Storms halt play at Senior Players Championship
FOX CHAPEL — Fred Couples no doubt has a lot of course records to his credit considering the length and quality of his career.
While he’s not thinking a lot about that this evening, he’s got a heck of an opportunity to add another one to his resume.
The newly-inducted World Golf Hall of Famer made seven birdies (and no bogeys) in 11 holes Friday before a severe thunderstorm halted play for the day at 1:49 p.m. As it turns out, the storm was the only thing to stop Couples on this day.
Couples is the second-longest player off the tee on the Champions Tour (behind John Huston, who is the longest and two shots behind Couples). His length is certainly a big weapon on a course as soft and saturated as this one is.
And he used that length to his advantage, rattling off seven birdies in 11 holes, surging to the top of the leaderboard. Couples birdied the 10th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th on the back (his front nine) for a 30 and then made the turn with birdies at 1 and 2.
“I was hitting fairways, which is a plus, and I made a few putts, obviously,” Couples said modestly. “I hit it close a bunch, but just before we stopped I had a bad shot into No. 3 and I’ll have about a 60-foot putt with about 30 feet of break for my first shot in the morning. I’m hitting the ball well, but don’t forget, we’re getting to put the ball in our hands and as a result we’re all hitting off good, clean lies.”
Huston recorded the shot of day, holing out from the right rough on the 15th hole with a sand wedge from 100 yards. He was 4-under par through 15 holes, one shot short of the 5-under score he posted Thursday.
“I missed a couple short putts to get started, for an eagle on No. 2 and a birdie on No. 3, but I got things going,” Huston said.
He said the back soreness he’s been battling recently was pretty good, but not as good as Thursday. And he also knows what his mission will be on the weekend.
“With the conditions as they are, I know I’ll be thinking that if I have to keep going forward,” said the man who was known in his PGA Tour days as a guy who could make birdies in bunches. Forward, in this case means lower.
The most surprising name among the leaders is Jeff Hart. He tied for fourth in qualifying school for the Champions Tour in 2011 and maintained his card in 2012 by playing steady, if not spectacular, golf in 2012.
He tied for 15th in the Encompass Championship in Chicago last week and continued the hot play in the first two rounds at Fox Chapel with rounds of 68 and 65. Friday he made seven birdies and two bogeys.
“It was one those days that was kinda easy,” Hart said. “It seemed like every hole I was putting for birdie. “The course is playing very long for me. I’m carrying the ball about 230-240 with my driver, getting no roll. I think I made three or four birdies after hitting fairway woods or a three-wood into the green.”
He played well in Chicago last week at the Encompass Championship and has put together rounds of 68-65 at Fox Chapel.
“I think I’m learning to try less and less. I’m just kind of letting it go. I don’t think I have a much great feeling of confidence because how I’m playing. I don’t really feel my game is all that good, really. I’m out there changing my swing every other hole. I’m just hitting shots and not worrying about results.”
He obviously knows something about persistence, having gone to PGA Tour qualifying school 16 times.
“That one really blew up on us,” said Brian Claar, the Champions Tour vice-president of rules and competitions, about Friday’s storm. “We were thinking it was going to miss us to the south, but a little finger of it caught us. It washed out the bunkers, the creek overflowed and the fairways, which were actually starting to dry a little, and they are right back where they were after Tuesday night’s rain. We really had no choice to call play for the day. Hopefully, we’ll get lucky tomorrow.”
Greensburg native Rocco Mediate continued his Champions Tour struggles on Friday. After shooting even par 70 Thursday, he double-bogeyed No. 3, a par-3, and bogeyed the ninth. In between, he made birdies on the fifth and seventh. Through 11 holes of his second round, he is 1-over par.
The revamped schedule for Saturday is this: The completion of the second round will begin at 8 a.m. with the expectation of starting the third round at 11 a.m.
“We just can’t get any more rain,” Claar said, knowing that more was forecast. “We’ll make every effort to play and get 72 holes in. It would probably take another storm like Tuesday’s where we got three inches to wipe us out for tomorrow.”