Pádraig Harrington and Darren Clarke will go into the weekend six shots adrift of old dog Bernhard Langer who rolled back the years to lead the US Senior Open.
Langer carded a three-under 68 at Stevens Point to hit the front on -3, one shot ahead of Rod Pampling as he took advantage of the firm, fast and short conditions.
Harrington holed a ten foot par putt on the last to keep his hopes alive while Clarke carded a clean back nine of seven pars and two birdies on 10 and 17 to sit on +3 after a 70.
“Course get very short, really, really short and tricky. The rough has disappeared. It’s all gone. So it’s just bouncy and tricky. Yeah, very, very awkward,” said Harrington.
“Yeah, so still a low one out there, but it’s tricky for sure. It’s just got very fast.”
Concentration issues continue to plague Harrington’s title defence. After bogeying the fourth he bounced back with birdies on the fifth and ninth before adding another on 10. He gave those three birdies back in a bogey, double bogey stretch on 11 and 12 which dropped him back to plus four before he birdied 14 to share 12th place.
“I would think you can make up ground on the golf course, yeah, if you — you know, I was doing nicely today and I fell asleep on 11 and 12, and all of a sudden those three shots are going to be a lot to make up.
“You know, there were two pretty easy holes that if you walk off with two pars, all of a sudden, level par, now at this stage I would be — I missed few putts coming in, even though I holed the one on the last.
Good chance for eagle on 15 is it? 14? 15? 12-footer there for eagle.
“So I could have made some hay today but, you know, I was a lot better than I was yesterday. That’s for sure.”
The three-time major champion is planning to hunt down 65-year-old Langer over the weekend.
“It’s fabulous, to see Bernhard up there yeah. Absolutely. You know, to be leading at this stage on a — you know, obviously the golf course got short so wasn’t so bad. The tees were up and the fairways got firm.
“Be interesting to see — I assume we’re meant to be playing the back tees at the weekend. I certainly would hope. As I said, it really is short now. Hard to get a driver in your hand at all now at this stage.
“So we’ll see. You know, no matter what it is, you’re better off on the fairway. As I said, the rough has got trampled down for some reason. I don’t know how it has, but the rough isn’t anywhere as penal as it was at the start of the week. We’ll see.”
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