US Open Golf 2012 Live: Latest Analysis of Tiger, Phil and Bubba on Day 1

The most intriguing pairing of the 2012 U.S. Open is off to a rough start. 

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson. It does not get much better than that.

Tiger has been up and down the past year or two, but he finally looked like himself last week during his win at the Memorial. Lefty is always a major contender in big tournaments. And Watson, coming off his win at the Masters, is one of the most exciting, original golfers you can watch.

It is a threesome made in heaven, but they have gotten off to a rocky start at this tough Olympic course.

Let's take a look at how each golfer is doing so far.

Note: They started on the back nine.

Tiger Woods (-1)

Woods easily looked the best of this threesome, as he is sitting pretty in a tie for second place overall. Most importantly for this dangerous course, Tiger is doing exactly what he needs to do.

Make pars. 

Of the first 18 holes, Woods took a par on 13 of them, bogeyed two and birdied three. If he just continues to play things safe and play for the par, he will be in contention on Sunday.

Woods, who bogeyed the par-four 14th hole and birdied the par-five 17th and par-four fourth, sits just one stroke behind leader Michael Thompson. 

Shooting under par on the par-fives will also be incredibly crucial for Woods. 

Phil Mickelson (+6)

After an extremely rough start to the tournament, Phil settled down fairly well.

Lefty bogeyed holes nine, 10, 11, 14, and 16 (and birdied the par-three No. 13), but he responded with five-straight pars before another bogey on No. 4 and 5. Still, his putting improved as the day went on, and he started to get into a little bit of groove. 

Mickelson, who currently sits in a tie for 63rd place, will have to grab some birdies, as he isn't in very good shape right now. Nonetheless, if he can go under par on Friday, it is hard to imagine a score of plus-two or three being very far off the lead on this tough course. 

He just needs to reel it back a little bit and play for pars instead of being so aggressive. The birdies will come if he just hits the fairways and greens. 

Bubba Watson (+9)

It does not look like Watson is going to win two straight majors. Actually, I can guarantee he won't. 

In his first round, Watson only recorded eight pars to go along with eight bogeys, one double bogey and just one birdie.

His erratic style left him in tough situations on this dangerous course, and he just couldn't save himself for pars. 

Bubba needs a major turnaround, but he is currently in a tie for 82nd place and is only ahead of one other golfer. It does not look like he is going to make the cut at this rate. 

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