Haas doesn’t see that as preparing for the toughest of the senior events. Haas played with son Bill in the Zurich Classic team event and they made the cut. Hensby, whose lone PGA Tour victory was the 2004 John Deere Classic, tied for seventh in the Puerto Rico Open. Paul Goydos had the low score from the morning wave at 69, prompting the Californian to say, “This is more rain than we’ve had in 10 years.”įull-field scores from the U.S. The co-leaders benefited from the later start because of the steady rain all morning that made it difficult to keep clubs dry. Even with the rain that pounded Saucon Valley in the morning and left green receptive even when it relented, only 11 players managed to break par. Haas and Hensby were a shot ahead of Steve Stricker, Rocco Mediate, Paul Broadhurst and Tim Petrovic. “That’s a pretty good score to break (your age) on a course like this,” said Haas, who had shot his age six previous times on the PGA Tour Champions, but never in a major. Barber was the oldest first-time winner of a major in the 1961 PGA Championship.
Senior Open history to shoot his age, joining Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Harold McSpaden and Jerry Barber, who did it nine times. Haas steadied himself from an up-and-down start at soggy Saucon Valley and played much younger than his 68 years down the stretch, posting a 4-under 67 to share the lead with Mark Hensby after the opening round.
Jay Haas has been shooting his age or better for the last three years, just never on a stage quite like Thursday in the U.S.