US Open: Luke Donald hopes to make first challenge at Merion

Luke Donald would have preferred a firm and fast US Open test at Merion, but still thinks he has a chance of finally challenging in the second major of the year.

Donald has already sampled the rough during practice last week, and with rain making it even thicker, it will mean players just hacking out most of the time. "It was pretty thick and gnarly last week. I don't think I got one lie in the rough where I could get more of a seven or eight iron out of it. "With the rain we've had, I believe the greens staff haven't been able to cut it because of all the rain we've had. I'm sure it's longer, thicker. Those seven or eight iron are going to become wedges. "So it's going to be important to keep it in the fairway because I don't think you're going to be able to get to the green from there."