A pair of housemates share The Open Championship lead

SOUTHPORT, England – Glasgow native Kent Bulle is in contention at The Open Championship. He’s not a Scot giving the British fans a rooting interest, though. He’s a Web.com Tour player who is a surprise contender at The Open Championship after earning his spot with a win in South America. Bulle is from Glasgow, Kentucky, a town of approximately 15,000 residents and a dozen stoplights. It was named for the Scottish hometown of one of its founders, John Matthews. His mascot at Glasgow High School was the Scotties, and the town is known for its annual Scottish Highland Games. Bulle has had little success this season in the States, but has handled himself well on the unique challenges of links golf. Bulle, who is playing in just his second major championship, sits at even-par 140 after shooting 68-72 in the first two rounds. He is No. 632 in the Official World Golf Ranking. “It’s been a whirlwind,â€� said Bulle, a 28-year-old alumnus of Middle Tennessee State. “(I) try to keep (my) head down and plug, and not think about the situation (I’m) in, just try to play good golf.â€� The Open Championship offers a unique hiatus from the Web.com Tour’s current 14-tournament stretch that runs through the tournament’s conclusion. Bulle sits 96th on the money list, and needs to crack the top 75 by Aug. 27 to qualify for the Web.com Tour Finals, where players compete for 50 PGA TOUR cards. Bulle is in The Open after winning his second consecutive Argentina Open last November. He first won the title in 2015, as part of a season that saw him finish second on the PGA TOUR-Latinoamerica money list. He competed on the Web.com Tour last year, but returned to Argentina to defend his title. The victory, which he earned in a three-man playoff, was his lone top-10 in 21 tournaments last year. It came with a big reward: an invitation to The Open. It’s a little different than his first links golf experience. He took a golf trip to Scotland about seven years ago and waited outside the St. Andrews clubhouse in the early morning in order to play the Old Course. “We sat next to the first tee, huddled at 3:00 in the morning. It was pouring down rain,â€� Bulle said. “It was about 45 degrees and we sat there for about 4 ½ hours to be able to play. And then once we got there it blew 35, 40 mph with gusts over 50. … Balls were rolling off greens and stuff like that.â€� Conditions weren’t quite that difficult at Royal Birkdale on Friday, but they were trying. Bulle handled them well. His birdie on the first hole put him into a tie for fourth, just two shots off the lead. It was one of just two birdies on the day, but his 2-over 72 was two strokes better than Friday morning’s scoring average of 74.4. Only four players broke par in the morning half of the draw. Bulle said he enjoys links golf because of the short-game shots it demands and the fact that pars are valuable at difficult Royal Birkdale. The course is known for its tight fairways, but Bulle ranks 14th on the Web.com Tour in total driving. He’s 15th in driving distance, averaging 317.9 yards off the tee, while also hitting 65 percent of his fairways. His best finish of the season came at the season-opening event in Exuma (T13), where high winds led to just one player breaking par. “I like when par has some value,â€� he said. He’s missing two Web.com Tour events to compete in The Open, but is scheduled to be back on the circuit again at next week’s Pinnacle Bank Championship. He sits $13,682 dollars behind Justin Hueber, who ranks 75th on the Web.com Tour money list, as he chases a spot in the Web.com Tour Finals. A good showing this week could help Bulle qualify for that four-event series via non-member FedExCup points. He would have to match No. 200 on the FedExCup points list to do so. He can earn points this week, and a top-10 finish would get him in next week’s RBC Canadian Open. “This week means a lot to me, not just because it’s The Open Championship,â€� he said. “There’s a lot on the line.â€�

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Golf is a game of inches. And grams, apparently. Adding 3.5-gram weights to his irons has paid dividends for Anirban Lahiri at THE PLAYERS, where he’s the overnight leader heading into the Monday finish at TPC Sawgrass. Lahiri sits at 9 under par, one shot ahead of Tom Hoge and Harold Varner III. Lahiri is 5 under par for his first 11 holes of the suspended third round after shooting 67-73 in the opening two rounds. “I think the biggest difference was we made a change to the irons this week,” Lahiri said after his first round. “I changed the weight. The irons have been my weak link, and they came out much better. I feel like my confidence is getting better, which is really positive. “It’s really something that’s minor. I’ve added maybe 3 1/2 grams of weight to all of my irons. … These last couple of weeks, especially, we’ve been playing really tough golf courses, and you hit it 4 or 5 yards offline and you can make 6 instead of 3. And I had a lot of that happen to me. It’s frustrating when you know you’re not making bad swings and you’re not getting the results you want, so it’s equally satisfying when it comes together like this.” Lahiri is using a Srixon ZX Utility 4-iron and Srixon Z945 irons for his 5-iron through pitching wedge this week. The Z945s were first released in Asia in 2014 and became available in North America the following year. Hideki Matsuyama was among the players to use the clubs when they first came out. Lahiri used lead tape to add weight to his clubheads. The added weight gave Lahiri increased face awareness and gave him a more consistent swingweight from his woods to his irons. “He found the windows of old and spin rates of old, and it was off to the races,” said Rusty Estes, who worked with Lahiri on his clubs. Lahiri arrived at THE PLAYERS after three missed cuts and a T74 in his last four starts. He was 24 over par in those 10 rounds. He also ranked 212th (out of 217 players) in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green this season, losing nearly a stroke per round. He’s fourth this week, having gained 5.95 strokes in 47 holes. He’s also hit 36 of 47 greens this week, including 10 of 11 in the third round.

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He said it himself — “I’m used to it.” Patrick Reed held off a world-class field in a week in which he heard the word “cheater” lobbed in his direction.

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