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The answer is that those first day tickets will be good for any play on Monday and given the forecast it seems inevitable that will be the earliest the championship will finish.

Fay also admitted that the current ticketing policy is not clear on refunds and the like when weather intervenes. "We understand that we need to be crisper in our printed communications going forward," he said.

As for the Championship, be in no doubt it will run its full 72 or, if necessary, 90-hole course and will finish whenever those holes have been completed.

If, for the sake of argument, 72 holes were completed on Monday morning and there was a tie, the 18 hole play-off would follow almost immediately.

There are also no plans to rescind the 10-shot rule on the halfway cut, even if it means a bloated field for the final two rounds that would create yet more logistical headaches.

"We are comfortable with our policy," said championship director Jim Hyler. "We have no plans to look at that based on what's going on out here."

It's tough to work out which side of the draw is better placed given the extraordinary circumstances of this . Weighing up the impact of the opening day's is not straightforward.

Those early starters caught in the Thursday deluge departed the course believing they had found themselves in the unlucky half of the draw. They had to battle atrociously wet and windy conditions before the 10.14 sounding of the siren that ended play for the day.

But on Friday they returned to and crucially were able to reap the benefits of smoother greens.

On the downside, once their round is completed they head for home - the next time they get to peg it up will be when the rains are expected to have returned to on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the other the half of the draw began at 10.00am. As the late/early section they play in the fine weather all day long with a short turnaround between their first and second rounds.

But come the afternoon the soft greens are sure to become uneven given the heavy traffic around the holes. Swings and roundabouts spring to mind.

Driving - length and accuracy - is going to be the key stat this week. Is Tiger Woods's swing dialled in sufficiently? I didn't look to be as he hit just seven out of 14 fairways in his first-round 74.

Jeff Brehaut, the 46-year-old American, is loving life in the US Open limelight. An even-par 70 was a fine start to what is his second appearance at his country's national championship.

And the fun and games began at the end of his Wednesday practice round. He'd hit two poor approaches into greenside bunkers on the ninth hole. A large crowd was assembling because was in the vicinity.

Brehaut delighted the assembled throng by holing his first bunker shot. "The crowd went nuts," according to the .

So the veteran then moved to his next ball and holed that as well. "I was jumping up and down. I pumped my fist, then signed half an hour of autographs," Brehaut said. "Even if this is as good as it gets, this is pretty good."

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