until Monday – with the possibility of it even extending into Tuesday – but Mike Weir ensured that he grabbed the initiative.

The left-handed Canadian utilised his more favourable tee-time to his advantage, firing a first round 64. Weir, despite suffering a double bogey on the sixth (his 15th hole), responded by birdieing his closing two holes for a 64, six under, that enabled him to assumed the first round leadership for a two stroke lead over Sweden’s Peter Hanson, while David Duval and Todd Hamilton – two former British Open champions who have struggled in recent seasons – and one-time wonder boy Ricky Barnes posted 67s.

And sentimental fans’ favourite Phil Mickelson – who was greeted on each tee box and on the approach to every green as if he were a long lost hero – shot a 69, despite losing a ball off his drive on the 13th, his fourth, hole.

Quite remarkably, given the record rainfall that fell on Thursday, the course was not only ready but in fabulous condition when players returned yesterday for a 7.30am start, taking up where they’d left off the previous day. And, although the fairways were soft in patches – leading to mud attaching to balls, with no lift, clean and place in operation – and the greens receptive, the best score recorded by the first wave of players was a pair of 69s, one under, by amateur Drew Weaver and Ryder Cup player Graeme McDowell.

“The staff did a hell of a job getting the course ready. I’m sure they worked all through the night to get this course playable,” remarked Woods.

Unfortunately for Woods, who’d got right where he wanted to be when level par with four holes to play, the finish was out of character: the world’s number one, and defending champion, finished with a run of double bogey-bogey-par-bogey from the 15th, signing for a 74. “I wasn’t playing poorly, I was right where I needed to be, but two bad shots and a mud ball later, here I am at four over . . . I’ll just continue what I’m doing, hopefully get a couple of breaks. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish off the round the way I needed to.”

Woods hit the practice range almost immediately after his round, and the roars that reverberated around the course told him what he most likely knew: those players in the second wave of starters, who hadn’t commenced their first rounds on Thursday, had more benign conditions and a more benign course. The proof was provided by a significant improvement in scoring, with Weir shooting eight birdies in his 64, just one shot outside the all-time major championship record.

Apart from his double bogey on the sixth, Weir played very controlled golf. Having started on the 10th, he got into red figures on the 11th and added further birdies on the 13th, 15th and 16th to turn in 31. He then claimed birdies at the third, fourth, eighth and ninth – with just that blip at the sixth – to come home in 33 for a 64.

“It’s nice, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot,” said Weir of being atop the first round leaderboard. “I’m in the lead now, but there’s a long way to go . . . but definitely our side of the draw got an advantage, and that’s the way it works sometimes.”

Hanson, who only earned a place in the field when recording a hole-in-one at international qualifying at Walton Heath to claim one of the spots available from a play-off, shot a 66 and former British Open champion David Duval, who had missed the cut in seven of his last nine tournaments, rediscovered the art of getting the ball into the hole in shooting an opening round 67.

Duval remarked: “I’ve felt my score for most of this year have not been reflective at all of how I’m playing. I feel like they’re slowly catching up to how I’m playing. In this first round, I did what you need to do. Hit the ball in play, knock it on the green. That’s been my goal ever since I started the qualifying (in Colombous) and that’s how I’ve approached it, just the same way.”

McDowell, for his part, had played wonderfully in the tougher half of the draw. Having played seven holes in the rain on Thursday, at which stage he was one over, the Ulsterman returned to the course yesterday morning and hit the ground running. A rescue club tee-shot to the par-three 17th, his eighth hole, finished eight feet from the flag. He rolled in the birdie putt.

The northerner followed with birdies from 10 feet on the second and got up and down from 80 yards on the par-five fourth to move to two-under (to assume the championship lead on his own at that point) only to bogey the sixth, where he found a fairway bunker off the tee.

“I’d a few chances coming in, but I’m generally happy with that effort,” said McDowell.