The leaderboard took on a familiar look as two past champions — playing partners Ernie Els and Geoff Ogilvy — flirted with the lead in Thursday's first round of the US Open golf championship.

Australia's Ogilvy made five birdies and three bogeys for a two-under 69 while Els had notched four birdies and three bogeys en route to a one-under 70 at the Torrey Pines South course.

Ogilvy won the Open in 2006 and Els did it twice in 1997 and 1994.

Ogilvy, who turned 31 on Wednesday, hit seven of 14 fairways, and said he was satisfied with his all-around performance.

"I played pretty well in the middle of the round," Ogilvy said. "I had pretty much a decent round of birdies, probably the middle nine or 10 holes of the round.

"I made a few of those and I made some nice par putts. It was pretty balanced."

Starting from the 10th tee, Ogilvy stumbled out of the gate making bogey on two of his first three holes.

He recovered on the 614 yard par-five number 13 by two-putting for a birdie. That began a stretch of five birdies over the next seven holes moving him to three-under by the time he reached the number two.

He hit his tee shot into the bunker on five and settled for a respectable two-under.

"I am hitting it decent and putting okay," he said. "Just a putt or two away from being right there at the end."

Els had better luck at the beginning, making par on his first three holes then making birdie on number 13, 15 and 18. He rolled in another birdie the third hole of his back nine to get him close to the leaders.

"The last couple of weeks I have started to hit some really good shots," Els said. Els said the greens were difficult to master on Thursday.

"The greens were very tough this afternoon," Els said. "They were very bumpy. You couldn't have a go at anything.

"If you had a 25 to 30 foot putt you almost had to three putt and not do anything stupid."

Ogilvy said it is just a matter of getting used to the greens at Torrey Pines and making sure you hit the ball straight.

"The (greens) change a lot from the first group to last," Ogilvie said. "It looks worse than it is. If you hit it on line and you hit a decent putt it goes in. If you miss, it gets scary, but overall they are pretty good."

AFP