For the past three years, Jay Haas has consistently shot his age or better, but never on a platform quite like Thursday's U.S. Senior Open.
After a shaky start at a damp Saucon Valley, Haas found his footing and looked much younger than his 68 years down the stretch, shooting a 4-under 67 to tie Mark Hensby for the lead after the first round.
Haas joined Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Harold McSpaden, and Jerry Barber, who accomplished this feat nine times, as the fifth player in U.S. Senior Open history to shoot his age. At the 1961 PGA Championship, Barber became the oldest person ever to win a major.
Haas, who had broken his age six times on the PGA Tour Champions but never in a major, said, "That's a pretty good score to break (your age) on a course like this.
Steve Stricker, Rocco Mediate, Paul Broadhurst, and Tim Petrovic were just one shot behind Haas and Hensby. Although it rained in the morning at Saucon Valley, only 11 players could break par despite receptive greens even after the rain stopped.
The persistent rain that morning made it challenging to keep clubs dry, so the co-leaders profited from the later start. The Californian said, "This is more rain than we've had in ten years," after Paul Goydos received the lowest score from the morning wave at 69.
Wow, did we ever get lucky today? Stricker exclaimed. "The morning wave appeared to be playing in the rain as a whole. With the soft conditions and the green hardly rolling out today, it played as long as possible. It was a demanding challenge that took time.
The defending champion, Jim Furyk, opened with a 71. Furyk almost missed the cut last week at Brookline in the U.S. Open. Steve Alker, now ranked first on the PGA Tour Champions, shot a 72 in his first U.S. Senior Open round.
Recent PGA Tour experience is on the side of Hensby and Haas.
Hensby tied for eighth in the Puerto Rico Open, his only PGA Tour victory coming at the 2004 John Deere Classic.
Haas does not consider that to be practicing for the most challenging senior tournament. He was having a good time with his son when he got a mental lift.
Haas remarked, "Playing alongside Bill gave me some confidence, a little additional confidence. "However, I'm also on the verge of declaring enough is enough. And if I have too many consecutive lousy rounds, I'm out. Perhaps that bothers me. I'm not ready to be finished. I so continue to practice and strive for high results.
After losing two strokes early from the rough, Haas was especially pleased with how well and neatly he hit his irons on the final three holes of the round.
Hensby and Haas tied for the lead after Haas buried a back correct pin on the 16th hole. Though he had few complaints, he missed a ridge on the 18th hole and left himself a challenging putt for a birdie and the lead.
It worked out for him even when he missed. On the par-5 12th hole, where Haas was in some thick, wet grass to the left of the fairway, he worried he might have yanked the ball a little. However, the ball caught a slope and channeled to approximately 6 feet for birdie.
When Haas shot 64 in the opening round of the Chubb Classic in 2019, he became the first golfer his age to do it. The most recent instance involved shooting a 66 at the Principal Charity Classic in Iowa three weeks ago while I was 68.
He remains very competitive, according to Stricker. He continues to play a lot. He drives the ball straight, which you need to do in this situation, and he still scrambles well. Whether it's the Senior Open or the regular tour, that's what you need at a U.S. Open.
She has a long way to go before winning, but she still has a chance to break the record for the oldest U.S. Senior Open victor. Two weeks before turning 58, Allen Doyle won in 2006.
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