Zach Johnson treads water during first day of U.S. Open

Kevin Casey | Golfweek

ERIN, Wis. — Zach Johnson proved from the very first hole that he was not intimidated by a massive Erin Hills layout.

The Cedar Rapids native started with a birdie on the par-4 10th and from there found little trouble around the course. A pair of bogeys at Nos. 12 and 15 followed, but a birdie at the 17th and the fifth earned Johnson a 1-under 71 in the first round of the U.S. Open.

Normally that type of score would see Johnson at or near the top of the leaderboard at golf’s most grueling major. But Erin Hills was generous early Thursday, offering eight sub-70 rounds among the morning wave.

While Johnson, a two-time major champion, wasn’t one of them, his 71 has him in fighting position. He’s six back in the early action, but a stellar round Friday would put him right in contention.

The layout actually played more than 100 yards longer in the first round than its original listing, moving from 7,741 to 7,845 yards for the opening round. But prior to the tournament, Johnson wasn’t sweating Erin Hills’ distance.

The first-time U.S. Open site may play to a long yardage, but Johnson doesn’t seem to have any issues in dealing with Erin Hills.

“I think it is very fair, considering the layout and what they’ve had to work with,” Johnson said.

The 41-year-old entered the U.S. Open without too many hitches, but not on his best form. After consecutive missed cuts in April, Johnson made four straight weekends. But his best finish in that time was a tie for 18th.

Can he find a spark at Erin Hills?

After one day, it’s hard to tell. While Johnson put himself in good position, he’s not exactly in contention at the moment. A slip up Friday could mean an early exit.

If there’s one takeaway from Johnson’s Thursday, it’s that his game was solid all the way through. Johnson hit 11 of 14 fairways, found 12 of 18 greens and needed 29 putts on the day.

Johnson has been pegged in the past as a player who, based on his precision game, was a good candidate to win a U.S. Open. But his two major titles have come at the Masters and Open Championship, and his T-8 at last year’s U.S. Open was his first career top-10 finish at the event.

Is it possible that Johnson is finally finding his way into becoming a U.S. Open player? He’s not so sure.

“To put one person into one tournament where the courses rotate probably isn’t fair,” Johnson said. “Every U.S. Open is totally different.”

We were taught little on Thursday about how this one will turn out for Johnson. But with 54 holes to go, that means the possibilities remain wide open.