Under-par scores hard to come by at U.S. Senior Open

Published 12:20 am Saturday, July 31, 2010

SAMAMMISH — In Thursday’s first round of the United States Senior Open, a mere eight players in the 156-man field walked away with under-par totals.

After Friday’s second round, there were just four.

And by the time the tournament closes with Sunday’s fourth and final round, “there may not be anyone under par,” Seattle native Fred Couples said wryly.

Sahalee Country Club, lovely but lethal, continued to claim victims on Friday with a fiendish combination of narrow fairways bordered by towering fir trees, and cunning pin placements on rock-hard greens. The results have been sobering — through two rounds, the total of bogeys and worse outnumbers birdies and eagles almost four to one.

It’s a far cry from last year’s U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick Golf Club outside Indianapolis, where Fred Funk won with a whopping total of 20 under par.

“I think that kind of killed us here,” Couples observed, referring to an obvious United States Golf Association strategy to make Sahalee CC a decidedly more challenging venue.

The tournament’s halfway leader is Bernhard Langer, who is bidding to become the first senior player to win consecutive major tournaments since Tom Watson turned the trick in 2003. Langer, the German native who won last week’s Senior British Open in Carnoustie, Scotland, followed up his first-round 69 with a Friday 68, leaving him at 3-under 137.

Langer’s round was highlighted by an eagle on the par-5, 545-yard 11th hole. Even par at the time, Langer reached the back of the green with his second shot and then rolled in a tricky downhill, right-to-left putt of 30 feet. As the ball vanished in the hole, he celebrated with a little dance and then a thumbs-up to the cheering gallery.

“That was the key to the round,” said Langer, who followed his eagle with six pars and a 9-foot birdie putt on the 212-yard 17th hole.

Given the conditions, “this is a tough course to make six or eight birdies,” said Langer, the only player in the field to be under par on each of the first two days. “It’s just not there unless you’re extremely lucky, or if you make 20- and 30-footers (putts) all the time. Because I still think there are some of those pins you just can’t attack.

“You’ve got to respect the golf course,” he added. “So any time you can make a birdie or even an eagle, it’s pretty exciting.”

J.R. Roth, John Cook and Tommy Armour III are tied for second at 1-under 139. Roth, an occasional PGA and Champions tour player in recent years who got into this tournament as a qualifier, had the day’s best round with six birdies and two bogeys for a 4-under 66.

Cook and Armour both posted 2-under 68s.

“There’s no mystery here,” Cook said. “You have to put the ball in the fairway (off the tee), and then you have to hit quality iron shots with the right trajectory and distance. Otherwise, you might as well just pack up and go because (this course) will just eat you alive.”

Couples, who produced the day’s loudest roar with a long birdie putt on the par-4, 455-yard 12th hole — the cheer could be heard from one side of Sahalee CC to the other — is joined at 140 by Tom Watson, Loren Roberts and Michael Allen.

“I actually drove it very well,” Couples said. “I made enough birdies to keep this thing going. Like I said (Thursday), I was lucky to shoot 70. But (Friday) was a pretty good round.

“I’m not hitting any irons really, really good. But it’s a tough course. … I just need to start hitting the ball solid and getting it on the green,” he said.

One day after shooting 4-under 66, first-round leader Bruce Vaughan started well with four straight pars, but then ran headlong into disaster. He bogeyed No. 5 and double-bogeyed No. 6 before things got really bad. He finished with a 12-over round of 82, leaving him at 8-over 148.

Among the notable names missing the second-round cut at 10-over 150 are Hale Irwin (151), Mark O’Meara (152), Ben Crenshaw (157) and Fuzzy Zoeller (159).