Chapman leads Senior PGA at Harbor Shores; Sluman two back

Reporting from Benton Harbor, Mich.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

On a windy day at a course with undulating greens – some people say Jack Nicklaus littered Harbor Shores with elephant burial grounds – it helps to hit fairways and putting surfaces. The fewer the surprises, the better.

Roger Chapman did that in Thursday's first round of the 73rd Senior PGA Championship.  There are 13 fairways. Chapman hit them all in regulation. He also hit 16 greens. Those are excellent numbers, but the best of all was his score: 3-under-par 68, earning him a one-stroke lead on John Cook entering Friday's second round. Hinsdale's Jeff Sluman is among six players two strokes in arrears.

If you haven't heard of Chapman, you've got company. The 53-year-old British subject, a native of Kenya, was a lifer on the European Tour, winning in Brazil – the golfing heart of Europe – in 2000. That may qualify him as obscure, but he saw something in the course at Harbor Shores, the innovative development designed to kick-start the renewal of this aging shoreside community, that several American regulars on the 50-plus circuit did not. He saw a hint of the Old Course in the greens that Nicklaus whipped up.

"St. Andrews, they've got really big greens, and they have some humps and hollows in there," Chapman said. "You don't want them too quick, but otherwise it's sort of unplayable."

The greens at Harbor Shores were quick and the wind, which gusted to 31 mph in 87 degree temperatures, made them quicker. By mid-afternoon, they were beginning to bake out. With the exception of David Frost and Jim Carter, the six other under-par scores were posted by players in the morning wave.

"It's really difficult because of the wind, and the greens are quite firm, so it's very difficult to actually get the ball very close," Chapman said. "You might hit a good shot in and go 25, 30 feet past. Then with the slopes on the greens it makes the putting quite tricky as well."

Nicklaus admitted at the 2010 grand opening that the shortness of the course – it played 6,643 yards long on Thursday – forced him to create big slopes and contours in greens to protect par and create a challenge for players. That prompted players lining up behind Champan on Thursday to criticize Nicklaus' work in advance of the first round. They showed as much love for the Golden Bear's creation as some regular tourists showed for Rees Jones' renovation of Cog Hill's Dubsdread layout the last couple of years.

"I thought maybe we could reverse the order and play the greens as tees and the tees as greens and it would be easier to putt," Fred Funk cooed on Wednesday. "The greens, I think, as a little bit too busy, but they are what they are."

Some say the greens are similar to Augusta National's, in that a properly-struck shot to the left side of a green may feed to the right, or vice versa. That makes for exciting, strategic golf, but Funk wasn't so sure.

"We're not here long enough to know exactly where to hit it on a lot of these greens," Funk said. "I don't think anyone can be precise enough to hit it in the certain spots on these greens. You're just going to get a weird kick here and there and then it's very difficult around the greens."

Funk then had a good night's sleep and went out and three-putted three times en route to a 3-over 74.

Bernhard Langer, paired with Funk on Thursday and Friday, was of a similar mind.

"You could hit a perfect shot landing on a downhill lie on one of these humps and go over the green," Langer said. "And you could land on the uphill and back it up. And when the wind's blowing, it makes it that much harder to get your irons close to the win and hit those small pockets of greens you want to hit. (Then you're) short-siding yourself or chipping and pitching from places where you normally wouldn't want to be.

"I think it's a phenomenal golf course from tee to green. One of the world's best, I would say, but could be the most severe or worst green complexes I've ever seen in my life."

Ouch! Langer scored 2-over 73.

"The greens are what they are," John Cook said after his 2-under 69. "Tee to green it's phenomenal. (But) even the short holes, where you think you might get something back, if you don't hit your spot exactly where you're supposed to hit it, you're going to have a two or three-section putt.

"And that's the way it is."

The adventures on the greens should provide for a changing leader board for the final three rounds. There's no reason to expect Chapman, whose lone European Tour victory came in his 472nd start – a dozen years ago – to run away and hide, not with a crowd of barracudas chasing him including notables Hale Irwin, who escaped with an even-par 71, and Jeff Sluman, whose 1-under 70 featured a birdie on the vexing par-5 10th.

"I got the ball up and down when I needed to," Sluman said. "I hit a few squirrely shots and happened to survive."

Hey, someone had to.

Around Harbor Shores

The gallery was estimated by Illinois Golfer at 8,000, a decent crowd considering the small community, and bigger than most, if not all, the galleries when the Western Amateur was played at Point O'Woods Country Club in nearby Millburg. ... Speaking of the Western Am, Andrew Magee, who stayed with the family of Point member Bob Gerbel when he played in the 1982 Western Am, is staying with the family of Gerbel's daughter Nancy this week. They live in the new development near Harbor Shores' first tee. ... Aside from Sluman and Jay Haas, who matched Sluman's 1-under 70 (and was a stroke off the lead until bogeying the last), the Illinois contingent did not fare well. Tom Wargo was 3-over thanks to a 74, D.A. Weibring posted 5-over 75, Chip Beck and Mike Harrigan skied to 10-over 81, Gary Hallberg to 11-over 82, and Billy Rosinia 12-over 83, an ordeal that took about six hours to play. That pace is associated with another major championship: the U.S. Women's Open. ... Mike McCullough's 12 on the par-3 fourth hole included four penalty strokes after hitting into unplayable high rough. He parred the next two holes, then withdrew with three holes left in his round. It was the high single hole of the day, though J.C. Snead gave him a run with a 10 on the par 4 seventh.