If the base of Cheyenne Mountain seemed particularly quiet for the past two days, it’s because the Will Rogers Shrine to the Sun has operated at 50 percent volume.

The sounds have been all but impossible to hear on the East Course at The Broadmoor.

The shrine, with its chimes every 15 minutes, provided a memorable distraction at the 2008 U.S. Senior Open when it rang during Hale Irwin’s back swing and led to a duffed tee shot.

Expect the familiar sounds to return Monday.

College teammates in contention

Tournament leader Jerry Kelly and Tim Petrovic, currently in third place, were college teammates at the University of Hartford in the late 1980s. They have never been paired on the PGA Tour Champions, but it’s a distinct Sunday possibility now with just two strokes separating them atop the leader board.

“That would be fun,” Petrovic said. “We’ll be elbowing each other out there.”

If that potential college pairing sounds fun, it’s nothing compared to a group of Marco Dawson, Lee Janzen and Rocco Mediate that played together Thursday and Friday. They played together at Florida Southern.

Starting on the back provides advantage

Six of the top eight golfers in the field had two things in common — they started Friday’s second round early in the morning and on the back nine.

Jerry Kelly, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Tim Petrovic, Phillip Golding, Deane Pappas, Jay Haas, Paul Goydos and Davis Love III played the back in a collective 3-over par. They then played the front in a combined 19-under-par.

“It doesn’t make much difference,” Love said. “It was nice to start early. It didn’t matter what hole.”

Goydos posts eventful scorecard

Paul Goydos had an eventful back nine scorecard en route to a second-round 67 that left him in a five-way tie for fourth at 1-under for the championship. His first five holes on the back nine resulted in different scores — bogey, double-bogey, par, birdie and eagle.

“You check (the scorecard) 27 times because you’re not sure it’s right,” Goydos said.

Biggest turnaround

Todd Bailey recovered from an opening-round 76 to shoot 66 on Friday. The turnaround was the biggest in the field and took him from within earshot of the cut line to entering the weekend in the top 15.

“Basically my back was against the wall,” he said. “So something good happened. Some magic was out there, still.”

Brent Briggeman, The Gazette