Crammed

Barr, Hass One Of 10 Players Under Par

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Hutchinson, Kan. – A crammed Los Angeles freeway at rush hour couldn't create a better bottle neck.

The first chapter of the U.S. Senior Open at Prairie Dunes Country Club Thursday might leave one to surmise that an ending similar to last year's edition could well be within the stars. That's because 10 players posted red numbers, and all but two of them stood within two strokes of the lead. The two who didn't were leading.

Dave Barr and Jay Haas posted morning 67s - 3 under par on the Perry Maxwell 6,646-yard, par-70

Jay Haas, Thursday at Prairie Dunes, has his sights set on a second consecutive major. (John Mummert/USGA)

Prairie Dunes track – that stuck.

Mark James, Massy Kuramoto, Graham Marsh and D.A. Weibring were on the leaders' heels just one stroke back. "I think the golf course will give up a few good scores," said Weibring, "but I think it can take it away.

"If you asked me who I thought would win, I thought anywhere from even par to 6 under, in that gap. It's all up to the wind and how firm the greens get."

Defending champion Allen Doyle was one of four players to finish at 1 under par on a layout that produced a 74.917 scoring average.

Doyle's 69 overwrote Jack Nicklaus' name as the last returning champion to post an under-par score. Nicklaus fired a third-round 69 in the 1994 Senior Open at Pinehurst No. 2. Moreover, the last defending champion to shoot under par was Hale Irwin in 1999.

What's it all mean?

"I don't get excited after Thursdays," said Doyle coming off a round that produced five birdies that could have been six had he not missed a 4-footer on the 18th hole. "It's in its infancy still."

A prevailing wind picked up in the early afternoon, but it hardly factored in the final tallies. Barr and Haas got in before the greens dried out. By that time, catching the two front-men must have felt like climbing a greased rope.

Haas, a perennial favorite, won the Senior PGA Championship earlier this year in a playoff. He opened with four straight pars before coming to a crossroads on the par-4 fifth that, in his own estimation, could have broken his round. He hit a cut shot into the rough that the wind grabbed, then was left with a lazy chip short of the green that rolled 8 feet past the hole.

Staring at a potential double bogey, Haas sank the putt that kept him afloat at 1 over par. The "double there would have been not good on my psyche, I guess," said Haas.

If anything, it got him going as he birdied his next three holes. He held steady at 2 under until the par-5 17th, maybe the most contoured green on the course. With 235 yards to the hole, after a strong drive, he knocked a 5-wood to 15 feet for an eagle chance.

The putt had about 15 feet of break to it. Fortunately he knocked it to 1 foot and tapped in for his fifth birdie. Coming off a third-place finish two years ago, Haas is hoping his third Senior Open is a charm. The win at the Senior PGA Championship rewarded him with confidence.

"I guess just knowing that I could do it down the stretch," said Haas, who never three-putted Thursday. "That's building my confidence and has been a big boost for me."

Allen Doyle tries using a little body English to telepathically make his ball fall on the 13th green Thursday. (John Mummert/USGA)

Speaking of self-assurance, Barr needs some this week. For Barr, 54, this is a make-or-break year. His exemption out of sectional qualifying runs out unless he can place in the top 25 scores. He earned the exemption based on his Royal Caribbean Classic victory in 2003, his only win on the Champions Tour.

He settled into a comfort zone with a side-winding birdie from 20 feet on the par-3 uphill 10th hole, his first of the round. Three holes later, he struck again with the second of his four birdies. He angled in a 30-footer to post an opening nine score of 3-under 32. In all, he missed just two fairways.

"Just patience, really," he said when asked what the key is to solving Prairie Dunes. "I'm not trying to get overconfident. Just the old cliché – fairways and greens, fairways and greens."

Also going off in the morning, Kuramoto, who stands 5'5 and hails from Hiroshima, Japan, got into the mix by scrambling successfully. No hole demonstrated that more than the par-4 18th when he went right-to-left out of the first fairway cut and into a greenside bunker. A firm flop shot stopped 4 feet above the hole before he converted the putt to save par.

With Barr, Haas and Kuramoto in the clubhouse, Doyle and Weibring got as low as 3 under but couldn't hold it. Doyle double bogeyed the par-4 eighth after he drove into the gunch.

Weibring still took solace in knowing that he's in contention, especially coming off last year's runner-up finish when he bogeyed 17 and 18. He's been battling a left shoulder injury this year.

"I take last year as a positive," said Weibring, who had a 65 in the final round of last week's Greater Kansas City Golf Classic. "Maybe others don't."

Marsh, the 1997 champion, moved up the leaderboard by birdieing two of his final three holes. He capped things off by draining a 35-footer on No. 9, a hole that surrendered just six birdies and ranked as the hardest of the day. When told of the feat, Marsh smiled and said, "Well, is that right. I nearly had a skin, didn't I?"

While Marsh was lapping up the attention, James followed him in with maybe the most consistent round of the day. He parred his first 14 holes and then sunk a 30-foot curling putt on the par-4 sixth for one of two birdies in the only bogey-free round of the day.

Injuries and a balky putter of late have put him in a swoon.

"Hopefully this is the start of at least a slightly better run," said James, winner of one major. "It wasn't easy."

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