Going Low: Three Tied For Lead On ‘Soft' Course

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Kettering, Ohio – Blame it on Mother Nature.

A receptive NCR Country Club South Course continued to yield low scores Friday during the second round of the 2005 U.S. Senior Open as three players from the morning wave shared the clubhouse lead. Loren Roberts, first-round leader Craig Stadler and Tom Watson created a stalemate at 9-under 133. Wayne Levi was two strokes back, and Des Smyth and Raymond Floyd, who won the 1969 PGA Championship at this venue, trailed by three at 6-under 136.

The 133 totals tied the Senior Open record for low 36-hole score, set previously by Dave Stockton (1992), Simon Hobday (1994) and Bruce Fleisher (2000).

Afterward, prominence was placed on how low scores can go if the 7,000-yard, par-71 layout doesn't show its grit.

"The playing conditions today were identical to what they were yesterday," said Roberts, playing just his second 50-and-over competition after reaching that plateau on June 24. "The greens are still really holding. The condition of the golf course is absolutely magnificent."

Roberts wavered on whether scores should fall even further, adding that he expects the greens to be more severe if the USGA pushes hole locations out closer to the edges.

"I think it's going to be pretty low, obviously with no wind," said Watson, the 1982 U.S. Open champion and two-time U.S. Senior Open runner-up. "It's perfect conditions, the greens are soft, so it's easy to get to the hole."

Still not feeling comfortable with his backup driver Tom Watson, teeing off on No. 16 Friday, said he pushed everything right. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Entering the day four shots off the lead, Watson rode four shots that stopped 4 feet from the hole for easy tap-in birdies to a 6-under round. It was the reason why he had 25 putts on otherwise receptive greens. Watson is attempting to win back-to-back majors, coming off last week's Senior British Open victory at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland.

The Senior Open marks his fourth major in four weeks (he also played the British Open at St. Andrews in mid-July. That's caused carelessness in some situations.

"It's somewhat fatiguing in the sense that I got a little careless today," said Watson. "Mentally I got a bit careless."

He was referring to his drives. Using a backup driver because his original one cracked during a practice round, Watson had a tendency to consistently fire right. He missed six fairways, incredibly scrambling to a round that saw him record seven birdies and just one bogey.

The most interesting sequence occurred on the par-4 fourth, which he parred. But it was the way he did it. He found the green with a 9-iron, short-siding himself, before putting off. He then holed out from 20 feet, forcing his aw shucks gap-toothed smile.

His next hole, the first of the consecutive par 5s, was equally exciting. Struggling with his putting, he knocked an 80-footer within inches of the hole that led to a birdie. Through two rounds, Watson has posted four birdies on the three par-5s at NCR.

Asked what was more surprising, whether he scrambled as much as he did for a 65 or the fact he put four balls to within 4 feet, Watson said, "It kind of counter-balanced each other. It was an adventurous round, let's put it that way."

Roberts, in Watson's group, couldn't confess the same. He took two more putts than the first round, and hit one more green but one less fairway in carding five birdies. He got up and down on his first hole, No. 10, from the front bunker for a birdie, sinking an 8-footer for the longest putt he made all round.

"I played really solid the last two days," said Roberts. "But the key is that I've driven the all well. Anybody who's put a low score up has driven the ball in the fairway."

Despite a 2-under round, Stadler walked off bolstered by a long hole-out at the par-4 18th. He

Craig Stadler, watching a shot on the eighth hole Friday, carded a 2-under 69. (John Mummert/USGA)

had put his ball in the left rough, near a front bunker, 45 feet away from the hole. He had no thoughts of the ball running in.

"Absolutely not," he said. "I was just trying to get it on, two-putt it, but the hole got in the way."

He knew he could have gone lower but misreads on "six or seven" putts 12 feet or closer cost him.

Levi, who has two top-15 finishes in the two Senior Opens he's played, moved into contention with a solid 4-under 67. He started with consecutive birdies. On holes 12-15, he posted a birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey stretch before closing the round with a birdie and bogey.

"In a four-round tournament you always worry about making the cut," said Levi.

Floyd, the 1986 U.S. Open champion who like Watson is seeking his first Senior Open crown, got hot on his backside, firing off five birdies in six holes to position himself in fifth. With Floyd set to be on the receiving end of an honorary membership at NCR, he'd like to do well.

Ken Klavon is the USGA Web Editor. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.