Second round: Players grin and 'bear' it on tough day
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- The Broadmoor's East Course was quite a bear Friday.
Difficult pin placements and faster, drier greens flustered the field and only five golfers managed to shoot below par, including Fred Funk, whose 1-under 69 gave him the lead at the halfway point of the U.S. Senior Open.
Funk's two-day score of 6-under 134 is two shots ahead of Eduardo Romero (69) and four ahead of Mark McNulty (70), Tom Kite (71) and John Cook (72).
Stealing the show, however, was a black bear that ambled out of the mountains in the morning and crossed the 13th fairway before checking out spectators outside the ropes.
Nobody was harmed, and neither was the bear.
"(Jack) Nicklaus isn't here, so I guess that's a substitute," cracked Funk.
Although tournament officials were prepared to tranquilize the animal and stop play were it to become aggressive or spooked, after several minutes the bear crawled through a drainage pipe on the ninth hole that leads to the West Course, then went through another drainage pipe and into the wilderness, leaving unnerved galleries and golfers behind.
USGA spokesman Pete Kowalski said wildlife experts were called in and would be on the course throughout the rest of the tournament in case the bear or its chums decide to return for another look around.
The course, carved into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, serves as host to all kinds of critters, including bobcats, coyotes, deer, mountain lions, red foxes, snakes and turkeys.
But a bear?
That was a new one even for these grizzled veterans, many of whom played with Nicklaus, the "Golden Bear" who menaced his share of golfers over the years.
To read the remainder of this story, click here.
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The par-5, 601-yard third hole ranked the easiest with a 4.837 scoring average.
The 493-yard, par-4 13th hole was the hardest with a 4.629 scoring average.
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Fred Funk eagled No. 3 on Day 1 and gave himself another chance on Friday after knocking his second shot about seven feet below the hole on the front edge of the green. Though he missed the eagle try, his excellent setup shot nearly allowed him to play the par-5 3rd hole in six strokes over two days.
Ian Woosnam opened with a 74 on Thursday at The Broadmoor but fired a 2-under 68 on Friday with four birdies and two bogeys. It was three strokes higher than Fred Funk's low round on opening day but a solid effort on a course that quickly firmed up due to the heat and wind.| Quote of the Day | ||
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KITE IN THE RUNNING AT THE BROADMOOR
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Tom Kite, clad in his trademark straw hat and a cornflower blue shirt that matched his eyes, stood on a podium after completing his second round in the U.S. Senior Open to partake in the customary media interviews.
"The golf course is hard, holy smokes," he said, with a slight hint of a Texas twang. "The USGA put some pin placements on us today that almost defy the imagination. ...You know, it's just treacherous, treacherous greens out there with some unbelievable pin placements today.
"It's going to be fun watching on TV. I'm glad I'm finished."
Perhaps his opinion was influenced because Kite didn't end his day on a positive note. He bogeyed No. 8 -- the penultimate hole since he began on No. 10 -- and couldn't convert a birdie putt on the par-5 ninth hole.
"I'm pleased with where I am," Kite said, then took a swig of his drink. "I felt like I played a little better. Eight and nine kind of leaves a little bad taste in your mouth. I'm trying to wash it down with Diet Coke, but it's not helping a whole lot right now."
To read the remainder of this story, click here.
ACHY, BREAKY FUNK
Fred Funk has taken full advantage of the outdoor adventures offered in Colorado. He and his family got to the area a week before the tournament began on Thursday and whitewater rafted in Echo Canyon on Friday.
He squeezed in 18-hole practice rounds at The Broadmoor over the next five days -- which obviously helped since he has held the lead on Thursday and Friday -- while continuing to experience Colorado's natural wonders.
Funk took his wife and kids out to celebrate for his wife's birthday on Tuesday night before the U.S. Senior Open began. They made their way to Seven Falls, a popular tourist attraction located a few miles from the course up in the South Cheyenne Canyon.
The waterfall cascades down the side of the canyon in seven separate steps, giving it a unique appearance. At night, each waterfall is lit in a different color and tourists -- including Funk and his family -- climb 224 steps along the side of the falls for a bird's eye view from the top.
"It's actually pretty scary coming back down because the top set of steps is almost straight down. If you misplace a step, you're not going to feel too good, or probably die if you go down there," Funk admitted.
Here's the thing -- Funk had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in mid-May to repair damage to the lateral and medial cartilage. That was less than three months ago.
What was Funk thinking?
