Senior Open

What: 16th U.S. Senior Open.When: Thursday through Sunday.Where: Congressional CC, Bethesda, Md.Course: Blue Course, 6,945 yards, par 72.Purse: $1 million ($180,000 to winner).Defending champion: Simon HobdayTickets: $18 Thursday-Friday; $30 Saturday-Sunday.

U.S. Senior Open Funk tied for fourth after first round Former Maryland coach Fred Funk birdied the 10th and 11th holes to get to 4-under-par and to within one shot of the lead, then had to settle for 3-under 33-34 - 67 and a tie for fourth, two shots behind leader Tom Kite , after the first round of the U.S. Senior Open at Indianwood Golf & Country Club in Lake Orion, Mich. Mike Reid of Westminster shot a 1-over 71 and is tied for 50th. Amateurs Pete DeTemple of Breton Bay CC and David Nocar , a former Maryland Amateur champion from Chartwell CC, shot 38-38 - 76, and 37-41 - 78, respectively.

Today: 3-6 p.m., chs. 11, 4 Tomorrow: 3-6 p.m., chs. 11, 4

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JIM COLBERT Age: 61 PGA Tour wins: 8 Earnings: $1,553,136 Senior Tour wins: 20 Earnings: $10,722,094 Biggest victory: 1993 Ford Senior Players Championship Career highlights: After being among the top players his first four years on the Senior Tour, Colbert led the tour in earnings in 1995 and 1996. Has a golf course named for him at Kansas State, where he went on a football scholarship. Second to Hale Irwin in career Senior Tour earnings. Best finish in Senior Open: Second in 1992.

PINEHURST, N.C. -- When the 15th U.S. Senior Open begins this morning over the world-renowned No. 2 Course of Pinehurst Country Club, no one in the 156-player field will have local knowledge to compare with Jay Sigel.Sigel may be a rookie on the PGA Senior Tour, but he is a veteran of No. 2, having played it more than 100 times. Couple this with a record 66 appearances in U.S. Golf Association events and a slew of national and international titles, and it adds up to a position as one of the tournament favorites.

A look at how the holes played in yesterday's second round of the U.S. Senior Open Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club: Hole Eagles Birdies Pars Bogeys DB* No. 1 0 9 106 32 7 No. 2 0 31 100 16 5 No. 3 3 69 67 13 2 No. 4 0 15 112 18 7 No. 5 0 7 90 49 8 No. 6 0 7 93 48 6 No. 7 0 24 89 32 6 No. 8 0 13 105 27 5 No. 9 0 3 92 49 9 No.10 0 21 87 39 6 No.11 1 18 84 46 4 No.12 0 23 97 29 2 No.13 0 25 89 35 5 No.14 0 23 100 27 3 No.15 0 10...

What is the U.S. Senior Open? Like the regular PGA Tour's Open, this U.S. Golf Association-run tournament is considered the quintessential major golf championship for the Senior Tour, since any golfer in America with a 3.4 handicap or less can enter. Of course, you have to turn 50 by Thursday to be eligible for the four-day event. This year, there were a record 3,101 entries received for the 156-player field, but 71 golfers were exempt, meaning they automatically qualified because of past performances in other tournaments.

The Sun's Travis Haney spoke with Dennis Satyshur, director of golf at Caves Valley Golf Club since its opening in 1991. Q: How did you hear about the course before it opened? A: I was the golf professional at Baltimore Country Club Five Farms and the word was getting around town that a new club was being built that was going to be a national club, a destination club. The more I learned about it, the more interested I became. Q: What was your initial reaction in 1997 when the USGA decided to bring the Senior Open to Caves?

Caves Valley is pretty as a picture. That will be plain to the professional golfers and the 150,000 or so spectators expected later this week for the 2002 U.S. Senior Open. What will not be so obvious is the care and seeding that have made Caves Valley, opened for play in 1991, such hallowed ground for golfers in such a short time. Manicured to perfection and with babbling brooks, rolling hills and wildlife, its a lovely setting for a major golf championship. But the 7,000-plus yard, par-72 layout is no walk in the park.

