2 p.m.

The wind is swirling, the greens are hardening in the heat and this U.S. Senior Open features a particularly long setup. Yet low numbers keep pouring in at The Broadmoor.

Three golfers – Rocco Mediate, Deane Pappas and Keven Sutherland – have already posted 2-under par 68s in Thursdays first round that isn’t yet halfway completed. Three more players on the course are currently 2 under.

Billy Mayfair, Lee Janzen and Scott Parel all fired 69s.

“It was really, really hard,” said Sutherland, who had four birdies on the East Course. “But it was playable and there was nothing out there that I was like thinking that it was amiss. I thought the course was great.”

An exception to the low rounds was Baseball Hall of Famer turned Senior Open qualifier John Smoltz, who hit just six fairways and scrambled to a 15-over 85.

“I can sum it up,” Smoltz said. “I made a lot of easy bogeys. A lot of par putts turned into easy bogeys.”

Among the notables who have completed rounds were Fred Couples and Kenny Perry at 71, three strokes off the lead. Bernhard Langer is at 72 and Fred Funk fired a 78.

12:45 p.m.

The first groups have completed their opening round at the U.S. Senior Open, with South African Deane Pappas bringing the first under-par round into the clubhouse.

Pappas shot a 2-under-par 70 to take the early lead. Rocco Mediate and Kevin Sutherland, still on the course, are also at 2-under.

Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz is also finished with his first round, carding a 15-over 85. Only Canadian Rick Todd (+16) needed more strokes to complete The Broadmoor’s East Course among the early players in Thursday’s first round.

Smoltz, who started on the back nine, opened with four straight bogeys and took a triple-bogey 7 on No. 15. He finished with five pars and 12 bogeys.

Of the first 21 players to finish, only amateur Robby Funk and David Frost are within earshot of Pappas at 2-over.