Glover, Barnes jump out in front of US Open, while Woods waits to atone for 74

The sun comes out for a bit at Bethpage Black

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Darkness had fallen on Bethpage Black, and Phil Mickelson was still raring to play more golf.

A course that only Tiger Woods could tame when the U.S. Open first visited in 2002 was giving up birdies with alarming regularity Friday, barely even resembling the nearly flooded track that hardly anyone found any success on the day before.

“It’s not going to get any easier,” Mickelson surmised, “than it is right now.”

Indeed, a golden scoring opportunity struck at the U.S. Open, and there was no shortage of people — those on the luckier, drier side of the draw, anyway — who tried to cash in those chances.

Lucas Glover was atop the leaderboard at 6-under par through 13 holes of his second round, one shot ahead of Ricky Barnes and two shots up on Peter Hanson and first-round leader Mike Weir when the horns blew to stop play Friday night.

Woods, the defending champion, was 10 shots back after shooting 74, giving four shots back in his final four holes on Friday morning on the way to his worst start at a major in three years. He won’t even start his second round until 10:06 a.m. Saturday, and if the forecasts are correct, he might be on the wrong side of bad weather once again.

“Our side definitely had a big advantage,” Weir said.

Weir was 6 under through 14 flawless holes to start his first round, then made double bogey at the 15th. He collected himself quickly, got those two strokes back before ending the first round to match the fifth-lowest score in U.S. Open history.

“I seemed to have my irons dialed in,” Weir said.

At day’s end Friday, 16 players were under par. Only two — Graeme McDowell and amateur Drew Weaver — played in the early session Friday. Half the field completed their rain-delayed opening rounds Friday morning, when skies were gray and Bethpage was still playing damp.

When they got done, everything changed.

The sun came out, Bethpage dried a bit and that, combined with fire-at-the-pins soft greens resulted in unusually great scoring opportunities at a U.S. Open.

“We had some great conditions to play golf and make birdies,” said Mickelson, who was 1 under through 11 holes of his second round after a 29-hole, 9½-hour marathon session Friday. “The course was soft and that helped us and without much wind, we were able to see a lot of scores under par.”

Woods was looking to be in that mix, before a gloomy finish.

He was at even par and one shot off the lead before a double bogey at the 15th, and two more bogeys followed before his day was done.

“Unfortunately,” Woods said, “didn’t finish the round off the way I wanted to.”

His biggest rival had no complaints.

Mickelson rode waves of emotional support all day from fans who adored him seven years ago at Bethpage and seem even more attracted to him now. It’s been less than a month since Amy Mickelson revealed that she has breast cancer, and she sent her husband to New York with one request: Bring home a trophy.

“I just love playing golf here,” Mickelson said. “I love coming up to this area. I think all sports teams love playing in front of these people here. They are some of the best sports fans in the country.”

Play will resume Saturday morning, and the USGA was hopeful that the second round could be completed by day’s end. But more rain on a still-spongy course is in the forecast, perhaps starting as early as midday Saturday.

The fear is that if the course dries just a little, it will bring another problem into play: Mud will stick to the ball and really make this a fickle game.