OAKMONT, Pa. — Anyone wanting a detailed description of Oakmont Country Club's 12th hole should ask Geoff Ogilvy. He saw almost every inch of it.

Ogilvy looked primed for disaster after his first two shots on the monstrous 667-yard par-5, one of only two par-5s at this U.S. Open. He hit a bad shot off the tee that left him with an even worse lie for his second shot.

He landed in a bunker on the right side of the fairway. But instead of being in the sand, he was in the face of it. When he hit, his left foot was 3 feet higher than his right.

"If you don't fly into a bunker, it stops on the slope in that long stuff," the defending champion said. "I didn't have a very good spot and I did as good as I could. I just figured I would hit it up somewhere short and right because I could get it up and down from right, which turned out to be true."

But it was an adventure.

Ogilvy's third shot sailed deep into the gallery, landing underneath a garbage bag that was next to a scoreboard. He was given relief because he didn't have enough room to take a full backswing.

"It was just really bad and really right," he said.

He made a nice recovery, though. He got within 12 feet of the pin, then rolled it in for a hard-earned par.

"If you're short and right of that green you've got a chance. If you're left, you have absolutely no hope," Ogilvy said. "So it was hard, but not quite as hard as it looked like, probably."

Fred Funk celebrated his 51st birthday in style.Funk, who is old enough to play on the Champions Tour but still good enough to compete on the PGA Tour, shot a 1-over 71 at the U.S. Open on Thursday. That wasn't good enough to give him the lead, but it put him in some pretty good company.Tiger Woods, defending champion Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk were three strokes behind leader Nick Dougherty, too."Old course, old guy, good play," Funk said.Funk became the PGA Tour's oldest winner since 1975 in February, when he won the Mayakoba Classic. That was only a month after he won the Champions Tour's Turtle Bay championship by a record 11 shots.Despite winning the Players Championship two years ago, which gave him a Tour exemption until 2010, he played his way into the U.S. Open via a qualifier.With an unusually hot putter, seasoned instincts and an always-reliable driver, he played himself onto the leaderboard."If I'm playing well, I know how good I can play," Funk said. "I'm more enthusiastic, more excited about my back being a little bit better because it's been a struggle since March, and last week was the first week I swung without any pain."

No, Ben Curtis didn't lose a bet. Wearing that Steelers shirt and visor was his choice.The lifelong Cleveland Browns fan makes no secret of his allegiance. But he knows better than to wear orange and brown in Pittsburgh, whose Steelers have as bitter a rivalry as they come with the Browns. So Curtis, who has a deal with Reebok to wear NFL team gear, broke out the hometown colors for the first round."You get used to it," he said, sounding resigned. "They were chanting 'Steelers' all day out there."Curtis made the mistake of wearing a Browns shirt a few years ago at the 84 Lumber Classic, which is played at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, about 75 miles outside Pittsburgh. He got booed everywhere he went.Last year, he bowed to the fans' wishes and wore a Steelers shirt. Lo and behold, he won the tournament."I might put Browns (gear) on Saturday," he said. "But not Sunday."