Pádraig Harrington and Darren Clarke find themselves side-by-side as Cameron Percy shot a five-under 67 to lead by one stroke after the first round of the Senior PGA Championship at Congressional.
Harrington began with a birdie on the first but found himself over par when he bogeyed three and four. Two par-5 birdies followed as he played the following nine holes in two-under, and he traded one further birdie with another bogey over the closing five holes to end the day four off the lead.
Clarke began his round on the back nine and raced onto the first page of the leaderboard with three birdies in his first seven holes. A string of pars followed, but two bogeys in his closing five holes will leave him the more disappointed of the two at the conclusion of the opening round.
Still, they are both well in contention, with Percy the only man to card a 67.
Keith Horne (68) was second. Fellow South Africans Ernie Els (69) and Darren Fichardt were another stroke back, alongside Simon Khan and Mario Tiziani.
Els returned to the course where he won the 1997 U.S. Open, though Congressional has significantly changed since then. Players contended with wet conditions on a rainy day, but Percy, among the last groups to finish, benefited from improving weather, with the sun shining from one direction and a rainbow forming in another.
Percy started on the back nine and took the lead with an eagle on the par-5 sixth and a birdie two holes later.
The 53-year-old Horne, who has nine wins on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour and a victory last year in the Legends Tour’s Zambia Legends Championship, holed out a wedge from 109 yards for an eagle on the par-4 eighth.
Leave a comment