SAMMAMISH, Wash. - With one round to go in the U.S. Senior Open, it's hard to think of a better plot than the one that has emerged at Sahalee CC.

Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer have been the class of the Champions Tour in 2010, each with three victories and ranked first and second on the money list. After sterling play on a difficult course through 54 holes this week, the duo is tied for the lead at five-under 205, five strokes clear of their closest pursuers, Tom Kite and Chen Soon Lu, with four others six back.

While stranger things have happened, it looks like the outcome will come out of Sunday's final pairing at Sahalee, where Saturday Couples shot the week's low round, 65, and Langer made a birdie at the 18th hole to post a 68. All of it happened in front of a gallery of nearly 30,000 people - most of them there in vocal support of Seattle native Couples, for whom they no doubt will turn out in droves again Sunday.

For being contemporaries, Couples, 50, and Langer, 52, don't have much history of down-the-stretch duels - having never battled one another on the PGA Tour. The two were on opposing sides in the Ryder Cup five times (1989, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997) but were involved in only one match when Couples teamed with Raymond Floyd at Kiawah Island in 1991 for a 2-and-1 four-ball victory over Langer and Mark James. And, of course, as defending Masters champion, Couples helped Langer into his second green jacket at Augusta National in 1993.

On the surface there aren't a lot of similarities between the casual, long-hitting Couples and the meticulous, grind-out-a-score Langer, and Sunday's showdown indeed will be a study in contrasts - two winners who go about their work differently. Truth be told, Couples is a more intense competitor than some realize, while Langer is a friendly gentleman, quick with a smile.

Langer knows the vast majority of the gallery will be in Couples' corner Sunday, but he has been the underdog before. "He's a local boy and he has a lot of following no matter where we play in America," Langer said. "I'm sure there are many, many people rooting for him, but I've heard a few Germans out there, and I might have my own 12 people cheering for me."

The stage is set for a dramatic Sunday, regardless of one's rooting interest, because the large galleries have energized all the golfers, not only the hometown hero.

-- Bill Fields

Seattle has never been able to bill itself as the city of champions, given its anemic sports history, notwithstanding an NBA championship in 1979 that has become less a fond memory than a painful reminder. In 2008, the Sonics left town for Oklahoma City and became the Thunder, contributing to the city's athletic gloom.

Its baseball teams, first the Pilots and then the Mariners, have never played in a World Series and the Mariners have one of the worst records in the Major Leagues this year. Its football team, the Seahawks, has never won a Super Bowl, though it did play in one, in 2006 (the 2005 season), when it lost to Pittsburgh, 21-10. Meanwhile, the state's two NCAA Division I football teams, Washington and Washington State, were a collective 8-41 the last two seasons.

Then there's Fred Couples, favorite son, who grew up in the Beacon Hill neighborhood near downtown Seattle. Couples shot a five-under par 65 on Saturday to take a share of the lead in the U.S. Senior Open being played at Sahalee Country Club, on the outskirts of Seattle.

On Sunday, Couples has a chance to give the city something it longs for (though never expects). He can give them a champion.

-- John Strege

SAMMAMISH, Wash. - Tom Watson's chances of snaring an elusive U.S. Senior Open appear to have slipped away during the third round at Sahalee CC.

While fellow competitor Fred Couples lit up the front nine with a four-under 31, Watson couldn't get anything going, with bogeys at Nos. 5 and 6 setting the tone for his round. The 60-year-old's frustration has continued on the back nine. He is five over for the round and the championship, and nine strokes off the lead, with three holes left in his third round.

It may be that the U.S. Senior Open will be for Watson's second act what the PGA Championship was to his prime. Watson's best chance of winning the U.S. Senior Open came in 2002, when he lost a playoff to red-hot Don Pooley. Watson also was second in 2003 and 2006.

-- Bill Fields

SAMMAMISH, Wash. - If the play of Saturday's early starters is any indication, Sahalee CC won't be giving up much more than it did in a difficult first two rounds of the U.S. Senior Open.

Of the 27 players who have completed nine holes of the third round, only three are under par. Only eight sub-par scores were tallied on both Thursday and Friday. The third-round hole locations aren't quite as tucked as for the first two rounds - only three holes are cut four yards of less from the edge; on Thursday, eight were so positioned.

The scoring at Sahalee was nearly four strokes higher in relation to par for the first two rounds than at Crooked Stick last year (76.612 on par-70 Sahalee compared to 74.884 on par-72 Crooked Stick). Still, the weekend is set up with a number of marquee players in the mix, as was the case last year, when Fred Funk outdueled Greg Norman (absent this year) and others in a record low-scoring shootout.

It is has certainly felt like a major this week, with 26,173 spectators packing Sahalee for the second round - many watching the threesome of hometown hero Fred Couples, Tom Watson and Eduardo Romero. At even-par 140, three behind leader Bernhard Langer, Couples and Watson are paired again Saturday, in the third-to-last group, ensuring another lively atmosphere.

