Glover jumps out in front of US Open, while Woods waits to atone for 74 with rain forecast

More rain possible at Bethpage, as Glover leads

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — With more storms bearing down on Bethpage Black, Lucas Glover returned Saturday morning looking quite comfortable leading the U.S. Open.

Not bad, considering he’s never before made the cut in the season’s second major championship.

Glover birdied the par-4 6th hole, his 15th in the second round, shortly after play resumed early Saturday to move to 7 under. He was one shot better at that point than first-round leader Mike Weir and former U.S. Amateur champion Ricky Barnes.

Through 16 holes in his second round, Glover had six birdies and no bogeys.

“The key to making birdies at the U.S. Open is hitting it in the fairway,” Glover said Friday night. “I’ve been doing that, for the most part.”

Just like Weir did on Friday during his opening round before eventually settling on a 6-under 64, Glover was bidding to become only the fifth player in U.S. Open history to shoot 63 and the first since Vijay Singh in 2003.

Phil Mickelson rode waves of emotional support throughout his 9½-hour, 29-hole marathon Friday 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.”

Few of them had arrived when play restarted Saturday. Perhaps he needed them out there.

Mickelson took a drop on the way to making bogey at the par-5 13th hole for the second straight day, falling seven shots off the lead.

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

He’s likely right.

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

Woods was one of them.

The defending champion ended Friday 10 shots back after shooting 74, giving four shots back in his final four holes on the way to his worst start at a major in three years. He was scheduled to start his second round at 10:06 a.m. Saturday, and if the forecasts are correct, he might be on the wrong side of bad weather once again.

More rain was predicted to start falling sometime around midday Saturday, with up to 1 inch possible according to the National Weather Service. Much work has been done at Bethpage to get rid of the water that turned the park into a pool on Thursday, but any significant new rainfall would likely make the Black unplayable once again.

“Our side definitely had a big advantage,” Weir said Friday, after spending much of his day basking in sunshine.