Finding ‘It’

NOTRE DAME, INDIANA | Chris DiMarco knows it’s in there someplace.

Digging it out is the challenge now.

Rounds of 66-66 in the first two rounds of the U.S. Senior Open at Notre Dame’s rain-softened Warren Course are the most encouraging signs yet that DiMarco, now in his second season as a senior golfer, may find a measure of the form that made him a familiar name on PGA Tour leaderboards 15 years ago.

“It’s a lot easier game when you’re hitting the ball where you’re aiming and this is the first time in a while,” DiMarco said Friday.

He turned 50 last August but DiMarco has still not finished inside the top 30 of a PGA Tour Champions event. Putting himself in the top 10 halfway through the Senior Open was a big step because it was the first true cut DiMarco has made since finishing T78 in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open in 2014.

The game is never easy, but 13 birdies over the first 36 holes makes a big difference, particularly for a player still finding his comfort zone in this new segment of his career. DiMarco made a ...