Amateur baseball Under-14 Yankee Rebels sweep Ohio tournament The under-14 Baltimore-based Yankee Rebels went undefeated to win the Mick Sharkey Memorial Storm Club 4th of July Baseball Tourney in Cincinnati this weekend. The Rebels won by a combined 66-22 in five games, including a 10-0 win against the defending champion Northern Kentucky Dragons. Andrew Witczak (Calvert Hall) led all batters with a .667 batting average and threw a no-hitter, Jonathan Calvin (River Hill)

Tom Watson, who came within one putt of making history at the British Open last month, will return to the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at Baltimore Country Club's Five Farms course Sept. 28-Oct. 4 after a year's absence. Had Watson made his par putt on the 72nd hole on the Aisla Course of the Westin Turnberry Resort last month, he would have become golf's oldest major champion at age 59. Instead, he missed the putt and his bogey forced a playoff that ultimately was won by Stewart Cink.

Tom Watson, the craggy-faced legend who came within an 8-foot putt of winning a major championship at age 59, remains an inspiration for senior golfers everywhere. Count John Howson among his most fervent admirers. Howson, 50, a vice president of engineering for Black & Decker's DeWalt division in Towson and one of the best amateur players in the state, is gearing up to play in the big Middle Atlantic Amateur Golf Championship at Four Streams Country Club in Beallsville in October. But he's still buzzing from his performance in the U.S. Senior Open last weekend, where he finally got to meet Watson just weeks after Watson electrified the golf world by nearly becoming the oldest player to win the British Open in Turnberry, Scotland.

JAY HAAS The 53-year-old was competitive on the PGA Tour as recently as 2003, when he finished 15th on the money list. He won four times as a Champions Tour rookie in 2005, twice last year and four times this year. He leads the Charles Schwab points race for Player of the Year honors, which he won last year. FRED FUNK He will be one of the favorites, given his roots in College Park, his familiarity with the course (having played it while on the Middle Atlantic PGA circuit in the 1980s)

As a band played, hundreds of seniors and visitors ate slices of cake, celebrating the opening of a new senior center by filling a dining room that, in its old location, would barely have been able to seat half of them. On Friday morning, Carroll County opened the North Carroll Senior & Community Center, a 25,000-square-foot facility in Greenmount that is more than four times the size of its former location. The additional space will allow an increased number of activities for seniors, as the new building has separate areas designated for various activities, such as crafts, games, exercising and billiards.

Professionals Gary Anderson and Butch Butler each registered 1-under-par 69 to take the lead in the Senior Open at the Chevy Chase Club, and C.J. Reeves returned a 1-over-par 74 in the Women's Open at Holly Hills Country Club. Yesterday's play marked the first of two rounds for each event, both of which are sponsored and conducted by the Maryland State Golf Association. Anderson, the head pro at The Hamptons Golf Course in Hampton, Va., had two birdies and one bogey in shooting 34-35, and Butler, the head pro at Cedar Point GC at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, turned even, birdied the 10th, then ran off eight straight pars for 35-34-69.

Dennis Satyshur has been to hundreds of tournaments in his nearly 30 years as a golf professional, yet his trip to this year's U.S. Senior Open in Peabody, Mass., will take on a special meaning. In the past, Satyshur has been at events as a participant or a spectator. This time, Satyshur will be there to scout. Satyshur, the head professional and director of golf operations at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, will be among a party of 45 going up to Salem Country Club this week to get a firsthand look at what it takes to run the biggest Senior event in the world.

What organizers bill as the state's longest-running senior expo opens Wednesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. A crowd of 8,000 is expected over two days at the Baltimore County Department of Aging's 17th annual Senior Expo. The expo runs from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday. Susan Green, chief organizer of the event, said the expo is designed to provide seniors and their relatives with information about services available to them. It also raises money for needy county seniors.