"Considering I just had knee surgery a couple of months ago and I've been fighting that, and I put my knee to the ultimate test that night, I was real sore (on Wednesday) and a little sore (on Thursday)," Funk said, adding that even though he took the lead in the first round, his legs felt a little wobbly.
"(On Thursday) it's not my knee, just my thighs (were) burning up," he said.
It wasn't his knee or thighs that gave him a problem on Friday. His wife had to fetch a physical therapist for Funk while on the course to work out a problem with his left shoulder and neck.
"I've always had issues," Funk said, adding with a laugh. "Something always hurts."
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'ON A SCALE OF 10, THEY WERE 15'
Greg Norman wouldn't even talk about it. When asked about the extremely tough pin placements, he offered no comment.
Tom Kite, on the other hand, provided an example.
"(I was) playing with Jay Haas today, he hit an absolutely perfect shot in there (on No. 8) and landed and caught the ridge and then came back and ended up five feet above the hole," Kite said. "And literally, he barely, I mean he just touched the putt. And if he misses the hole -- he made the putt -- but if he misses the hole, his putt's five, six feet below the hole. If you put it above the ridge, you can't hit the green."
Perhaps John Cook, though, said it best.
"That course is right on the edge. It is right on the edge. There's no doubt. I hit the ball really, really well today, really well. And just between the wind blowing and gusting and the pin placements were on a scale of 10, were 15," Cook said. "It was all I could do to survive."
Jim Hyler, who is on the USGA Championship Committee, commented on the greens and pin placements.
"The wind picked up, and it added a great element of difficulty. So we have communicated this to the players in a memorandum that we are trying to keep it the same. So we are not going to speed up the greens any," Hyler said about the weekend plans. "We cut the grass every day, so try to keep it right where it is."
He also commented on the 8th hole, the same one that Kite mentioned.
"On Hole 8, we made an adjustment in our setup this morning to move the tee up and it played 153 yards and we intentionally moved the tee up 16 yards this morning to give them a shorter club to hit to a very hard hole location," Hyler said.
| 62 | Number of players who made the cut at The Broadmoor. |
| 142 | Rick Cloninger's score, the lowest 36-hole number by an amateur in the field. Six amateurs made the cut. |
Oh, and one more thing. As the 90-degree temperatures baked the greens, the USGA tried something different and watered the greens between waves and even between groups because any water from the morning had evaporated long before the afternoon groups teed off.
"We watered yesterday and today between the waves, the morning and afternoon waves, we watered fairways. We turned the sprinklers on and ran the irrigation on the fairway, plus we had people out with hoses, syringing," Hyler said. "Yesterday and today, we had people out there watching the greens and when they see hot spots, we will suspend play, get the hose out there and give them a quick drink."
Mark McNulty expects that conditions will improve on the weekend.
"I think the USGA will have enough sense to realize that they can't let these greens get away from them because they are very severe. And if they do get a little hardened and too fast, some of those balls are not going to stop," McNulty said.
WE CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
This week in Colorado Springs has already brought some unique occurrences and things you won't find anywhere else. Three things stand out:
1. The chimes. The Will Rogers Memorial Shrine of the Sun can be both a help -- click here to read about its influence -- and a hindrance. Bells have rung since 1936 every 15 minutes, signaling the time, from a set of Westminster chimes in the towering shrine that can be heard for a 5-mile radius. On Friday, Hale Irwin was all set to hit his tee shot on No.1 when the bells tolled. Irwin was startled and attempted to stop his swing but couldn't halt in time and knocked it only 20 yards into the base of the Rolex clock on the first tee. First, a clock messes up his shot, then he has to get a ruling and take relief from another one. Needless to say, Irwin wasn't having a great time, but he still managed to par the hole.
2. The wildlife. Foxes pranced across the course on Friday. A deer with a full rack of antlers meandered near players and spectators. A black bear was spotted on the course on Friday, taking a trip across the 13th fairway while the crowds and Champions Tour golfers looked on. The bear scrambled up a tree but, if it had decided to take a walk on the course again, play could have been suspended to avoid a dangerous situation. Foxes and deer and bears, oh my!
3. The U.S. Olympic Complex. OK, so it's not at The Broadmoor, but it's extremely close to the course. Prior to the Olympic Games, the Colorado Springs complex houses athletes from sports like gymnastics, wrestling, weightlifting, shooting, and cycling and allows them to train in preparation. This is a busy few weeks for Colorado Springs residents and sports fans -- first, the U.S. Senior Open to watch; then, when the 2008 Games begin in a week, the residents will be cheering for some of their own.
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