US Open Golf 2015: Live Updates for Thursday Leaderboard Scores

The first round of the 2015 U.S. Open is in session Thursday, with golf's top stars looking to secure a coveted major at Chambers Bay golf course in University Place, Washington. This is the first U.S. Open held in the state of Washington.

According to ESPN's Bob Harig, the purse for this year's U.S. Open is $10 million, a full $1 million more than in 2014.

Last year saw Germany's Martin Kaymer blow away the competition with one of the more dominant performances in the competition's history, shooting 130 in his first two rounds and finishing at nine under par, eight strokes better than runners-up Rickie Fowler and Erik Compton.

Kaymer is grouped with amateur Gunn Yang and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy to kick off the competition. You can keep tabs on his progress—along with every other golfer's—on this live leaderboard.

Plenty has been made about the potential pitfalls and obstacles facing players at this year's chosen course. Last year, the PGA held the tournament at Pinehurst Resort on the famous Course No. 2, which had been the site of three U.S. Opens as well as other PGA Tour events.

Chambers Bay, by contrast, opened in 2007 and is fairly new to most of those taking part in the 115th U.S. Open. There are multiple options for pin placements, and the No. 1 and No. 18 holes can be either a par 4 or par 5. Tiger Woods noted on Wednesday, per Harig, that the variability made it difficult to tell what type of golfer may or may not have an advantage on this course:

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None of us, none of you guys in this room, none of the players, know what Mike is going to do on the setup. We don't know what Mike is going to do on the different winds and the different days. We could say long hitters have an advantage, but maybe not. Depends on what Mike does.

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Woods will again be one of the more intriguing players to watch this year, although he hardly seems a threat to win. After tying for 17th at the Masters, he's finished no better than 69th in the three PGA events he's played since, a stretch that includes a career-worst round of 85 in the third frame of the Memorial Tournament.

USGA director Mike Davis did end up making the No. 1 hole a par 4 and the No. 18 a par 5 for the first round. He passed along his thoughts on the setup, per a tweet from the U.S. Open:

Those placements and distances are subject to change as the tournament moves along. One player who looks to have a significant advantage over the competition is 2015 Masters winner and golfer-of-the-moment Jordan Spieth, whose caddie, Michael Grelle, knows Chambers Bay quite well, per reports from the Augusta Chronicle: 

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Greller, who grew up in the area, attended the first meeting for Chambers Bay caddies when the course opened in 2007.

He regularly looped at the facility during the summer months when he was not teaching math and science classes at nearby Narrows View Intermediate School and coaching girls golf at Curtis High.

He also caddied for Spieth in the 2010 U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay.

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Spieth, of course, has an opportunity to notch a Grand Slam after securing a green jacket at Augusta this year. The 21-year-old's form has dipped since the Masters, but he did manage a third-place (tied) finish at the Memorial Tournament on June 4 and tied for second at the Crowne Plaza Invitational in his home state of Texas on May 21.

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

While Chambers Bay may prove to be a democratizing course with its unique setup, this isn't necessarily a bad thing and can make for some interesting, creative golf. SB Nation's Brian Floyd expects angry comments from golfers after each round and low scores but believes this makes Chambers Bay an excellent test for the world's elite:

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For Davis and for the players, Chambers Bay is a perfect U.S. Open course. It's going to challenge the field off the tee, while then requiring a precise and thoughtful second shot on a line that may be counterintuitive. It's a place where a golfer's imagination can run wild thinking of creative shots to get out of tight situations. Par is going to be a good score, and some days a 75 might feel solid.

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As of 1 p.m. ET, Phil Mickelson leads the early groups with a tally of three under after eight holes of golf. Several top players are below par, so for the first round, at least, it seems quite a few golfers still have a chance to better Floyd's predictions for the field.

The likes of Woods, Spieth and Fowler—the latter being the winner of the 2015 Players Championship and a now established reputation as a big-tourney threat—highlight the latter groups and may also find a way to best the challenges of Chambers Bay.