Kite hunting for second Champions Tour major
By Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM Editorial Coordinator
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Tom Kite, clad in his trademark straw hat and a cornflower blue shirt that matched his eyes, stood on a podium after completing his second round in the U.S. Senior Open to partake in the customary media interviews.
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"The golf course is hard, holy smokes," he said, with a slight hint of a Texas twang. "The USGA put some pin placements on us today that almost defy the imagination. ...You know, it's just treacherous, treacherous greens out there with some unbelievable pin placements today.
"It's going to be fun watching on TV. I'm glad I'm finished."
Perhaps his opinion was influenced because Kite didn't end his day on a positive note. He bogeyed No. 8 -- the penultimate hole since he began on No. 10 -- and couldn't convert a birdie putt on the par-5 ninth hole.
"I'm pleased with where I am," Kite said, then took a swig of his drink. "I felt like I played a little better. Eight and nine kind of leaves a little bad taste in your mouth. I'm trying to wash it down with Diet Coke, but it's not helping a whole lot right now."
After beginning the day tied for third, Kite got off to a solid start again on Friday morning. As first-round leader Fred Funk went backwards quickly with two quick bogeys, Kite, who started on No. 10, remained steady with pars on his first five holes. The Texan made bogey on No. 15 to temporarily falter but regained his footing by draining a curvy, 15-foot birdie putt at the par-4, 545-yard 17th hole that made the highlight reel.
He went into the front nine even for the day and looking to gain ground on Mark McNulty, who was leading at the time. Kite held steady with seven straight pars, including an impressive save on the 557-yard, par-5 third hole.
He crushed his drive at No. 3 and only needed a 6-iron to reach the green with his second shot. But he pulled that and watched it ricochet into the lip of a bunker, where he "really had no play." From there, the hole became a comedy of errors, as Kite hit his third shot with the hosel of the club and came up short of the green in the rough.
"My fourth shot was not quite as difficult as the third one but it was a really difficult shot and I was very fortunate the pitch came out nice and gave myself an opportunity," Kite said. "But yeah, that was a great up-and-down. Very lucky there."
In a PGA TOUR career that included 19 wins, it took Kite almost as long to shed the "Best Player Never to Win a Major" label as he waited it did for him to get LASIK surgery and get rid of his trademark large-rimmed, coke-bottle glasses. Kite's first win came in 1976 and he finally picked up that major championship at the 1992 U.S. Open Championship, the third-to-last win of his TOUR career.
He compared the U.S. Open to the over-50 edition and said The Broadmoor was not a typical USGA venue.
"Usually they tend to go with smaller greens, tighter fairways. These greens are big, but you better put it in the proper section of those greens," Kite said. "So this is a little bit different than their normal usual USGA setup but it doesn't make it any less difficult.
"...The altitude makes club selection a guessing game, and that (Cheyenne) mountain makes reading putts a little bit of a guessing game."
This comes from a man who didn't earn his U.S. Open the easy way. Kite's history-making performance came at Pebble Beach, when he outlasted Mother Nature's difficult conditions and Jeff Sluman for a two-stroke victory.
Kite has one major on the Champions Tour, but it came much more quickly. In just the fifth start of his rookie season in 2000, Kite topped Larry Nelson and Tom Watson in a playoff at The Countrywide Tradition, one of the Champions Tour's five grand slams.
He's won eight other times on the Champions Tour and has a runner-up finish at the ACE Group Classic and three other top-10s this year. In order to add another major to the resume, Kite understands what it's going to take.
"Obviously you have to be hitting the ball well and you have to be putting it well to get it into good position through two rounds. You're going to have to continue to do that," he explained. "But then a lot of it is choosing the right club, getting it in a position where you have a chance to make a putt.
"...The golf course, like I said, is tough and, to be under par for two rounds, I'm in good position."
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