Golf/Champions Tour: Although a balky putter let him down a few times coming down the stretch, Des Smyth fashioned a three-over-par 74 to keep himself within striking distance after the second round of the Senior US Open at the Inverness Club here.
Under normal circumstances a professional golfer wouldn't be happy to be five over par after two rounds, but the 100-year-old Donald Ross track has been so foreboding that on the first day of play just four players in the 156-man field managed to better par.
Christy O'Connor Jnr, 13 over after 18 holes while playing one group ahead of Smyth, experienced what were described as "fever symptoms" and withdrew from the tournament at the midpoint of yesterday's round.
"It's a pretty tough course," said Smyth. "You'd have to play it under these conditions and in a tournament to realise just how difficult it can be," he added.
"Unless, of course, you play real well. I think Tom Watson has proven that if you play real well you'll score around here, but if you slip a few here and there then you're in trouble."
On a day when the rest of the field was struggling, Watson shot an astonishing 66 to surge into the lead. While impressed by the figure, Smyth wasn't aware that Watson had holed birdie putts of 45, 35, and 25 feet in his opening round, and chipped in for birdie on the par-5 13th as well. Watson, in fact, reckoned that his suddenly-regained putting stroke had "turned a 71 into a 66" on Thursday.
"Well, that's what you need to do," said Smyth. "Good for him. I like hearing about things like that. I'd like to do it myself, but I'm delighted to hear of other people doing it. It gives us a bit of a sparkle."
Smyth, who had gone off the 10th tee yesterday after finishing up the final hole in a rain-curtailed first round less than an hour earlier, was one over for the day, and three for the tournament, when he came to yesterday's final three holes, where he followed back-to-back bogeys by missing a relatively easy birdie putt on the final hole.
"I three-putted seven," said Smith, "and then got into trouble on eight. I hit it down the fairway all right, but you have to snap-hook your second shot, which I was trying to do with a one-iron, and bunkered it about 30 yards short," he explained.
"Then I hit it over the back of the green. It's pretty much an automatic bogey from there."
At the 413-yard ninth, Smyth and playing partners Craig Stadler and R W Eaks put the flagstick under siege with a trio of approach shots that came in like mortar rounds and circled the pin.
Stadler, at six feet, was the furthest away. He and Eaks made their birdies, but Smyth stroked his putt at the right edge. The ball never wavered from its line and in the end lipped out.
"When you get chances and don't make them . . . you know," fretted Des.
All the same, he could take comfort in the knowledge that he had made the cut, and had left himself in position to make a weekend run at the leaders.
"I've no idea what the cut will be, but I'm sure I'm safe with five," said Smyth. "All the same, it's a bit disappointing. I was playing well starting off, but you have to play well to do well around here, and I slipped a few here and there. I've been putting poorly all year, not just this week."
Overnight leader Watson could not reproduce the magic around the greens during his second round, and although he remained level par for 15 holes to stay at five under, Bruce Lietzke had made charge to draw level with him by going three-under for the day through 13 holes.
