41st U.S. Senior Open Home | Tickets
Billy Andrade and Stephen Ames, a pair of 57-year-olds, each shot 5-under-par 65 to share the Round 1 lead on Thursday in the 41st U.S. Senior Open Championship at Omaha Country Club.
Andrade, of Bristol, R.I., shot one of two bogey-free rounds on Thursday, with the other turned in by Wes Short Jr., of Austin, Texas, who opened with a 4-under 66 and is alone in third place. Andrade, whose best finish in six previous U.S. Senior Open starts is a tie for sixth in 2015 at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, Calif., birdied all three par-5 holes in his afternoon round on the hilly Omaha layout and birdied Nos. 16 and 17 to earn a share of the lead with Ames, who had played in the morning.
“It was kind of stress-free,” said Andrade, who won four times on the PGA Tour and has three victories on the PGA Tour Champions. “I hit the ball fairly solid today, kept it in play, didn’t have too many hiccups, didn’t miss too many fairways. Overall ecstatic with my start.”
Ames, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, since 2005, has a pair of top 10s in five previous U.S. Senior Open starts. His best showing is a tie for sixth in 2019 on the Warren Course at the University of Notre Dame, the last time the championship was played. The 2020 championship was canceled due to COVID-19.
“Like a lot of players have noticed, it’s an endurance test this week with all the hills,” said Ames of the Perry Maxwell-designed Omaha course, which hosted the 2013 U.S. Senior Open, won by Kenny Perry. “So we decided to take it very easy this week, and luckily for us, a cold front has come through. It was very pleasant this morning and a lot of fun to play.”
Alex Cejka, a native of the Czech Republic who now lives in Germany, and Robert Karlsson of Sweden, both competing in their first U.S. Senior Open, opened with rounds of 3-under 67 to share fourth place. Cejka, who turned 50 in December, is seeking his third senior major title of 2021, having captured the Regions Tradition and the Senior PGA three weeks apart in May. Only Jack Nicklaus (1991) and Bernhard Langer (2017) have won three senior major titles in a single season.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, of Spain, a two-time runner-up in five starts in this championship, and Fran Quinn, of Holden, Mass., are tied for sixth place after rounds of 2-under 70.
Two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, 1992 Masters winner Fred Couples, 2014 U.S. Senior Open champion Colin Montgomerie and Jay Haas, at 67 the oldest player in the field, highlight a group of eight players tied at 1-under 69.
Eleven players – including major champions David Toms, Tom Lehman, Mike Weir and Mark O’Meara, as well as amateurs Jeff Wilson and William Mitchell – finished at even-par 70.
Jim Furyk, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, shot 2-over 72 on Thursday in his U.S. Senior Open debut, while four-time major champion Ernie Els shot a 3-over 73 in his first Senior Open round.
What’s Next
Round 2 will be played on Friday with the 154-player field (two golfers withdrew on Thursday) reduced after 36 holes to the low 60 players and ties for the weekend.
Notable
- Alex Cejka has played nine rounds in senior major championships in this, his rookie year on the 50-and-over circuit. He has been among the top four finishers in every one of those rounds.
- Jay Haas, 67, shot a 1-under-par 69 in Round 1 to become the fourth-oldest player to shoot an opening round in the 60s in U.S. Senior Open history. Jerry Barber at age 71 in 1987, and Tom Watson in 2017 and 2019 at ages 67 and 69, respectively, are the older players. All shot rounds of 69.
- The Round 1 scoring average of the last 12 U.S. Senior Open winners is 66.9, and 11 of the last 12 champions were inside the top 10 after Round 1.
- There are 160 players with 20 or more rounds played in the U.S. Senior Open the last 30 years. Only one has shot in the 60s in 50 percent or more of those rounds: Miguel Angel Jimenez, at 57.1 percent. Bernhard Langer is next at 49 percent.
- Eight players have won the U.S. Senior Open in their debut, most recently Steve Stricker in 2019.
Quotable
“I always thought I had a better record at the British Open than I did U.S. Open, and I looked back, damn, I actually played better in the U.S. Open, which is kind of interesting. Obviously, it’s a test when we play a U.S. Open. You've got to play the course a lot more for bounce and roll than anything else we normally do in a PGA Tour event. It’s a different test of golf altogether.” – Stephen Ames, Round 1 co-leader
“I love this golf course. It reminds me a bit of Old Town in Winston-Salem, where I played my college golf at Wake Forest. Only difference is Old Town is a little hilly, not extremely hilly. This golf course, I feel like I'm in pretty good shape, so I'm looking forward to the next three days.” – Billy Andrade, Round 1 co-leader
“It played very similar to the way it played in ’13. Kind of reminiscing a little bit out there. On a couple holes, I had the exact same yardage to a similar pin. Even though the greens are a little different, kind of reshaped them a bit and they're a little faster, I had some flashbacks out there, which was pretty cool.” – Kenny Perry, 2013 champion at Omaha, who opened with a 1-over 71
“To me, I don’t think the golf course is going to play any easier than it did the first three hours we were on it today, and we had no wind. I see it only getting tougher. It doesn’t mean that you can’t shoot a good score on it, but I have to play better than I did today.” – David Toms, 2018 champion, after his even-par 70
The Social Scene
✌️ are tied at the top in the 41st #USSeniorOpen at @OmahaCCGolf! pic.twitter.com/nbRUxtmc09
— USGA (@USGA) July 9, 2021
.@BillyTAndrade is loving @OmahaCCGolf!
— USGA (@USGA) July 8, 2021
After a bogey-free Round 1, he's tied for the lead with Stephen Ames in the 41st #USSeniorOpen. pic.twitter.com/H2qrjYz9nc
Signature Miguel Angel Jimenez in the #USSeniorOpen! pic.twitter.com/PJkhrDLZ97
— USGA (@USGA) July 8, 2021
