Cink and Stenson maintain cool thru 2nd round heat

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COVER PHOTO: Last year's tournament runner-up, Stewart Cink, tries to stay cool during his Thursday round at the 46th annual U.S. Senior Open at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. Picture by: Jeff Haynes/USGA.

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For PGA Tour veterans Stewart Cink and Henrik Stenson, playing 18 holes in the middle of the summer is nothing new. And at that, playing in mid-90's temperatures with a heat index of over 100 can't keep them from playing good golf. Even though they both felt differently about the rounds they shot compared to the day before at the 46th annual U.S. Senior Open at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.

"I salvaged an okay round today when it was really pretty rough all around," said Cink. "I kept shooting myself in the foot, just not executing very well. May be the heat a little bit. You know, it's hard to focus, and you just lose your concentration just a little bit."

Stenson said even at 50 years old and feels like he's still in good enough shape to battle through the dog-day conditions. However, the Swedish native said it's not ideal.

"I'm not one that loves 100 degrees and this high humidity."

Cink, last year's U.S. Senior Open runner-up, ended his second round at even-par, 70, to stay at 3-under for the tournament after shooting an opening round 67 on Thursday with two bogeys and no birdies on the front nine. However, he followed up the final nine by going bogey-free with five birdies.

"It's a tough track," he said. "It punishes you if you're a little bit off."

He virtually repeated his Thursday on Friday as he went birdie-less with two bogeys on his first nine holes (which were the back nine) and shot a third straight bogey on par-3, no. 4. However, he would regroup with three birdies on the last four holes, including a 20-some foot putt to close out the round.

Afterwards, he gave his caddie Chris Jones a little finger point as a gesture of "thanking" him for being a good partner.

"He knows exactly what I'm trying to do on my putting, and believe it or not, it's not necessarily to make the putts," Cink said. "It was like me telling him, 'watch this pre-shot routine, this is going to be one of the best ones of the day.' And it was (and) the ball happened to go in, which was a nice bonus."

Stenson had a roller coaster first round in his first-ever Senior Open with seven pars sprinkled in between five birdies and six bogeys for a 1-over par, 71, but still won't complain about it.

"I was still happy with that round," he said after Friday's round. "I hadn't played hardly any competitive golf since end of August last year. I played two tournaments in April. So I'm coming in here with fairly low expectations."

Despite feeling like he was coming down with a summer cold, Stenson literally sweated it out and had a much calmer second round with four birdies and was darn near bogey-free if not for ending his first nine (back nine) on par-4, no. 18 with a five.

"I don't think it would be fair to put the bar too high when you haven't competed and haven't practiced as much as one probably should have," he said. "I'm pleased with the two days' work."

As of this writing, Saturday's pairings and tee times have yet to be announced.