COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Padraig Harrington and Stewart Cink endured the ups and downs of the U.S. Senior Open collectively for a second straight day Friday and located themselves tied for the lead.
The payoff — sharing the ultimate tee time to kick off the weekend on the hilly, hard-to-read Broadmoor.
Cink made up 5 pictures over the ultimate 9 holes of his head-to-head pairing in opposition to Harrington, and the gamers headed into the weekend tied at 6-under 134, together with late-charging Mark Hensby.
Cink shot 31 on the entrance 9, their second 9, to match Harrington’s rating on the again.
Each gamers — the one two who common greater than 300 yards driving on the 50-and-over PGA Tour Champions — referred to as it a cushty pairing, particularly on a hilly course at altitude the place gauging distance is something however routine.
“If something, he’d be a bit of bit longer than me,” Harrington stated. “However I suppose I do know his recreation sufficient that I can see what’s occurring, as properly. He’s positively a companion I might select to play with.”
Hensby shot his second straight spherical of 3-under 67, ending the day together with his 14th and fifteenth birdies of the match. That included a 20-footer on No. 8 that may have been from nearer had his tee shot not hit Doug Barron’s ball on the inexperienced. Hensby was 9-under par on the entrance 9 and three over on the again after two days.
“Making plenty of birdies, in order that’s an excellent factor round right here,” he stated.
Three behind was Thomas Bjorn (69), adopted by Y.E. Yang (68) and Billy Andrade (69) at 2 underneath.
At 1 underneath, Darren Clarke, Steve Flesch and Miguel Angel Jiménez — whose spherical included an strategy on 18 from nearer to the driving vary than the green and a double hit from the tough on No. 2 (no penalty for that) — rounded out the checklist of 9 gamers heading into the weekend underneath par.
Cink hit all 18 greens in regulation, making it 35 of 36 for the week. He referred to as that stat overrated, particularly at a course the place the actual check begins on the notoriously difficult-to-read greens that cant away from a monument lurking above the course on Cheyenne Mountain.
“You do not need to be chipping downhill on this course, it isn’t a secret,” stated the 52-year-old Cink, the 2009 British Open champion who’s enjoying in his first U.S. Senior Open.
Cink two-putted from 45 toes on No. 9 for his fifth birdie on the entrance and a rating of 66 — one of the best of the match thus far.
After Harrington shot 31 on the harder again 9, then saved the lead at 5 with a birdie on the par-5 third, he was pondering there could be a possibility to open an enormous lead heading into the weekend.
A pair of three-putts — one on the seventh and the opposite on the par-3 fourth inexperienced that has been slowed all the way down to mood the extreme slope — resulted in bogeys.
“I hoped I might make extra of it,” Harrington stated. “I made a mis-club on 15 to make bogey, after which clearly going into the entrance 9 you are hoping to make some birdies. Nothing is assured.”
But it surely ended properly for the three-time main champion, whose wins got here on the British Open 2007 and ’08 and 2008 PGA Championship. Brief-sided in a greenside bunker on No. 9, Harrington made a 20-footer for a birdie to drag right into a tie.
“I bought a stunning learn off Stewart. I do not assume I might have given it as a lot break, in order that was good,” stated Harrington, who received the U.S. Senior Open in 2022. “They’re the breaks you get when issues are going properly.”
Amongst those that missed the minimize have been 12-time senior main champion Bernhard Langer, who shot 77, and Ángel Cabrera, a two-time main winner this yr, who shot 75. Each missed the quantity by three.
David Toms, the champion the final time the Senior Open got here to the Broadmoor in 2018, hit an strategy to 5 toes on 18 for birdie to make the minimize on the quantity.
However the headliners Saturday are Harrington and Cink, whose largest conferences earlier than this weekend might have been in a single Ryder Cup foursomes match in 2002 and one other fourball contest in 2004. (Cink received each occasions.)
“I like watching him play. I might hope that he most likely feels equally about me,” Cink stated. “We have now mutual respect for one another. He is a world-class participant and he is been doing it a very long time. I might find it irresistible if we may go the gap right here.”
