GOLF ROUNDUP : Par Good Enough to Lead Senior Open

And then there were none.

The Oakland Hills course erased all the red numbers--the color signifying scores below par--from the leader boards Friday and left J.C. Snead alone in the lead at par after two rounds of the U.S. Senior Open at Birmingham, Mich.

“This golf course makes you want to cry,” said Mike Hill, the first-round leader who shot a 74, four strokes over par.

“Every putt looks like a rattlesnake,” Chi Chi Rodriguez said.

Jack Nicklaus suggested he and the rest of the field might be overmatched by the demands of Oakland Hills. “I don’t think we’re good enough to put the ball in the areas you have to be in to have a predictable putt,” Nicklaus said.

Nicklaus, however, was good enough to par the last hole and salvage one of Friday’s few sub-par 18-hole scores, a 69, an effort that lifted him to within a stroke of the lead.

Snead, despite a double bogey from the water on the 16th, set the pace at 140 after a 69. Nicklaus was tied at 141 with Rodriguez, Don Bies and Al Geiberger.

Corey Pavin followed great putting in the first round with solid iron play in the rain-shorted second round to take a one-stroke lead in the Greater Hartford Open at Cromwell, Conn.

The 72 players who were out on the course when the rain came will resume play today, with the third round to follow with groups starting at the first and 10th tees.

Pavin, who finished his round, put three iron shots within two feet of the hole and a long four-iron within five feet in making five birdies. He shot a three-under-par 67 to move to eight-under.

Billy Mayfair, with an eagle on the 411-yard, par-four 12th hole, shot a 65 to tie Jim Gallagher Jr. for the low round. They are tied for second with Scott Hoch at seven-under for the tournament.

Rain also interrupted a $400,000 LPGA tournament at Canton, Mass., where Mitzi Edge’s second consecutive bogey-free round gave her a one-stroke lead.

Edge, a non-winner in seven years on the tour, shot a five-under-par 67 for a two-round total of eight-under 136. First-day leader Deb Richard, who shot a 70, and Nancy Scranton, with a 68, were one stroke behind.

Individual medalist Tiger Woods advanced to the quarterfinals of the USGA Junior Amateur championships with a two match-play victories.

Woods, of Cypress, defeated Pat Fry of Ft. Collins, Colo., 5 and 3 in the morning match, and then beat Don Padget of Fairlawn, Ohio, 2 up.