Mark Hensby rallies late to rejoin the US Senior Open lead
Mark Hensby on his way to a second consecutive 67 today – image USGA
In yesterday’s opening round of the US Senior Open Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Mark Hensby let a great halfway position slip over the closing stages of his first round. Today, however, the reverse applied as, after an early birdie and an opening nine of even par 34, the 53 year old from Lismore in northern New South Wales, powered home with a closing nine of 3 under 33 to re join the lead Padraig Harrington and Stewart Cink had created earlier in the day.
That trio has edged clear of the field by three shots over Thomas Bjorn with Billy Andrade and Y.E. Yang another shot back.
Hensby, who turns 54 on Sunday, was a lot calmer about his finish today and less frustrated with the golf course than was the case yesterday. He had also been bothered by the television cameramen on Thursday, taking their time getting set up behind him when about to play his shot.
“The TV guys kept running up on me when I’m over my shot, and when I’m a fast player, which I am, it’s like, I’m ready to go and then I have to back off because they ran to stick that mic pretty close.
“And that happened three times. Yeah, that got a bit frustrating when my caddie had to keep telling them to stop it. But as I said, today we told them from the get-go, stand aside, and it was fine.”
“Yeah, I was frustrated yesterday more with what was going on out there than my game, especially the back nine,” said Hensby. “There was a lot of disturbances and I didn’t want to bring that up because I didn’t play well the back nine, but a lot was going on yesterday afternoon when I was playing well. But no, definitely played more steady today than I did yesterday, that’s for sure.”
Queensland’s Scott Hend recorded a 1 under 69 today to move into a share of 10th place and five off the lead. While Steve Alker and Stuart Appleby stayed in touch at 1 over and seven shots from the leading trio.
