The golfer was invited to the tournament as a previous champion. He last won the Colonial about 25 years ago, getting a 67 in his opening round and finishing that week with four rounds in the 60s. This was way back in 1997!
Lehman is 61 years now but clearly he hasn’t lost his passion for the game. He said, “Do I feel like I’m capable of shooting a 65 out here at Colonial? Well, for certain, I do. Did I expect to do it? Well, I would be probably lying if I said I fully expected to play and shoot such a low score. But I did expect to play well.”
He added, “I’ve been aiming for this week for a while. I live in Arizona, and we’ve been able to play golf all the way through this COVID-19 thing, so I’ve been playing a lot, practicing a lot. My game feels pretty good. I love the golf course. It benefits people who put the ball in the fairway, no doubt. I hit it straight and made a few putts.”
He went on, “I really like the way I played. I kind of felt like if I could just finish out 2-under, 3-under, I would have been really happy with that. To get a couple more is definitely frosting on the cake. There’s a lot of rough out there, and if I don’t drive it well, I’m quite a ways back in some pretty thick rough. In order to play well for the next three days, I need to keep putting the ball in the fairway.”
He also spoke about why he was there, “The opportunity presented itself, and as a past champion being eligible to play, I think the biggest thing is knowing that I’m not taking a spot from some young guy out here on this tour. So, the ability to come and play without causing somebody else to not play actually was part of what determined whether I would play or not.”
He ended with, “The opportunity to play and to play in a tournament that I love so much and that I’ve had some success at and I’m part of the history here, that’s kind of what drove me to want to do it.”
