As we head into moving day, both Pádraig Harrington and Darren Clarke are very much in the thick of things at the Senior PGA Championship at Congressional.
Another windy day at the Maryland venue kept scoring in check and Clarke, out first, kept it steady over the front nine, mixing one birdie with one bogey to turn at level-par for the day and one-under for the tournament.
Back-to-back birdies on 11 and 12 put him within touching distance of the top 10 and though he dropped a shot on 16, another birdie on the par-5 16th got him back to -3 overall and he goes into the weekend three shots back in a share of 11th.
Harrington was one of the later starters on day two after matching Clarke’s 71 in the opening round. Playing the back nine first, he birdied 14 and 17 before dropping a shot on 18 – all par-4s – to turn at -1 for the day.
Another bogey on one meant he’d undone his good early work in the space of two holes, but a grandstand finish that saw him birdie three of his final five holes moved him to -4 and into a tie for fourth.
“Yeah, I think I played quite well kind of for the first, say, 26 holes. Then a couple of bogeys around the turn,” Harrington said.
“After that, I kind of got a lot better into what I was doing and played a lot more getting the job done and not really worrying about swinging the club well or playing well. It was nice to come home in 3-under par from there on in.
“It’s not like — I hit some good shots in that time, but I hit a few bad shots, as well. It was just getting the job done at that stage. When it’s this windy, that’s probably the best mindset.”
Harrington was one of the players who opted to play in the PGA Championship last week rather than in the Regions Tradition, but he’s not feeling the tiredness creeping into the body just yet though admits that it could be a different story by Sunday night.
“I could be by the end of the week,” he said, before adding: “Mind you, I only had two rounds last week. I’ve been working very hard on my legs. The physio has been very diligent. I’ve been in there getting a lot of work done on my legs. I decided to train much harder on my legs. Instead of protecting my knees, which I’ve been having a lot of problems with for a number of years, I’m going down the road of strengthening them, and I think I’m winning the battle. Normally I could be through 13, 14 holes and I’m starting to have everything ache and pain, but I’ve been good this week so far.
“I think, as well, if you’re in contention in a tournament, you’ll get through a lot. It’s when you drop out of contention that things get harder on the body and things like that. I should be okay for two more days.”
Vijay Singh started thinking about what he might do with his weekend after bogeying the first three holes on Friday.
“Your mind just goes haywire,” he said. “But I’ve played long enough to know that there’s a lot of golf out there.”
Then, he showed it.
After missing the Masters and PGA Championship this spring because of an undisclosed injury, Singh looked perfectly healthy the rest of the second round with seven birdies to surge to the top of the leaderboard at Congressional Country Club. Shooting a 4-under 68, the former top-ranked player in the world was tied for the lead with Y.E. Yang (68) and Cameron Percy (71) at 6-under halfway through the PGA TOUR Champions major.
“I’ve been driving the ball good,” Singh said. “Just hung in there and started making a couple of birdies here and there, picked up the shots, and the back nine I played solid golf.”
The 62-year-old from Fiji is aiming for his first career victory at the course in the Maryland suburbs just outside of Washington, which he has played a handful of times, including the 1997 U.S. Open. He tied for 77th then and missed the cut in his last event at Congressional, Tiger Woods’ tournament in 2014.
“I’ve always loved playing here,” Singh said, noting that much has changed from his previous tries. “It’s totally a different golf course, totally new golf course. The greens are very challenging, to say the least.”
Singh, who spent 32 weeks atop the world ranking roughly two decades ago and was known for his rigorous practice habits, has cut that part of his routine in half.
“Once I get on the range and hit, it used to be I’d go out there and hit five, six good shots and I’d say, ‘OK, let’s see if I can do 20 of these ones,’” Singh said. “But now if I hit two or three good shots, I say, ‘I’ve had enough, that’s it.’”
Y.E. Yang birdied four of his last five holes Friday and is tied at the top with Singh.
With conditions changing throughout his round, Cameron Percy kept looking for the big American flag to see how windy it was at any given moment and credited growing up in Melbourne, Australia, for knowing how to handle it.
“I think the wind definitely helps me,” Percy said. “You get down in the tree lines and you can’t feel the wind, and then you walk 200 yards and it’s blowing like crazy.”
Harrington headlines the crowded group two strokes back at 4-under. Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard, defending champion Richard Bland and others were 3-under.
Ernie Els followed an opening 69 with a 75 to drop to even par. He won the 1997 U.S. Open at Congressional.
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