Colorado Springs, Colorado – Padraig Harrington and Stewart Cink endured the ups and downs of the U.S. Senior Senior Open for the second straight day on Friday and found themselves tied for the lead.
Rewards – Shared the last serving time to start the weekend on the hilly, hard to read Broadmoor.
Cink shot five shots in the final nine holes with Harrington’s front-facing partner, and the players entered the weekend tied for a 134-under 6 and tied with late-charge Mark Hensby.
Cink hit 31 points in the first nine, and their second nine was in the back.
Two Players – Two players who averaged over 300 yards in 50 and above PGA Tour champions both said it was a comfortable pairing, especially on high-altitude hilly routes where distances were just conventional.
“He would have been a little longer than me if there were any,” Harrington said. “But I think I know his game enough that I can see what’s going on, too. He’s definitely the partner I choose to match.”
Hensby shot his 14th and 15th birdies with 67 in the second straight round. That includes a 20-foot 8th foot, which would be close if his tee didn’t hit Doug Barron’s ball. Two days later, Hunsby was in the first nine, with the rear top nine and 3 in the rear.
“Doing a lot of birds, so that’s a good thing,” he said.
Thomas Bjorn (69) has three behind, followed by Ye Yang (68) and Billy Andrade (69) under 2 years old.
Darren Clarke, Steve Flesch and Miguel Angel Jiménez under 1, their rounds included distances from within the range of the car, closer than the fairway, and also included No. 2’s tough double blow (no fine for that) – putting nine players in nine.
Cink hit all 18 greens in the regulations, which made it 36 this week. He said the statistic was overrated, especially in a course that started a real test, where infamous hard-to-read vegetables couldn’t get away from the monument lurking above the Cheyenne Mountain.
“It’s no secret that you don’t want to go uphill in this course,” said Cink, 52, who was the 2009 British Open champion and was playing in his first U.S. Senior Open.
cink cink’s fifth birdie from 9th place 45 feet in the front, scoring 66 feet, the best in the tournament to date.
After Harrington shot 31 in a tougher nine games and then maintained the lead with a five-on-third birdie, he thought there might be a chance to head to the weekend.
One-on-three shots – one on the seventh and the other on the 3rd green green, which has slowed down to adjust the severe slope – resulting in bogey.
“I wish I could do more,” Harrington said. “I made a MIS club on 15 to make a bogey and then obviously went into the top nine you wished to make some birdies. There was no guarantee.”
But for the three-time Grand Slam champions, their victory was in the 2007 and 2007 and 2008 PGA Championships. Harrington puts a 20-foot bird tie on the short side of the green space bunker in No. 9.
“I read a lovely read from Stewart. I don’t think I’d give it too much rest, so that’s good,” said Harrington, who won the U.S. Senior Open in 2022. “They are the rest they get when things go well.”
Among those who missed the layoffs, 12-time senior major champion Bernhard Langer, who shot 77, and twice this year with a minority champion Ángel Cabrera hitting 75.
David Toms, the last time David Toms entered Broadmoor in 2018, scored five feet at 18 feet to get Birdie cut that number.
But Saturday’s headlines were Harrington and Sink, whose biggest meeting before the weekend was probably in a 2002 Ryder Cup four games, and another four-goal match in 2004. (Cink won twice.
“I love watching him play. I hope he feels the same way for me,” Sink said. “We respect each other. He is a world-class player and he has been doing it for a long time. If we could be here, I would love it.”
