Landry leads after truncated first day at stormy Oakmont

Play was suspended for a third time at 3:51pm local time on Thursday due to dangerous weather in Pennsylvania, with half of the 156-man field -— including World No. 1 Jason Day — still to tee off.

The sign says it all at Oakmont as play is suspended.

Andrew Landry retained the lead of the U.S. Open, while Bubba Watson was ominously placed as storms brought a premature halt to the first-round action at Oakmont.

Play was suspended for a third time at 3:51pm local time (8:51pm BST) on Thursday due to dangerous weather in Pennsylvania, with half of the 156-man field - including World No. 1 Jason Day — still to tee off. Torrential rain soon swept in and, with warnings of flash floods in place, it was confirmed there would be no resumption until Friday. 

Landry had led after the first and second rain delays and the U.S. Open rookie remained the man to catch despite suffering successive bogeys towards the end of his opening round.

As many battled hard to keep their scores respectable at a notoriously challenging venue featuring thick rough and fiendish greens, Landry almost appeared to be playing a different course to the rest of the field for much of the day, the unheralded American carding three straight birdies from the second, his 11th, to reach five under. 

Dropped shots at the seventh and eighth cut Landry's lead to one, but he bounced back impressively with a fine approach to the ninth, setting up a birdie opportunity that he was unable to take on prior to the players being ordered off the course.

Two-time Masters champion Watson and Danny Lee shared second, one behind Landry, on two under, having played 14 and 13 holes respectively.

The highlight of Watson's topsy-turvy day came at the 10th, where he holed an enormous, speedy putt for his third successive birdie. 

Amateur Scottie Scheffler was a shot further back and held the clubhouse lead after completing a 69, with Kevin Streelman, Lee Westwood and Harris English the only other players under par.

Defending champion Jordan Spieth was one over through 11 holes, the same score as playing partner Bryson DeChambeau, who briefly made it to three under only to then run up back-to-back double bogeys on the 18th and first.

Among those finding life tough were Masters winner Danny Willett (four over through 12), World No. 3 Rory McIlroy (four over through 13) and Rickie Fowler (six over through 12), the latter in danger of failing to break 80 in the first round at a second successive major.