THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606170143
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICH. LENGTH: 43 lines
Curtis Strange had fun Sunday at the U.S. Open. It showed in his face. It showed on his scorecard. And it showed on the face of Randy Leen, the 20-year-old rising sophomore at Indiana who finished as the Open's amateur medalist.
Strange and Leen were paired together. The 41-year-old Virginia Beach native made a point of introducing himself to Leen on the practice range.
In the end, everyone had a day to remember. Strange fired his best round of the Open - 1-under 69. Shooting progressively lower scores each day, he finished at 7-over 287, good for a tie for 27th place and $17,809.
Leen, who made the field only after Fred Couples withdrew, beat Tiger Woods for low amateur. His 3-over 73 Sunday left him at 11-over par, three strokes ahead of his far more heralded counterpart.
Afterwards, Leen thanked Strange publicly.
``He's won back-to-back Opens, with him, it would have been real easy for him to shut me out, not really pay attention to me,'' Leen said. ``But he was outward. We talked the whole way around, about all different kinds of stuff. The kind of stuff you talk about with your buddies, so it was real nice.''
``Hey, I was rooting for him,'' Strange said. ``He had all those friends and family out there. I remember what it was like to be in a similar situation to his, and how nice the pros I played with were. I just tried to treat him the same way.''
Strange made the turn in 2-under 33. He hit a 9-iron approach three feet from the pin on the par-4 sixth and an 8-iron approach four feet away on the par-4 eighth hole.
He made bogeys at 10, 11 and 16 - the latter after driving into the light rough, then hitting over the pin, with the ball stopping in the tall grass above a greenside bunker. Facing treacherous downhill terrain that sloped away from the cup, he flopped it out to six feet, but missed the par putt.
But he also rolled in a 30-foot uphill birdie putt on the par-4 14th and a tricky downhill 12-footer that fell into the cup on its last revolution on No. 18. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Curtis Strange improved with each round of the Open, finishing with
a 1-under 69 Sunday. by CNB