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Golf, US Senior Open 
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11:00 am - We are live from the Broadmoor once again for the Third Round of the US Senior Open. Big crowds today as expected. If you were going to go one day, it would be Saturday or Sunday. Pace of play will be quicker because each group will be two players and not three.
Weather is calm and hot, with a breeze that picks up time to time. Dark clouds are by the mountains but when aren’t they this time of year.
12:35 pm - Just got in after following some groups around the course. I started with Ian Woosnam and Bernard Langer. What a pair! Langer is the slowest golfer on the planet and Woosnam is one of the fastest. Woosie could play an entire round by himself in two and a half hours. He just tees up and goes. Langer checks and re-checks and resets and practice swings…you get the idea. Anyway I followed them along until I saw the group of…
Jeff Klein! The man on a mission. He’s 8-under for the day and putting for par on the 15th when I catch him. He misses the putt and then pars 16 and 17 before three putting the 18th green for a 6-under total and a 64. A 64 at an Open!
I saw UCCS Women’s Basketball Coach Jessika Caldwell and her husband on the course today. They got caught up in the energy of Klein-mania. The crowds surrounding this guy was amazing. He’s from Scottsbluff, Nebraska and really had the crowd roaring today.
1:15 pm - After a nice lunch in the media tower, NBC goes to live coverage. What do they do to start the broadcast? Yep, a shot of the infamous bear that roams the fairways of the Broadmoor. Oh they add shots of deer and foxes but its the bear that is stealing the show.
Fred Funk is on the move. Funk has birdied three of his first eight holes to go to nine-under. Eduardo Romero is keeping pace with three birdies of his own. Tom Kite is three-under on his round today too. John Cook, not so hot. He’s double bogied the sixth hole to fall to 1-under.
This is going to be a great moving day today. Lots of red numbers are coming in.
1:30 pm - Scott Simpson is in with a 64 as well. A 64 is uncommon in an Open setting, even on the Senior Tour. You have high rough and fast greens. The fact that its a par 70 means that two par 5’s are missing from the equation, making the course longer. The 17th for example is a par-five for the members but here this week, its a 545 yard par four. 64 is a great score no matter where you shoot it, but at an Open its incredible. Two of those in one day is amazing.
I really like how Tom Kite is looking today. He’s making some putts and hitting the ball in the fairway. He’s got some catching up to do with Funk at 9-under but if he gets to one or two back, he might win this thing tomorrow. You heard it here first.
1:38 pm - Funk is in the rough at the par-five 9th hole. That’s a tough shot and he hits it short of the green and near the water. Romero is in the fairway he hits it a little short of the green. This could give Romero another shot to close the gap.
Nope, Funk chips up and makes a birdie. He’s at 10-under. Romero makes birdie and gets to eight-under. Both players had a 32 on the front nine. They are running away with this thing as Tom Kite is five-shots back at 5-under.
2:20 pm - Saw Norman finish up on 18 and spoke with him after his round. He didnt seem too happy. He finished with a 68 but he felt it could have been lower. Afterall, we did have two 64s. he didnt like the inconsistancy of the course and the pin placements yesterday we something he didnt want to comment on. By the way, he’s a big guy.
Fred Funk is in a funk now. He was 10-under after nine but dropped a shot at 11 and then another one at 12 and 14. He’s at 7-under par while Romero now is at 9-under.
Opps now its 8-under after Romero bogies 15. Gotta love instant scoring in the comfy media center.
3:20 pm - John Cook is starting to come alive. After a ho-hum even par front nine, he gets birdies at 12, 14, 16, and has a birdie putt at 18 to get to 6-under
Cook makes the putt and finishes with a 30 on the back side. Remarkable given that’s the side that is driving everyone crazy. There are no par 5’s out there to birdie. Cook is now tied for third place. It looked like he was done at 2-under when Funk and Romero got to 10-under but he hung in there and now has a shot.
Funk pared his final 5 holes to finish at 7-under. This has got to hurt. He was 10-under after nine but shot a 3-over 37 on the back nine. Romero shoots a back nine 33 to finish witha 65 and leads the Open by two shots.
Oh yeah, so much for my physic prediction of a Tom Kite championship. He shot a 1-over 71 today and is 1-under for the championship after a back nine 38.
Back tomorrow for the Final Round of the US Senior Open.
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12:00 pm - Live from the Broadmoor, its Day Two of the US Senior Open. Just got settled and just got set-up so away we go.
