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| Trying to win the U.S. Senior Open in his first appearance, Russ Cochran shot up the leaderboard on moving day Saturday. (Fred Vuich/USGA) |
By Dave Shedloski
Carmel, Ind. – Russ Cochran played golf Saturday like a man without a care or on a dare. The result was a round that even he admitted came out of nowhere.
“I didn’t see this coming,” the left-handed Champions Tour rookie said after he fired an 8-under-par 64 at Crooked Stick Golf Club and climbed into contention in the 30th U.S. Senior Open. “Really, I don’t know where it came from, but I sure hope it comes back again tomorrow.”
A journeyman pro who won only once in 20 seasons on the PGA Tour, Cochran tied the U.S. Senior Open scoring record in relation to par while posting the third-lowest score in championship history. In addition, the Kentucky native beat by two strokes the previous course record that four players established two days earlier.
With nine birdies – one more than he had converted in his previous two rounds combined – Cochran rose from a tie for 32nd to a tie for sixth at 8-under 208 through 54 holes. He’ll likely need to run the tables again Sunday to catch the leaders, a daunting proposition on a course where Cochran doesn’t necessarily feel comfortable, if you can believe that.
“I don’t particularly feel great on this golf course. I know that sounds funny,” Cochran said. “Every tee shot … you're aiming over a rough or a mound or a knob or something, and I hit driver on the first hole today, kind of out of character for me, and jumped up there and said, ‘I’m going to be aggressive and not back off any lines and see what happens.’ I didn't realize that the putter was going to cooperate so well, so that was an added bonus.”
The putter didn’t just cooperate; it was the catalyst. Cochran hit nine fairways and 12 greens, but he used the flatstick a mere 22 times.
“He did everything you need to do to shoot 64,” said Jeff Sluman, Cochran’s fellow competitor. “He drove it down the middle, hit a lot of great irons, and he made his share of putts. I witnessed a pretty darn good round of golf.”
Cochran told his son, Reed, who caddied for him, that he intended to play “like we don’t care. And for the most part we did,” the 50 year old said.
Of course, at some point, he did start to care about the proceedings, which included his progress up the leaderboard.
“I’ll tell you what happens on a round like that for me, when you play and you get it going, you are unbelievably disappointed if you stop,” he said. “If you slow down or back up or don't, you know, stay aggressive, it’s just discouraging as heck, much more so than if you’re not playing well.
“When you have your thumb on it out there, you have to try to keep it going,” he added. “I made lots of putts and had lots of good things happen.”
Twice during the round Cochran strung together three consecutive birdies – at holes 6-8 and again at 13-15, the latter capped by a 3-footer after knocking a 4-iron over the green in two and chipping back. Five of his nine birdies were 12 feet or longer, including a 25-footer at the third hole and a 35-footer at the 13th that broke more than 2 feet, he said.
That Cochran is in this position is a surprise, given that he has not played a consistent schedule since 2005 and is competing in just his eighth event of the season. Furthermore, he survived a one-hole playoff to gain the last of three berths among 97 players at the Indianapolis Sectional qualifier June 30 at Brickyard Crossing Golf Club, which like Crooked Stick was designed by Pete Dye.
“I’m going to have to have a talk with him (Dye),” joked Cochran, who shot 72 at Brickyard Crossing and beat amateur Quinn Griffing of Fort Wayne, Ind., with a birdie on the first extra hole. “That golf course is tough, but I snuck in, and I told my son, ‘I think that's big for me,’ because I haven’t played much and it’s hard to get into a rhythm if you don’t play consistently.”
Having shot his lowest career round in relation to par and second best of his career – after a 7-under-par 63 at the 1991 Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic – Cochran has a chance to embellish his resume considerably.
Trailing amateur Tim Jackson by 11 strokes when the third round began, Cochran with a win would be the first left-hander to earn this title, and he would obliterate the record for largest 36-hole comeback. The record is seven strokes shared by Brad Bryant in 2007 and Larry Laoretti in 1992. Cochran also can become the first sectional qualifier since Don Pooley in 2002 to triumph and the first man to win in his debut since Peter Jacobsen in ’04.
All he needs, as he trails Fred Funk by five shots entering Sunday’s final round, is to duplicate his Saturday performance.
“I’ve been through something like this before, you know,” he said when asked about an encore. “I know all the stats and stuff. When you get around that low round and whatever it is, the course record‑type round, the next rounds are really tough. But good gosh, I think I played 600 tournaments. Surely I can come out and let it go tomorrow.”
Perhaps he can, even if he dares to care.
Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on www.ussenioropen.com.
