Tom Lehman enters SENIOR PLAYERS off made cut on TOUR

Tom Lehman, 60, can’t remember the last time he was in the midst of a grind this long.

With eight rounds of competitive golf under his belt the past two weeks, the former major champion hopes to add 12 more over the next three weeks. It will mean he made five cuts in a five-week span – three in PGA TOUR Champions majors, one in a regular PGA TOUR event, and one at The Open Championship.

“It has been a long, long, long time since I did a stretch like this,” Lehman said Tuesday, just two days after wrapping up play in the PGA TOUR 3M Open in his home state of Minnesota. “But which one do you skip? You don’t.

“Twenty rounds of golf. That’s my goal. I feel really good about everything. So far so good. Firestone this week and next week (Royal) Portrush. That’s a course for certain where length is not the biggest requirement. Hitting the line you’re aiming at is the biggest thing.”

Lehman won The Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St. Annes in 1996. His resume also includes three PGA TOUR Champions majors. This year he won the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, and he’s currently 13th in the Schwab Cup standings.

His length off the tee isn’t what it used to be (he ranks 30th on PGA TOUR Champions at 270.8 yards), but Lehman remains plenty competitive. His play at the 3M through three rounds was an inspiration. He easily made the cut after rounds of 67 and 69, and a third-round 68 had him dreaming of perhaps even a top-15 finish.

Alas, he stumbled from the gate on Sunday – he was 4 over through five holes -- and admitted to some mental fatigue.

“The thing about last week it wasn’t just a normal tournament. Last week took more out of me than the average week,” Lehman said. “It was my last competitive tournament in Minnesota. I really wanted to play four rounds and make the cut. I was focused and grinding and that takes a lot of energy. That’s easier to do when you’re 25 than 60.

“Being tired on Sunday was natural. I was tired more mentally. You put so much emotion into something. You feel a little bit flat on Sunday and can’t get yourself into that heightened sense of focus. It’s like being in a boxing ring and being belted in the mouth early. It wakes you up and gets you mad, but you’ve lost too many shots.”

Lehman managed to play his last 13 holes in 2 under to salvage a 73, which left him in a tie for 58th place. He even birdied 18 to thunderous applause from the home crowd.

It was special, too, because Lehman consulted on the original design of the TPC Twin Cities with Arnold Palmer, and he helped with the changes to it to take it from a PGA TOUR Champions venue to a PGA TOUR venue. And Lehman had his youngest child, Sean, 16, on the bag.

“Sean missed my PGA TOUR years,” Lehman said. “I stopped when he was age 6. So he got to experience inside the ropes. It was extremely enjoyable to be with him, and he did a great job. We played with (eventual 3M winner) Matthew Wolff on Saturday, and Sean is only four years younger than him. It was really special.”

Lehman will tee it up at this week’s Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship with plenty of good memories from which to draw. The event is moving to a new home, the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, for the next four years. Firestone had been the site of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and its predecessor, the World Series of Golf, from 1976-2018. Lehman had top 10s in 1996 and ’97, but any number of his fellow competitors on the PGA TOUR Champions played well there, too.

“Just to be here brings back tons of great memories,” Lehman said. “It’s a wonderful driving course. The most important club in the bag this week is driver by far. Guys who drive it well give themselves way more looks at birdie. You’re way ahead of the game if you drive it well. It requires real precision off the tee then you can attack.”

Lehman will have to pick his spots on when to attack and when to settle for par over the next three weeks. He hasn’t made the cut at The Open Championship since 2013, but he sounded like he was eager to give it a go at Royal Portrush. And he’ll have his older son, Thomas, on the bag in Northern Ireland.

Will he make it 20 rounds in five weeks?

“That’s a good question,” Lehman said. “I kind of feel like it’s very, very possible. You have to play steady solid golf. It’s knowing how much to spend practicing, hitting balls on the range, chipping and putting, getting good sleep, showing up ready the next day. You have to do the mental preparation, too. It’s easy to overwork yourself. You really have to have a good gameplan, and then it’s about sticking with it.”