Jordan Spieth contemplated holding a "pillow-fight putting contest" with defending champion Dustin Johnson after the pair missed out on a rare day of low scoring in the US Open.
On a day when Rickie Fowler equalled the lowest first-round score in relation to par in tournament history with a seven-under-par 65, playing partners Spieth and Johnson managed just one birdie each.
Spieth also carded two bogeys to complete an opening 73, while world number one Johnson ran up a double-bogey seven on the 14th and also bogeyed the 15th and 17th in his 75.
Spieth, champion in 2015, said: "I hit the ball phenomenal, just didn't make anything. I missed one fairway today, which is the best driving round that I've had maybe in my life.
"I had 15 looks at birdie today and all of them were actual makeable putts and I only made one of them. Once you get through six or seven misses the hole starts to look smaller and smaller.... it just looked like I was putting (at) half a cup. Sometimes it looks like I'm putting to two cups.
"DJ and I will be on the practice ground. We might have a pillow fight putting contest, just to see if we can spark anything."
Johnson, who only arrived at Erin Hills on Tuesday afternoon after fiancee Paulina Gretzky gave birth to the couple's second son - named River Jones Johnson - on Monday, added: "I just didn't putt very well.
"I missed a lot of really good opportunities. That was the big key for me. If I don't three-putt, I shoot even. But if I just make one or two of the good looks I have, it's a couple under. I didn't hit it great, but I hit it good enough to shoot a good score.
"It wasn't that I was hitting bad putts, my speed was a little off. I'd either hit it just high and lip it out or they went across the front edge of the hole."