For Harrington, one bogey outshines the birdies and keeps him in share of lead at US Senior Open

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Padraig Harrington said he thought it was one part nice, another part disappointing, to scrounge out a bogey after snapping a tee shot deep into the woods on the 15th hole of his opening round at the U.S. Senior Open.

Either way, that scramble Thursday kept Harrington atop the leaderboard, tied with Mark Hensby at 3-under 67 at the Broadmoor, where every shot is an adventure.

"You never feel good after you’ve lost a ball, so your head is a little scrambled,” said Harrington, the 2022 champion. “You’re just trying to get your head around what you’re doing.“

It's a common feeling on this course at an altitude of 6,000 feet nestled at the base of Cheyenne Mountain — a tilting landscape that impacts every putt in ways not every player can see.

Stewart Cink hit his first 17 greens on a calm opening day, but finished with a bogey on No. 18 after his first miss. He was part of a group of seven, including Thomas Bjorn, at 68.

“It's not the kind of course where you string together four birdie putts in a row, where you’re just like ‘hoop, hoop, hoop, hoop,’” Cink said. “I had some putts out there that were 20-footers that had 8, 9 feet of break, and you’re just not going to make that many of those.”

Harrington made all four of his birdies on the (easier) front nine and was leading by one when he snapped his tee shot on the par-4 15th. The Irishman said his disappointment came from the fact that he thought his group conducted its 3-minute search in a thicket of trees that was well short of where the ball landed.

His relief came from scraping out a bogey after heading back to the tee box and hitting that shot in deep rough on the right, then the approach from there to 20 feet.

“In general, you’re just keeping yourself in position, which I did nicely today,” Harrington said.

Also in good position was Hensby, though it was hard to tell in the aftermath of his bogey-bogey finish during the morning wave, both coming after errant drives into the rough.

“Obviously, I felt like I lost some out there,” Hensby said. “It’s just frustrating. I played like (expletive) the back nine. What else can you say?”

He made seven birdies on the front nine to get to 6 under — a number that might not be approached again at a course that yielded only 17 rounds under par with 156 players in the field.

When the tournament was last played here in 2018, David Toms won with a score of 3-under par — a number that made Hensby’s score after nine that much more remarkable, whether he was happy with it or not.

“I’ve never been a very consistent player,” he said. “I’m hot or cold, and that kind of sucks."

Harrington was one of many players whose practice was shortened Tuesday by a massive thunderstorm that soaked and softened the course.

“We got a break today, to be fair,” said Notah Begay, who made the field as an alternate and shot even par.

Even with that break, the Day 1 scoring average was 73.94, only about .7 shots under the four-day total from 2018, when only seven players finished under par.

Among those struggling was Angel Cabrera, a two-time senior major winner this year, who shot 73.

Cabrera's 10-foot birdie try on No. 6 skirted the cup, and he dropped his putter and bent down an placed his hands on his knees, trying to figure out how he missed. A hole later, more pain when a 3-footer barely caught the left edge and rimmed out.

The forecast for the next three days calls for highs near 90 and a chance of rain. The altitude and that mountain to the west of the course — that never changes.

“Not only is it hard to hit the ball at the right distance with the altitude and the ups and downs and the spins and all that,” Cink said. “But you leave yourself a lot of 20-, 25-foot putts that have a lot of break and don’t always do what they look like they’re going to do.”

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Stewart Cink reacts after sinking a birdie on the 17th hole on the first day at the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)

Padraig Harrington eats an apple while lining up a putt on the 10th hole on the first day at the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)

Padraig Harrington hits onto the green on the 10th hole on the first day at the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)

Mark Hensby, right, hits off of the tee on the 18th hole during the first session of the first day at the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)

Padraig Harrington tees off on the 17th hole on the first day at the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)

FILE - Mark Hensby drives from the 17th hole during the second round of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic golf tournament, Oct. 22, 2022, at Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Va. (Shaban Athuman/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP, File)

FILE - Padraig Harrington, of Ireland, hits from the bunker on the 18th hole during the first round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, May 15, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday in hopes of securing $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum — a plan that rides on their comfort in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.

Since the U.S. military raid to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has quickly pivoted to portraying the move as a newfound economic opportunity for the U.S., seizing tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, saying the U.S. is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil and will be controlling sales worldwide indefinitely.

On Friday, U.S. forces seized their fifth tanker over the past month that has been linked to Venezuelan oil. The action reflected the determination of the U.S. to fully control the exporting, refining and production of Venezuelan petroleum, a sign of the Trump administration's plans for ongoing involvement in the sector as it seeks commitments from private companies.

It's all part of a broader push by Trump to keep gasoline prices low. At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.

The meeting, set for 2:30 p.m. EST, will be open to the news media, according to an update to the president's daily schedule. “At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.

Trump is set to meet with executives from 17 oil companies, according to the White House. Among the companies attending are Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela, and ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which both had oil projects in the country that were lost as part of a 2007 nationalization of private businesses under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

The president is meeting with a wide swath of domestic and international companies with interests ranging from construction to the commodity markets. Other companies slated to be at the meeting include Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Singapore-based Trafigura, Italy-based Eni and Spain-based Repsol.

Large U.S. oil companies have so far largely refrained from affirming investments in Venezuela as contracts and guarantees need to be in place. Trump has suggested on social media that America would help to backstop any investments.

Venezuela’s oil production has slumped below one million barrels a day. Part of Trump's challenge to turn that around will be to convince oil companies that his administration has a stable relationship with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, as well as protections for companies entering the market.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are slated to attend the oil executives meeting, according to the White House.

Meanwhile, the United States and Venezuelan governments said Friday they were exploring the possibility of r estoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, and that a delegation from the Trump administration arrived to the South American nation on Friday.

The small team of U.S. diplomats and diplomatic security officials traveled to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the State Department said in a statement.

Trump also announced on Friday he’d meet with President Gustavo Petro in early February, but called on the Colombian leader to make quick progress on stemming flow of cocaine into the U.S.

Trump, following the ouster of Maduro, had made vague threats to take similar action against Petro. Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart after a friendly phone call in which he invited Petro to visit the White House.

President Donald Trump waves as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)