Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley are through to the weekend at the ISPS HANDA Senior Open where Cameron Percy will take a three-shot lead into the weekend after a brilliant back nine in tough conditions at Gleneagles.
McGinley began the day at two-under and reached the turn at level-par for the day after a birdie and a bogey, but three bogeys and a double on the back saw him fall to +3 overall and into a share of 46th.
Harrington, the defending champion, was at level-par after 18 holes and remained so after 27 but he too struggled on the back side, carding three straight bogeys from the 10th before regrouping to birdie two of his final five with one further dropped shot to end the day tied for 36th at +2 and 11 shots back of Percy.
The Australian entered day two with a one-shot lead and extended that advantage with a two-under 68 to get to nine-under, three ahead of American Jerry Kelly.
Kelly matched Percy’s lowest round of the day with a 68 to sit at -6, two shots clear of a pair of Open Champions in Ernie Els and Henrik Stenson and Austria’s Markus Brier.
On a day when nobody went bogey-free, with wind adding to the firm and fast conditions, the King’s Course was a much tougher proposition than it had been on Thursday.
Percy looked like he too could fall victim to the layout with bogeys on the fifth and eighth before a birdie on the ninth steadied the ship. A chip-in on the 13th then sparked an excellent closing run and further gains on the 14th and last saw the 52-year-old regain his position at the top of the leaderboard.
Percy has yet to claim a senior win since turning 50 in May 2024 but he has made all 81 of his cuts on the Champions Tour and in 2025 finished in the top ten at this event, the Senior PGA Championship and the U.S. Senior Open.
He now heads into the final 36 holes with a chance to break his duck and he revealed the difficult nature of the course and the conditions may be the key to his success.
After those dropped shots on the fifth and eighth, Percy put an approach to five feet at the ninth to turn in 35. A deft, chasing chip-in on the 13th was then followed by an up-and down on the driveable par-four next before a two-putt birdie on the par-five 18th put hm in control.
Kelly birdied the second and while he dropped a shot at the seventh, he picked it straight back up on the next. Another birdie came on the tenth and he once again made an instant recovery from a dropped shot on the 13th at the driveable par-four 14th.
Frenchman Lionel Alexandre and American Matt Gogel were at three under, one ahead of 2023 Senior Open champion Alex Cejka, 1993 Ryder Cupper Peter Baker, South Africa’s Darren Fichardt, Australian Michael Wright and American duo Taggart Ridings and Tom Penrice Jr, with just 16 players under par.
Darren Clarke, who won this event when it was last held at Gleneagles in 2022, won’t be around for the weekend after following his opening 71 with a 77 to miss the cut by three.
Leave a comment