Woods had pulled his tee shot with an iron well left of the 11th fairway, and only the thick grass kept it from going into the creek.  He then took another powerful hack out of the rough to clear the winding creek that fronts the green, and then played a flop shot from the rough to four feet when darkness halted play.

When a USGA official mentioned that his wrist appeared to be a problem, Woods replied:  “It’s fine.”With a better forecast the rest of the week, Woods will play 25 full holes on Friday and try to make up ground on the leaders.

Phil Mickelson completed his round of 67, while Luke Donald was at 4 under and approaching the difficult, five-hole finish.

“I’ve got a lot of holes to play tomorrow,” Woods said. “And hopefully, I can play a little better than I did today.”

Woods has gone five years without winning a major, though his four PGA TOUR wins in eight starts indicates that his game is in good shape.

Not for a first time in his Major’s career, Woods began with a poor tee shot that found the rough on the gentle, opening hole at Merion. He grimaced after digging into the gnarly rough to hack out to the fairway and started with a bogey.

Before play was halted for the day, Woods had posted four pars, two birdies but also four bogeys, and with two of his bogeys coming from poor chip shots from just off the green at No. 3 and No. 5. What saved him was a 50-foot birdie putt on the sixth hole.

But he failed to convert birdie chances on the seventh, eighth and 10th holes — all of them under 400 yards — and he three-putted the 237-yard ninth hole from about 65 feet to drop another shot.

“It’s going to be a fast night,” Woods said as he left the course.