Tom Watson made a bogey at 11 to hang at 1-under par, where he started the day. Mark McNulty is at 4-under after birdies at three, nine and ten. He gave one back on 11 and is now tied for the lead with John Cook and Fred Funk.
Hale Irwin had the most incredible start I have ever seen. On the first tee, Irwin hit the ball 20-feet. That’s right 20 feet!! He was distracted by noise coming from the Will Rogers tower. He takes a drop (no penalty) and hits iron back to the fairway. Utility club to the green and drains a 30-footer for par. Irwin, a Colorado guy, proceeds to birdie the next two holes.
When I hit a ball 20-feet off the tee, I usually make an 8.
12:05 pm - First bear sighting at the tournament. A black bear is strolling along the fairway. Dont know where it was but they showed it on ESPN. Nobody seems worried about it. I mean, this isnt a cuddly animal like a fox or a deer. It’s a bear! Where is the game wardens! I really hope this wasnt some stock footage to show how wild Colorado is. I’ll try to get the lowdown on the bear.
12:09 pm - That’s more like it. A cuddly deer is now running along the fairway. Glad he’s not a a man-eating deer with sharp claws and a body that could drag a full-grown man to the ground!
12:13 pm - Dont mean to trouble you but the bear is still running around the grounds here at the Broadmoor. You should have seen the players and caddies walking up the fairway and this bear running across like he’s a spectator. Some idiot says he’s from the zoo! Yeah right, the zoo! That’s would spice up the event. Let’s let a wild bear loose on the grounds, you know, to entertain the kids. Obviously he doesnt realize that here in Colorado Springs, bears, deers, foxes and other wild animals are pretty common.
1:00 pm - Took a walk around the grounds to look for the bear. Just kidding. I’m totally scared of that stuff. Walking around the Broadmoor is so interesting. I have played here about five or six times and it’s always weird to see a course you are familiar with all dressed up for a tournament. I saw it at Castle Pines, Cherry Hills and now here. The grandstands, the roped off areas, the manicured greens. It’s incredible.
Amateur Steve Roser is having a bad day. On hole five, he hit his tee shot well right into the next fairway. He tries to hit over the trees but it hits the tree and bounces back into the rough. He has to use a wedge to get out of the thick stuff and then…..I got bored and moved on to another group.
One thing I will say for golf fans, they will watch these guys do anything. At the practice range there were hundreds of fans lined up to see guys just hit balls over and over again. I dont mind fans watching practice at training camp or spring training but c’mon. Tom Watson is still out there. Tom Kite is finishing up. GUYS ARE PLAYING GOLF FOR REAL! I would much rather see someone make a shot into a green than hit balls over and over again.
1:17 pm - We should start seeing a buzz on the grounds in about a half hour. Greg Norman, Curtis Strange and Fuzzy Zoeller will be teeing off on the 10th hole. Like I said, I’m a Norman guy.
3:05 pm - Okay, its been a while since the last entry. I have been walking all over this course looking for Greg Norman. I go to the tee at 11 and he’s on the green. Walk down to the green, he’s leaving the tee box at 12. Finally I caught up with that group and watched them for a while. Norman made three straight pars after bogeying the 10th hole, his first of the day
Former US Senior Open champ Larry Laoretti has been disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. His card had a 5 for the ninth hole but he really scored a 6. That means a DQ. He wasnt going to make the cut anyway.
Found out that there were two bears on the golf course…not just one. And no…they are not from the zoo. Stupid out-of-towner.
As we sit, Fred Funk is the leader at 6-under par. We are not seeing a whole bunch of red scores out there so Funk’s 69 has to be one of the rounds of the day. He shot a 33 on the back nine, which was holes 1-9. Yes it does get confusing when you dont know if he teed off on the first hole or the tenth.
One more note for this entry. I had a chance to see some of the lesser-known players in this tournament and it was fun to watch. They dont hit it as far and their short game isnt up to speed but they seem to be having fun in this enviroment. Most have kids caddying for them. Probably grandkids or maybe their own. You see thier wives with them and since they dont exacty fill the grandstands, its easy to follow their shots.
3:43 pm - Remember Scott Roser, the amateur I told you about in an earlier entry. He shot an 86 today. I really have to give it up for my man Steve Kane. Two days at the Open and he shot an 82 and an 83. I love it because he didnt quit and take an early flight home.
