Colorado Springs, Colorado – Padraig Harrington said he thought it was a good, disappointing part, shooting the tee deep into the woods on his 15th hole at the U.S. Senior Open to bogey the Bogeyers.
Either way, that scramble for Thursday put Harrington on the rankings, with Mark Hensby at the top of 37-shots under 67-year-old Mark Hensby, with every shot being an adventure.
“You never feel good after losing the ball, so your head is a little disrupted,” said 2022 champion Harrington. “You just want your job to grab your job.”
It’s at a height of 6,000 feet at the bottom of Cheyenne Mountain, which is a common feeling, a sloping landscape that affects every putter in a way that not every player can see.
Stewart Cink hit his first 17 greens on a quiet opening day, but after his first miss, his 18th bogey was at No. 18. He is part of the seven, including Thomas Bjorn, 68.
“It’s not the kind of you strung four birdie putts together in a row, like ‘hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops, hoops,” Sink said. “I have some putts, 20 feet long, 8 feet 9 feet off, and you just don’t do a lot.”
Harrington made all four of his birdies take a first nine in his (easier) first nine games. The Irishman said his disappointment was because he thought his group had conducted a three-minute search in a piece of jungle, which was far from where the ball landed.
His relief was due to a snatching after a shot back into the t-shirt box and hitting deep on the right, then from there to 20 feet.
“Overall, you just keep yourself in place, and I did a great job today,” Harrington said.
Hensby is in good shape, too, although it’s hard to say after his bogey finish during the morning wave, both of which are after the wrong drive is stuck.
“Obviously, I felt like I lost some there,” Huntsby said. “It was frustrating. I played like S — [on] The last nine. What else can you say? ”
He made seven birdies in the top nine, reaching under 6 – a number that may not be close again in 17 rounds of matches comparable to 156 players on the court.
When the game last played in 2018, David Toms won by under 3 shots – a number that put Hensby after nine out of nine, whether he was satisfied or not.
“I’ve never been a very consistent player,” he said. “I’m cold and sucked.”
Harrington is one of many players, having a massive thunderstorm shortened practice on Tuesday, soaking and softening the route.
“To be fair, we have a break today,” Notah Begay said.
Even with rest, the average score of Day 1 was 73.94, compared to the total of four days in 2018, with only seven players completing under par at that time.
Struggling is Ángel Cabrera, who won two senior titles this year, hitting 73.
Cabrera’s 10-foot birdie tried to try on sixth, and he lowered his putt and placed his hand on his knees to try to figure out how he missed it. After a hole, it will be even more painful when a 3-foot-tall person barely grabs the left edge and tear it apart.
Forecasts for the next three days require a high of nearly 90 and rain. The height to the west of the route and that mountain – will never change.
“It’s not only difficult to hit the ball in high altitude, ups and downs and spins and all of that,” Sink said. “But you leave yourself a lot of 20-foot-25-foot putts that have a lot of rest and don’t always do what they’re going to do.”
