Overnight rains slightly softened course conditions at Oakmont, but did nothing to temper the difficulty of the course. Thick rough, fast greens, narrow fairways limited scoring opportunities for the field. Most of the good scores were found among early morning groups which took whatever slight advantage the overnight rains presented and used them to hold the hard fairways and greens.

Although most players weren’t putting up sub-par rounds, the course did seem to play much easier than the doom and gloom predictions many players had earlier in the week. At the close of play today, there are thirty-four players within five shots of the lead.

Before competition today, Jim Hyler, the USGA’s Chairman of the Championship Committee, said, "Each morning, we will really look at [the greens] again as we go through our setup, just making sure that we don’t go over the edge." Hyler was true to his word, and many of the players praised the USGA’s course setup and conditions, with the overwhelming consensus being just how fairly the course played for everyone. Several commented that today will likely be easiest day of the tournament. Defending champion Geoff Ogilvy said, "As long as it doesn’t rain at night it’s going to get harder and harder. The pins could have been harder, the 8th tee was up, which didn’t help me out but the 8th tee was up, so it can only play harder than it did this morning."

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the first round was Engishman Nick Dougherty‘s 68. His four birdie, two bogey round early in the morning sent him to the clubhouse posting the only red numbers on the leaderboard. Dougherty’s past may not be very well known to most people in the United States, but he was the winner of Nick Faldo’s Junior Series events and a member of the Walker Cup team before gaining entry onto the European Tour via their Qualifying School Tournament. In 2006, he won the Caltex Singapore Masters for his first European Tour win. When asked about his round, Dougherty was cautiously optimistic saying, "You know, I didn’t actually play that well tee-to-green, but obviously I was hitting it in the right places when I missed. I never really short-sided myself all day, which is great. And my short game is red hot as it has been recently. I putted solid… So in all, I’m delighted. That’s a great start."

Although Dougherty might have been the talk of the day, it was of little surprise to see Tiger Woods end with a 71, placing him at +1, just three shots behind the leader. A difficult day mixing three birdies among four bogies yielded Woods’s day. For much of the week, the major question was could Tiger improve his driving accuracy and avoid the penal U.S. Open rough? Woods hit six drivers today and was able to find 9 of 14 fairways, the best of which was his drive at the short par 4 17th which found the front edge of the green and after a chip and a putt, Woods found his last birdie. However, Tiger uncharacteristically struggled with some approach shots today, missing a some greens from the fairway, but his short game allowed him to find pars from the thick greenside rough and bunkers.

Phil Mickelson’s wrist was visibly hurting during his morning warm-up, and it appeared that Mickelson cut his warm-up routine significantly short hitting only a few wedges, some short irons, and a single driver. During his round, his right hand frequently came off the club early on his follow through and early on was having difficulty finding fairways off the tee. However, as the round progressed, he seemed to become much more comfortable and his swing freed up dramatically. Mickelson said, "I don’t think that it was the wrist that affected me today, per say; it was the last couple weeks not being able to prepare. I felt rusty, hit some hybrids off the tee to try to get it into play and missed the fairway more than I had been and that’s what was difficult."

Defending champion Geoff Ogilvy also posted a round of +1, coming into the monstrous par 3 8th, Ogilvy was at -1, but doubled the long hole which played at 261 yards today. Bogies at 15 and 18 brought his back nine score to even par. Ogilvy said, "Every time I was in the fairway I did okay; every time I was in the rough, it was hard. It’s a really good score to have 1 over." Vijay Singh, who also made the injury list along with Phil Mickelson with a slight sprain of his left ankle finished at +1 as well. Fred Funk who celebrated his 51st birthday today also joined the group at +1 after carding a round of 71.