Summoned as alternate for Fred Couples, Denver-born Matt Gogel makes statement at U.S. Senior Open ...Middle East

COLORADO SPRINGS — Many had the benefit of history, for a course that’s been described as wicked. Many had the benefit of warning, for natural slopes that slope unnaturally. Many had months of mental preparation for The Broadmoor.

Matt Gogel had Google Earth. And some yardage books.

On Wednesday of last week, as he recalled, the 54-year-old got a call summoning him to Colorado for the U.S. Senior Open. He was the runner-up at Shadow Ridge Country Club at a qualifier in Arizona in late May. Not good enough to crack the initial field of 156 at the Senior Open. But good enough, ultimately, that Gogel felt he had a “pretty good shot” he’d be invited to replace a participant as an alternate.

That invite came eight days before the start of play at the Broadmoor Golf Club. And it came to replace Fred Couples, winner of the 1992 Masters and once the top-ranked golfer in the world.

“You don’t want to miss out on any tournament at our age,” Gogel recalled. “A U.S. Open, it’s our national championship.”

Aside from the rather high-profile name he’d be replacing, this wasn’t anything new to Gogel. He’s been “living on the edge” of the 2025 Champions Tour, he put it. And he entered the field at The Broadmoor as a pitch-dark horse with one top-10 finish in 10 Champions Tour events. He’d never made the initial cut in two previous Senior Opens in 2020 and 2022.

Through two days in ’25, though, Gogel has positioned himself squarely in the middle of the pack, shooting a 68 Thursday and 73 Friday to sit at 1-over par and crack his first cut at a Senior Open. And as a slew of competitors have taken to discussing specific angles or degrees of elevation in trying to solve the equation that is The Broadmoor, Gogel’s kept it rather simple.

His game? He knows his misses.

“I kept it below the hole, which you have to do,” Gogel said Thursday. “There’s really no mystery out here, other than — it’s really hard to put the ball where you want it, with altitude on severe sloped greens. Today worked out pretty well.”

Born in Denver before growing up in Kansas, he’ll have a chance Saturday and Sunday to continue authoring a fascinating run.

Bubbling: As the field slims from an initial 156 come, a wide range of top names have been left behind with a projected cut-line of 5-over par pushing into late play Friday. Angel Cabrera, a Masters winner who was reinstated to the PGA Tour in 2024 after a prison sentence for charges of domestic violence, stood to be eliminated after finishing 8-over. So did former Senior Open champions Bernhard Langher, Brad Bryant, Fred Funk and Olin Browne.

Erie native Matt Schalk stood on the outside looking in Friday as well, at 15-over. Parker’s Shane Bertsch, though, made the cut at 3-over, with former Kent Denver mainstay Brandt Jobe dangling at 5-over.

Defending champion in the balance: Seven years after he hoisted the Senior Open trophy at The Broadmoor in 2018, David Toms simply didn’t come in this week with his “A game,” he affirmed Friday.

Still, after a rough stretch of three straight bogeys to kick off his back nine Friday, Toms put himself squarely back under the projected cutline with a beautiful shot from fairway to green on the 18th, sealing a birdie that gave him a shot at a purse — and a sigh of relief.

“Obviously, you don’t get paid if you don’t play on the weekend, and makes you feel awful,” Toms said. “Feels like a failure for the week, basically. … To come back here as the defending champion on this golf course, it certainly — it would mean a lot to me to be able to at least play on the weekend.”

Unlucky number 15: The back-half Broadmoor struggles Thursday were perhaps best-documented by Padraig Harrington, who shanked a couple of shots into the rough on the 15th. But a host of competitors have had problems with specifically that 15th hole — a par-4 at 459 yards with a particularly lengthy distance from tee to fairway.

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Harrington again bogeyed on 15 in his second round Friday, the only hole he bogeyed on the back nine. So did Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, one of the most consistent performers through two rounds. So did Paul Stankowski, one of several to break even through two rounds. The only top-ranked golfer to solve the hole Friday was Australian Scott Hend, who racked up an impressive string of three straight birdies from holes 15 through 17.

Singh continues a rollercoaster: Former Masters and PGA champion Vijay Singh made the weekend, but not without drama.

Singh started his second round on the back nine and played it 2-under par. When he made a birdie on No. 3, Singh improved to 3-under on the day and even par for the tournament. It fell apart on him from there, however, as he made four bogeys in the final six holes and hit an approach shot into the water on No. 9 to finish at 4-over.

Singh, once the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer for 32 straight weeks, struggled with the front nine both days on a course where many players have said the back provided the stiffer challenge. Singh played the front nine 7-over between the first two days — seven bogeys, a double bogey and one birdie — while playing the back 3-under.

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