Greg Norman just bogied the 15th hole, his sixth hole of the day. He’s at 2-over. The winds are picking up and the course is drying out. The projected cut right now is 6-over. I hope he can hang on.
Here are a few names that will not be in our city playing golf this weekend. Dave Stockton, Hubert Green, Sam Torrance, Curtis Strange, Ben Crenshaw, and Sandy Lyle. I know that list will grow as we go longer in the day. This course is growing tougher by the second.
5:39 pm - I spent the last two hours out on the golf course watching Norman, Strange and Zoeller. Man can Norman crush it. On the second hole he almost drove the green! His pitch went a little too far and he two putted for par. On the third hole, he reached the green in two shots but three-putted for par. Then made another par at the par-3 fourth hole.
You will never believe who I watched Greg Norman play the third hole with. Chris Evert. Or is it Chris Evert Lloyd Mill Norman? Anyway, I watching Norman tee off when I look to my left and Chris is standing there watching the action with me. We walk down the fairway. I say something like “hello, I’m a big fan,” she smiles and then we watch Norman hit his approach shot. She groans when he three putts but then clapped for his tee shot at four.
Golf wives are great. They actually come to work with you and walk through the thousands of fans who push, bump and basically knock you over to see the action. This goes on for hours. I had enough after five holes and worked my way back the media center for a drink and some AC. She’s still out there walking the course cheering every two-foot par putt.
One more thing, the wind that picked up in the early afternoon has died out completely. The flags are dead and now its the heat. The sun is baking out these greens which are running about an 11 on the stimpmeter.
5:51 pm - Fred Funk is going to bed tonight with at least a two-shot lead in the US Senior Open. No one is going to catch him today. Probably tomorrow but not today. Eduardo Romero is two under with four to play.. John Cook has the same deal. They may get to three under, maybe four under but no one is getting to six, where Funk is right now.
Just as I leave Greg Norman’s group after five rather boring pars, he finally has a birdie at the sixth hole, his 15th hole of the day. He’s at 1-over and looks like he will make the cut which grew as more golfers came in over par.
Two weeks ago, Norman was in England playing his second round of the British Open. He played the weekend and then went to Royal Troon in Scotland and played in the Senior British Open. Now he’s in Colorado Springs playing in his third straight major. Three majors in two weeks!!! I’m surprised he didnt shoot a 90 on Thursday on just sheer mental exhaustion. Plus, the conditions are so much different here than what he had at Birkdale and Troon.
6:05 pm - Better be careful what I write. Romero birdied the par-4 15th hole to get to three unde par. The 16th is a short par three and the 17th is a long par four. He could get to four under by the end of his round.
6:15 pm - The bears are gone but not forgotten. While we haven’t seen them since earlier today, they remain the topic du jour at the US Senior Open. Why not? There was not a lightning good round today. The play was a little dull. No one is making a run at the leader so the media is still buzzing about the bears. I’ve covered sports for almost 15 years. Never once have I seen or heard of a man-eating beast running on the grounds of a sporting event. It would be as if a lion ran around the field at Dove Valley.
Romero did not birdie the 16th hole. He’s one the 17th now, a straight par four.
There were seven eagles yesterday in Round One. Today, only three. Most of them, okay, all but one of them are coming at the par-five third hole. A downhill tee shot and mid-iron to the green. These guys make it look so easy.
The cut is going to land at 8-over par. Here’s more names that will be moving on to their jets later tonight. Mark Weibe, Mark O’Meara, and Wayne Grady. Guys who got in include Jeff Sluman (’88 PGA Champion), Mike “Radar” Reid, Fuzzy Zoeller (’79 Masters and ‘84 US Open Champion, Scott Simpson (’87 US Open Champion), Scott Hoch (should have won the ‘89 Masters but choked a two-footer in a playoff with Nick Faldo), and Hale Irwin (three time US Open Champion).
6:25 pm - Romero birdies the 17th hole to get to four-under. He’s two back of Funk. Cook is two-under with two holes left. Norman is still out there at 1-over.
6:30 pm - Before I go, I should give you an update on the Colorado Golfers at the Open.
Dale Douglass +21
Mark Weibe +9
Hale Irwin +5
R.W. Eaks +5
Craig Stadler +14
It’s been a long day and I still have two days left. Check back tomorrow for more blogs from the US Senior Open at the Broadmoor.
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