US Open Golf 2013 Leaderboard: Dissecting Day 1 Results

After poor weather all week long at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., golf fans hoped that things would sort themselves out in that regard for Thursday's opening round of the 2013 U.S. Open.

That didn't happen, however, as heavy rain disrupted the flow of play, according to Sky Sports News:

The first round has resumed, though, and the golfers will try to finish as much as they can today. Playing in poor conditions certainly isn't easy, but neither is playing after your routine has been broken.

Every golfer in the field has been negatively impacted in some way, whether they had to stop in the middle of their round or their tee time was delayed.

Even so, the show must go on, so here is the updated leaderboard for the first round of the U.S. Open as well as some storylines worth following.

Where: Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.

When: Thursday, June 13

Watch: ESPN and NBC

Live Stream: USOpen.com, WatchESPN and NBC Sports Live Extra

Leaderboard

Top Storylines

Ian Poulter Races to Top of Leaderboard

One golfer who always seems to be in the mix early in majors is England's Ian Poulter. He has yet to officially break through, but he finished seventh in The Masters and third in the PGA Championship last year, so perhaps it is only a matter of time before he reaches the next level.

Poulter certainly got his U.S. Open off to a great start despite the inclement weather. He was only able to complete three holes before play was suspended, but he birdied each of them and found himself all alone in first place, according to Jason Sobel of GolfChannel.com:

It remains to be seen if Poulter can keep it up, especially on a less-than-ideal course, but at least he is ahead of the game compared to everyone else. It's hard to imagine that many low scores will be shot on this day; however, Poulter has a few strokes to play with as he continues his round.

Nicolas Colsaerts Starts Strong

Like Poulter, Nicolas Colsaerts is another European player whom many fans expect to win a major one day. At just 30 years of age, he has quite a bit of time left to do it. His big moment could come sooner rather than later, though, as he is playing great golf and started very well at Merion.

Colsaerts, who is known as "The Belgian Bomber," is one of the longest drivers on tour, and that should help him in this tournament. Harnessing that power will be difficult in poor weather, but it's better to miss while hitting long than to miss while hitting short. Stephen Hennessey of Golf Digest captured this photo of Colsaerts unleashing one of his signature drives before the weather delay:

At the time of suspension, Colsaerts was just one shot behind Poulter at two-under par. It's very difficult to predict how golfers will fare for the remainder of the day, but Colsaerts has the skill set necessary to combat poor conditions, so look for him to continue playing well.

Poor Weather Causes Major Delays

The writing was on the wall with regards to Merion being rocked by miserable weather, and unfortunately it reared its ugly head very early in the day. Only a portion of the field was able to tee off when it was supposed to, and very few players got too far into their respective rounds before play came to a halt as shown by Golf Digest's Instagram account:

Poor weather at a major is never a good thing, but it's especially bad this early in the tournament as it messes up the schedule and could really prolong the tournament as a whole. According to ESPN's Trey Wingo, play resumed at 12:10 p.m. ET and afternoon tee times will be pushed back. Unfortunately, the first round will not be completed on Thursday.

That means golfers will have an extra-long day on Friday, but if it happens to rain on Friday as well, things could get very tricky moving forward.

It's obvious that nobody had any clue that the weather would be like this when Merion was chosen as the U.S. Open host, but there is no doubt that officials would rather be pretty much anywhere else. Hopefully things sort themselves out in the coming days so the fans can be treated to a tolerable tournament.

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