Fox Sports wasn’t ready for Kirk Triplett in Thursday’s opening round at the U.S. Senior Open.
The network that forked over $1,000,000,000 (yes one billion!) to the USGA to broadcast its championships, was caught unprepared by Triplett, who was making a bid for USGA history.
Triplett started his afternoon adventure around the Salem Country Club and shot four-under par on the back, his first nine. Okay, no big deal, the old guys were going low on a shorter course with receptive greens softened by overnight rain. Then Triplett birdied the first hole, his 10th then on the short, 341-yard fourth, he holed his second for an eagle two and suddenly he’s seven-under par with five holes left. “We’re trying to get some cameras over on the front nine,” said Fox analyst Paul Azinger, spilling the beans on how unprepared the network was.
“We were doing some crazy things out there, Duffy (Waldorf) just made a hole-in-one at three,” Triplett said, acknowledging his playing partner, Duffy Waldorf’s ace. Waldorf would go on to shoot 65.
Triplett stayed at seven-under then hit his approach at the ninth within nine feet. He was looking at birdie for USGA history. No senior had ever shot 61. Triplett started his putt on a good line then winced as the ball caught the top of the hole and lipped out. He settled for 62 and tied Loren Roberts for lowest round ever in a Senior Open. Roberts shot his in round three back in 2006 at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Ks. No one has ever opened with 62.
“I think things will be a little different the next few days,” Triplett immediately pointed out. “The greens were slower and receptive, we had some overnight rain. I saw the scores from the morning and said ‘Hey, I’m gonna try and make some birdies.'” Indeed, there were plenty of low scores early and even more in the afternoon. By day’s end, there were 40 players under par and another 16 in at even par 70.
As low as Triplett went, he was only a shot better than Olin Browne. “This course is really hard, I’m very pleased with my score. I took it real easy today, I didn’t check the scores from the morning when I got here,” Browne said. A shot behind Browne was Doug Garwood while a half-dozen players posted 65s including Tom Lehman, Kenny Perry and ace-maker Waldorf.
Bernhard Langer, who won the last two senior majors, opened with 67 in his attempt for three straight.
Defending champion Gene Sauers had a rough first day and turned in a 73.
