COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — Padraig Harrington mentioned he thought it was an excellent half and one other half was a disappointing half, after digging into the tee shot deep into the woods of the fifteenth gap within the opening spherical on the US Senior Open.
Both means, that scramble positioned Harrington on the leaderboard on Thursday, tied with Mark Hensby at Broadmoor’s 3-under 67.
“My head is scrambled a bit as a result of I do not really feel good after dropping the ball,” mentioned 2022 champion Harrington. “You are simply making an attempt to get what you are doing in your thoughts.”
This course is a standard sensation at a 6,000-foot altitude on the foot of Cheyenne Mountain. This can be a sloped panorama that impacts all putts in a means that each one gamers can see.
Stewart Cink hit the primary 17 greens on a gentle first day, however after his first mistake he completed with a bogey on No. 18. He was a part of a bunch of seven, together with 68-year-old Thomas Bjorn.
“That is not a course the place you are going to have 4 birdie putts in a row that is like, ‘hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops,'” Sink mentioned. “We had some putts that had been 20 footers with eight or 9 toes breaks, however you are not going to make quite a lot of them.”
Harrington made all 4 birdies on the (simpler) entrance 9, main one after the other when he snapped the tee shot on the par 4 fifteenth. The Irishman mentioned his disappointment got here from the truth that he thought his group was doing a three-minute search in a bush of timber that was lacking the place the ball landed.
His reduction got here from going again to the teebox and hitting that shot with deep roughness on the appropriate, then scrubbing the bogey after hitting an strategy as much as 20 toes from there.
“Basically, you simply stored your self in that place and in the present day I did it nicely,” Harrington mentioned.
Hensby was additionally in good place, but it surely was tough to convey within the aftermath of the bogie bogey end throughout the morning waves.
“Clearly, I felt like I misplaced some there,” Hensby mentioned. “It is simply irritating. I performed like s–(on)again 9. What else can I say?”
He made seven birdies on the entrance 9, reaching 6 below. This might probably not be approached once more on a course the place 156 gamers on the sector had been solely out there below 17 rounds with 156 gamers.
When the event was final performed in 2018, David Toms gained with a 3-under par rating. This made the 9 scores much more noteworthy, whether or not he was pleased with it or not.
“I wasn’t a really constant participant,” he mentioned. “I am chilly even when it is sizzling, so I smoke like that.”
Harrington was one in all many gamers whose observe was shortened by large thunderstorms that soaked and softened the course on Tuesday.
“We took a break in the present day, to be truthful,” Nott Begay mentioned.
Regardless of that break, the rating common on the primary day was 73.94, with solely about .7 photographs in complete over the 4 days of 2018.
Amongst these struggling is Angel Cabrera, the second-time senior main winner this 12 months, shot a 73.
Cabrera’s 10-foot birdie skirted the No. 6 cup, dropped a putter and put his hand on his lap, making an attempt to determine how he missed. The opening feels extra painful when the three footer barely captures the left edge.
The forecast for the subsequent three days requires a excessive of practically 90 and a potential rain. That mountain to the west of the course – it by no means adjustments.
“It isn’t solely tough to hit the ball at proper distance, whether or not it is altitude, ups and downs, spins,” Sink mentioned. “However you permit loads of 20, 25 toes putts with a lot of breaks and never at all times doing what they appear to be making an attempt to do.”