While Couples is shooting for his first senior major and Watson for an elusive U.S. Senior Open crown, Langer will be trying to be the first to win consecutive seniors majors since Watson won the Senior British Open and Jeld-Wen Tradition in 2003. However, in only six of the previous 30 U.S. Senior Opens has the halfway leader gone on to win. Peter Jacobsen, a co-leader in 2004, is the last to have walked away with the Francis Ouimet Trophy.

-- Bill Fields

SAMMAMISH, Wash. - Peter Jacobsen's 69-68 effort with a sore hip on a 36-hole Sunday at Bellerive to win the 2004 U.S. Senior Open is one of the championship's finest hours, but the 56-year-old isn't in action at Sahalee CC this weekend.

One of the game's most popular players, Jacobsen, in pain and seven over after nine holes Friday after an opening 74, had to withdraw from the 2010 U.S. Senior Open and is scheduled to have back surgery next Wednesday in an attempt to alleviate persistent pain in his left leg stemming from nerve damage in his L-3 and L-4 disks. He will need to rest for six weeks following the operation, then rehab for six weeks, effectively ending his season.

"I've dealt with it all year, and it isn't getting any better," Jacobsen said. "I need to get it fixed. I'm hoping this is the last time I have to have surgery. I'll be back."

Jacobsen has had multiple surgeries in recent years, including for a left-shoulder rotator cuff (2009), right-knee replacement (2008), lower-back micro surgery (2007), left-hip replacement (2006), right-knee cartilage surgery (2005) and torn labrum in his left hip (2004).

-- John Strege

Word out of the United Arab Emirates this morning is that Tiger Woods has committed to play in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February, his first appearance there since winning the event in 2008, the Emirates News Agency is reporting.

There is no confirmation on Woods' website of his agreeing to return to Dubai, nor is there any mention on the Omega Dubai Desert Classic website.

However, Woods has played the European Tour event on five occasions, winning twice. He missed 2009 while recovering from reconstructive knee surgery and did not play in 2010 for personal reasons.

Woods' first golf course design, the Tiger Woods Dubai, is under construction there.

-- John Strege

SAMMAMISH, Wash. -- Not heavy rain, not outrageous winds, but a thick fog suspended play at the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee CC for more than two hours this morning.

Play was stopped at 7:48 a.m. PDT and resumed at 10 a.m. The last afternoon tee time had been scheduled at 2:30; sunset here is 8:45 p.m., The afternoon wave now will go off from 2:10 to 4:10 p.m.

-- Bill Fields

SAMMAMISH, Wash. - The U.S. Senior Open is supposed to be harder than your week-to-week Champions Tour event. In Thursday's first round, it sure was.

"It's challenging and we're not challenged like this but once or twice a year," said Jay Haas, who shot a 70 at Sahalee CC in the afternoon, when one caddie described the greens as "spooky."

Mark Calcavecchia, Joe Ozaki and Bernhard Langer fared best among the p.m. starters, shooting one-under 69s to trail leader Bruce Vaughan by three shots after the first round. Not only were the greens extremely firm, causing approaches to frequently carom long, the hole locations were tucked - eight were positioned four yards or less from the edge.

"Corey [Pavin] and I were saying they must have thought the top 100 in the world were here not 156 old guys," Calcavecchia said. "Seriously, I think it was the hardest set of pin placements I've seen in years. If you got your tee ball out of position, you're pretty much screwed."

With a field scoring average of slightly less than 77, it was the toughest opening round at a U.S. Senior Open since 2003 at Inverness Club.

"Couple of [the holes] are borderline unfair," Langer said when asked if any were over the top. "[On No. 8] basically you have to hit a 5-wood off the tee that leaves you a 3- or 4-iron into the green, and the green is not designed for that kind of club - and it's very firm. ... It's a great golf course, just a tough set-up."

-- Bill Fields

SAMMAMISH, Wash. - Tennessee amateur Tim Jackson had a storybook run at the 2009 U.S. Senior Open, shooting 66-67 to lead through 36 holes and eventually finishing T-11.

Jackson, 51, is starting this year's championship in the same vein. He shot a two-under 68 at Sahalee CC Thursday and is solidly in contention in T-3, two strokes behind Bruce Vaughan as the afternoon starters played their rounds.

"This week, for me, is my whole year," said Jackson. "My whole golf schedule was set around this whole week."

Jackson is proof that a golfer doesn't have to grind away all year if he has talent and uses his time wisely. He took about four months off after losing in the 2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur Oct. 8, not playing his first round of 2010 until Feb. 20. "I probably hit balls a couple of days a week during the season," he said. "But for me playing golf is better than hitting a lot of balls."

The formula is working.

-- Bill Fields

Paul Goydos is the quintessential journeyman, who was never going to make it into the World Golf Hall of Fame without a ticket...until he shot 59 in the first round of the John Deere Classic recently.

The WGHOF announced Thursday that it now features a Goydos display to mark the occasion. The Hall has the ball he used to complete his round, as well as the hat, shirt and pants he was wearing that day.

-- John Strege