Olin Browne and Rocco Mediate were more likely to be at the bottom of the leaderboard or not even in the field for the U.S. Open than they were to be near the top. Browne nearly withdrew from his sectional qualifier two weeks ago and Mediate could barely walk 14 months ago. But they are tied for first place at the 105th U.S. Open. Somehow. Browne opened his 36-hole qualifier two Mondays ago at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland with a one-over 73. He explored his options on withdrawing, but decided to play nine holes and see how it went. To say it went well would be an understatement. Browne got through that front nine in 30 shots. Then bad weather hit and play was suspended until Tuesday. When he came back, he put the finishing touches on golf's magical number - 59. "I was probably five minutes from not being here," said Browne. "I shot 73 in the opening round of the qualifier and asked (about the process of withdrawing) when I signed my score card because 62 didn't seem to be in the cards, but I thought it would be an appropriate number to make the cut." Mediate had a chronic back problem flare up last March. It got so bad one day that he had to lay on a trophy case in his home to alleviate the pain. No one came home for three hours as he laid hobbled, so Mediate just crawled upstairs to his bedroom. The problem plagued Mediate for quite some time. In fact, Mediate only felt better last month and he had his work cut out for him. He had to get back into shape after being relatively inactive for a year. "I can't put a finger on what happened," said Mediate, referring to his injury last March. "I fixed that now. All of a sudden, I started to feel better and better and better and now it's real good again and hopefully it'll stay that way." GRADUATION DAY Corey Pavin, the 1995 U.S. Open champion left Pinehurst immediately after the first round. He'll be back on Friday for his 12:37 p.m. (et) tee time, but in the mean time, Pavin will log some serious frequent flier miles. Pavin flew back to California on Thursday to attend his 19-year-old son Ryan's high-school graduation from The Winston School in Del Mar, California. "When I saw the dates of the Open and his graduation, it was graduation first and, fortunately, I was able to play today and be able to fly out there and make it in time for it," said Pavin. "It was either that or withdraw from the event. I was kind of hoping there wouldn't be any thunderstorms or anything, which there weren't, so it's working out." Ryan Pavin will attend Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego this fall. * Vijay Singh, who tied for third at Pinehurst in 1999, slightly injured his knee on Thursday. He went to a trainer to have it looked at after his opening round. * England's Ian Poulter felt that the holes on Nos. 1 and 18 were not deep enough in the ground. Poulter started on the back nine Thursday so 18 was his ninth hole. An official was summoned and measured the cup at one, ultimately deciding that the hole was proper. Poulter was not pleased and angrily slammed the flagstick back into the cup at No. 1. * Jay Haas shared the first-round lead last year at Shinnecock Hills. On Thursday, he opened with a 12-over-par 82 and is tied for 150th place, three shots out of last place. * The par-four 16th played as the most difficult hole on Thursday with a stroke average of 4.596. The easiest hole was the par-five fourth which played to an average of 4.705. * Craig Barlow was the only player in the field on Thursday to birdie the par- three 15th. There were three eagles in round one: K.J. Choi and Tim Clark eagled the fourth, while co-leader Rocco Mediate eagled No. 10.