STEVENS POINT, Wis. – At one point Thursday afternoon, 17 of the top 20 names on the U.S. Senior Open leaderboard had begun their first round on the back nine of SentryWorld. That included early leader Rod Pampling, who opened his tournament at 2-under on the back before finishing at 3-under for the day.
Then Steve Stricker set off the first tee box just after 2 p.m.
A tournament favorite coming in as the winner of the first two majors on the senior tour – and with the home-state good vibes emanating from his galleries – Stricker began his tournament with a solid 2-under 33 on the front with two birdies and seven pars.
The Madison resident was just one of just four players to not bogey at least one hole on the front nine.
The round seemed set up for Stricker to have a strong closing nine to supplant Pampling and his round of 68.
Then something odd happened.
The turn proved trouble for Stricker, as his tee shot ran up against a tree on the par-5 10th. His left-handed recovery attempt landed in a divot, and an admittedly over-aggressive bunker shot culminated in a double bogey on a hole that yielded birdies for most players.
That set him back to even for the tournament. Stricker then hit it in the water on the par-3 12th, leading to another double-bogey.
“You have to stay away from doubles,” he said. “If I make bogeys there, I shoot 1-under, and that’s the difference. You have to stay away from those.”
He finished with a 1-over 72, snapping his Tour-record 55 consecutive rounds at par or better. He admitted he thought about the streak down the stretch, but he wasn’t able to get one more birdie on his card.
“It can get you – I mean, I doubled 10, and it’s probably ranked one of the easier holes out there today,” Stricker said. “So any hole can come up and grab you. You just have to hit good shots, bottom line. You have to play smart, hit good shots, and not put yourself behind a tree.”
Pampling has a two-stroke lead over Mike Small, Retief Goosen and Miguel Ángel Jiménez
Stricker’s playing partner David Toms took advantage of the back nine to start, as he birdied 10, 11 and 12 to capture a share of the lead. But then he, too, backtracked with a 3-over finish down the stretch.
So it was Pampling, with his seven birdies, two bogeys and one double, who would sleep on the lead after one round.
“It was obviously a fun day,” Pampling said. “I’d been playing well for the last month or so. To get here and see the course, it felt good. I drove it really well and made a lot of birdies out there.”
Earlier in the day Mike Small made four birdies on the back nine and also got to 3-under before a double-bogey on No. 9 dropped him to 1-under. He joined Retief Goosen and Miguel Ángel Jiménez at that score in second place, two back of Pampling.
“The pins were really difficult on this front nine,” Small said of Thursday’s setup. “I think the wind came up. The first few holes on the front are down and then coming into the wind a little bit, and there’s more trouble. They’re both hard. The rough is so thick. I don’t think the guys out here – I’ve probably played 15 or 16 Champions Tour events and this is my third one of these – I’ve never seen the rough this thick. These guys, they’re not used to it.”
Small, the University of Illinois men’s golf coach, is one of Stricker’s closest friends as they played together for the Illini in the late 1980s. The two helped Illinois to the 1988 Big Ten championship and were eventually groomsmen in each other’s weddings.
The pair teamed up with Jerry Kelly for some practice round work, too, to try and get a feel for how the first-time championship venue would play.
Struggling with a wrist injury Jerry Kelly manages a par round
Small made six birdies against three bogies and a double, while Kelly battled through a left wrist injury to make four birdies. He was part of a group of 10 players that finished the day at even-par, though Kelly’s two birdies on the back side were negated by a double-bogey on the par-4 13th hole.
“It’s been going out of joint for about a couple months, and it just inflamed so bad the last week or so,” Kelly said of his injury. “I’ve been having it worked on constantly, and that’s aggravating it more. So it’s inflamed. I was hoping it was going to be better. It is better. I could barely play three holes yesterday.”
The Madison native added that if you had asked him when the day started if he’d take even par, he would have gladly accepted it, so he left the first round comforted by the fact he’s not trying to make up ground.
“It’s a good score,” Kelly said. “I’d like that to be my highest. I think it’s out there for the taking right now, there’s no question. You just have to hit it straight. If you don’t hit it straight, it’s not out there for the taking at all.”
Ernie Els, who won two U.S. Opens and recorded five other top-five finishes in the tournament, said “It’s really playing like a U.S. Open. It’s really playing where you’ve got to kind of hit shots where you’re going for the perfect miss – get your wedge out of the way there. You’re going for the perfect shot, but you’ve got to miss yourself where you get it up and down.”
Defending champion Padraig Harrington, who finished tied for 27th at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club earlier in the month, finished his round with a 3-over 74.
But, he felt its difficulty would allow those a few shots back to chase the leaders.
“It is possible to go out there and shoot a really good score if I have a great day,” Harrington said. “It’s not a pretty golf course to be defending on. Maybe I was a bit defensive today because I kind of – you kind of know going to a U.S. Open, I think, first day out you can get a bit defensive.
“Yeah, I have to say I found L.A. Country Club a lot easier than this place. I know this is shorter, but the length doesn’t bother me. L.A. Country Club was a lot easier.”
Mick Smith, Bradley Lanning have mixed results
The two local Wisconsin qualifiers, Mick Smith of Summit and Brad Lanning of Hortonville, had mixed results in their first round.
Smith found his name on the front page of the leaderboard at one point as he got to even par through eight holes but he shot a 3-over 38 on the front nine (his back nine) to finish with a 3-over 74. It did put him in position to make the cut, however, with a strong Friday.
“You gotta hit the fairways – makes it a lot easier,” Smith said, noting he rolled in some long putts to keep his round on track. “I enjoyed it. First experience. It’s just hard work.”
Lanning began his day on the tougher front nine and shot an 8-over 43. He settled down and balanced two bogies with two birdies on the backside to finish 8-over for the round.
“It’s our home – I mean, we’re 40 minutes away – and I’ve played this course a lot,” Lanning said. “I am comfortable here and I think that helped me on the back because I’ve played here quite a bit without all these tents and everything, and the high rough. I just feel like hey, I can play if I hit the shots because I’ve seen the golf course before. We’ll see how it goes (Friday) and if I can get some momentum and get a few putts going, maybe, hopefully, I’ll make the cut.”
