OAKMONT (Pennsylvania), June 15: Britain's Nick Dougherty, taking advantage of rain-softened conditions, fired a two-under-par 68 to forge one shot clear in the US Open first round on Thursday.

While twice champion Tiger Woods battled to a 71 at Oakmont Country Club, one of golf's toughest layouts, Dougherty carded four birdies and two bogeys in his lowest score at a major championship.

Dougherty took only 11 putts on the back nine.

Dougherty, whose only European Tour victory came at the 2005 Singapore Masters, birdied three of the last eight holes to end his round one ahead of big-hitting Argentine Angel Cabrera.

Cabrera was level with Dougherty before bogeying the par-four 17th.

Twice US Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal, who came close to an ace at the par-three sixth, and American Bubba Watson, making only his second appearance in the tournament, were next best on 70.

World No 1 Woods, third-ranked Jim Furyk, defending champion Geoff Ogilvy of Australia and Fiji's Vijay Singh were among a group of 16 bunched on 71.

Woods, bidding for his 13th major victory, made a stumbling start after finding a fairway bunker off the first tee.

Ernie Els, US Open champion at Oakmont in 1994, opened with a 73 while three-times major winner Phil Mickelson, who has been nursing a wrist injury for the last two weeks, carded a 74.

Only two players in the 156-strong field returned sub-par scores with the average nudging above 75.

Several big names effectively shot themselves out of contention, twice champion Retief Goosen double-bogeying the last for a 76 and world number six Henrik Stenson and Spaniard Sergio Garcia both limping to 79s.

Thursday’s completed first-round scores (a- denotes amateur):

68 – Nick Dougherty (Britain).

69 – Angel Cabrera (Argentina).

70 – Bubba Watson, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain).

71 – Olin Browne (US), Pablo Martin (Spain), Ben Curtis (US), Tiger Woods (US), Geoff Ogilvy (Australia), Anders Hansen (Denmark), Niclas Fasth (Sweden), Peter Hanson (Sweden), Jason Dufner (US), Brandt Snedeker (US), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Fred Funk (US), Lucas Glover (US), Jim Furyk (US), J.J. Henry (US), Justin Rose (Britain).

72 – Craig Kanada (US), Boo Weekley (US), Tim Clark (South Africa), David Toms (US), Tom Pernice Jr (US), Stewart Cink (US), Ian Poulter (Britain), Shingo Katayama (Japan), Aaron Baddeley (Australia), Lee Westwood (Britain), Carl Pettersson (Sweden), Marcus Fraser (Australia), George McNeill (US).

73 – Michael Putnam (US), Jon Mills (Canada), Tom Byrum (US), Graeme McDowell (Britain), Kirk Triplett (US), Michael Campbell (New Zealand), Ernie Els (South Africa), Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Stephen Ames (Canada), Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Scott Verplank (US), Arron Oberholser (US), Jeff Brehaut (US), Andrew Buckle (Australia), Joey Sindelar (US), Trevor Immelman (South Africa), Camilo Villegas (Colombia), Lee Janzen (US), Rich Beem (US), Chad Campbell (US), Sean O'Hair (US), Anthony Wall (Britain), Hunter Mahan (US).

74 – Ken Duke (US), a-Rhys Davies (Britain), a-John Kelly (US), Ryuji Imada (Japan), Vaughn Taylor (US), Mike Weir (Canada), Jerry Kelly (US), Stuart Appleby (Australia), Luke Donald (Britain), Nathan Green (Australia), Woody Austin (US), Harrison Frazar (US), Darron Stiles (US), Kenneth Ferrie (Britain), Jeff Sluman (US), Phil Mickelson (US), Anthony Kim (US), Kevin Sutherland (US), Tripp Isenhour (US), D.J. Brigman (US).

75 – Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), Justin Leonard (US), Robert Allenby (Australia), John Rollins (US), Bob Estes (US), Johan Edfors (Sweden), Darren Fichardt (South Africa), Joe Durant (US), Steve Stricker (US), Charl Schwartzel (South Africa), Davis Love III (US), Jeev Milka Singh (India), a-Mark Harrell (US).

76 – Nobuhiro Masuda (Japan), Ricky Barnes (US), Colin Montgomerie (Britain), Chris DiMarco (US), Zach Johnson (US), Retief Goosen (South Africa), Pat Perez (US), a-Jason Kokrak, Martin Laird (Britain), Nick O'Hern (Australia), Adam Scott (Australia), Charles Howell III (US), Dean Wilson (US), Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark).

77 – Johnson Wagner (US), Tom Gillis (US), K.J. Choi (South Korea), Mathew Goggin (Australia), Geoffrey Sisk (US), Kyle Dobbs (US), Paul Casey (Britain), Brett Wetterich (US), Robert Karlsson (Sweden), Luke List (US), Joe Daley (US).

78 – Sam Walker (Britain), a-Richard Ramsay (Britain), John Koskinen (US), Christian Cevaer (France), Shaun Micheel (US), Kaname Yokoo (Japan), Paul Goydos (US), Toru Taniguchi (Japan), Ryan Moore (US), Brett Quigley (US), Tim Petrovic (US), Adam Speirs (Canada), Todd Rossetti (US).

79 – a-Trip Kuehne, Sergio Garcia (Spain), Nick Watney (US), Andy Matthews (US), Michael Block (US), Todd Fischer (US), Steve Marino (US), Henrik Stenson (Sweden), Eric Axley (US), a-Richard Lee (Canada), a-Chris Condello (US), Frank Bensel (US).80 – Lee Williams (US), Jason Allen (US), Chris Stroud (US), a-Martin Ureta (Chile).

81 – Allen Doyle (US), Todd Hamilton (US), a-Philip Pettit Jr (US), Michael Berg (US), Rod Pampling (Australia).

82 – Warren Pineo (US), a-Jeff Golden (US), a-Alex Prugh (US).

84 – Ryan Palmer (US), Steve Elkington (Australia), Miguel Rodriguez (Argentina).

85 – Jacob Rogers (US).

86 – Mike Small (US).—Reuters