Aussie Hensby goes on birdie-blitz in US Senior Open

Yahoo

8 hours ago

Mark Hensby and Padraig Harrington have both gone on a birdie-blitz to share the first-round lead at the US Senior Open.
The Australian made seven birdies while Harrington made four on their way to three-under-par 67s at the Bradmoor on Thursday.
Both had contrasting rounds.
Leaders after the first round at the U.S. Senior Open Championship 🏌️‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/lce7AfsmxC
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) June 27, 2025
Hensby made seven birdies on the front nine before coming unstuck on the way home - closing with back-to-back bogeys - while for Harrington it was the miraculous bogey he saved after losing a tee shot deep in a thickest of trees on the 15th that helped him earn a share of the lead.
Hensby spent the entire morning in the lead, though after he signed his scorecard he hardly looked like a player winning a senior golfing major.
"Obviously, I felt like I lost some out there," he said. "It's just frustrating. I played like (expletive) the back nine. What else can you say?"
Hensby finished with a pair of bogeys, each coming after drives that missed the fairway and landed in rough that is thick, but not Oakmont thick, and not the biggest problem at this course nestled at the base of Cheyenne Mountain.
"There's so much slope, and it all comes off the mountain - most of the time," Hensby said.
"Sometimes it doesn't. But the greens were softer today, so it kind of made it a little bit easier, and probably not as fast as they can get."
Harrington, the 2022 US Senior champion, made all four birdies on the (easier) front nine and was leading by one when he snapped his tee shot on the par-4 15th deep into the woods. The Irishman took a cart back to the tee box for his third shot, then hit that into the right rough.
His approach to 20 feet and the ensuing make limited the damage and he made three pars on the way in to stay atop the leaderboard.
The leaders are one ahead of a group of six, including Stewart Cink, who hit the first 17 greens before making bogey after coming up short on No.18.
It was, indeed, a calm, partly cloudy day less than 36 hours removed from a massive thunderstorm that soaked and softened the course. Even so, only 17 players finished under par with a few in the 156-man field still on the course as dusk approached.
Special shoutout to the Broadmoor agronomy team 👏After an inch of rain (and hail!) on Tuesday, the agronomy team has the course in major shape 💪 pic.twitter.com/turRyHCfLF
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) June 25, 2025
When the tournament was last played here in 2018, David Toms won with a score of 3-under par - a number that made Hensby's six under after nine that much more remarkable.
But Hensby, who shot 63 in the second round of last year's US Open at Newport Country Club was more focused on the back nine.
"I've never been a very consistent player," he said. "I'm hot or cold, and that kind of sucks. Certain shots I keep hitting during rounds, it just (ticks) me off, so to speak. So yeah, the back nine was just kind of a bit of that."
Fellow Australians Greg Chalmers and Rod Pampling finished even par, with Stuart Appleby, Richard Green, Steve Allan and Scott Hend a shot further back.