BRADENTON, Fla. — Brian Gay lastly found out learn how to play the par 5s at Concession Golf Club, making up floor with an eagle-birdie end for a 4-under 68 to share the 36-hole lead with Scott Hend of Australia in the Senior PGA Championship on Friday.
Hend had 5 birdies during the last eight holes for a 65, a much more typical spherical of eight birdies in opposition to just one dropped shot.
They had been at 10-under 134, two pictures forward of main champions Stewart Cink (67) and Retief Goosen (69), with Ben Crane making his senior debut with a 69 to affix them.
But it was fairly the journey for Gay. He fanned a 5-iron into the bushes on the par-5 thirteenth after beginning the second spherical on the again 9 of Concession. He twice went into the bushes making an attempt to take his drive over the bunkers on the par-5 seventeenth after which lipped out and took double bogey.
Gay made a par on the following par 5 at No. 3, however solely after hitting his second shot right into a palmetto bush, taking a penalty drop and getting up-and-down. But he obtained his reward with an eagle on the par-5 eighth and closed with a birdie.
“Another pretty good day. A little volatile,” Gay stated. “Pretty similar to yesterday, except I butchered a couple of par 5s. Two of them with one bad tee ball, two good tee balls, but other than that, I putted well again. Just a couple of balls in the bushes.”
Hend is aware of all about unstable. In the opening spherical, the Aussie went eagle-double bogey after which later birdie-double bogey on his entrance 9. He managed to rally with three straight birdies to open with a 69. It was a a lot cleaner card Friday.
“I was disappointed in yesterday’s two double bogeys on the back nine, so I wanted to play that nine a bit smarter and a bit better today, so I didn’t short-side myself as much as what I did yesterday,” he stated. “And it seemed to work out quite well.”
Hend additionally took benefit of enjoying in the morning, the primary one out when the greens had been pure and the wind had not arrived alongside the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Cink was inside one shot of the lead till a bogey on his final gap. Goosen was bogey-free with simply three birdies, solely one in all them on the par 5s.
Justin Hicks had the low rating among the many membership professionals and one other 69 left him 4 pictures behind, together with Steve Allan, Greg Chalmers and Soren Kjeldsen.
Bernhard Langer, the 68-year-old German who shot his age or decrease for the forty third time in the opening spherical with a 66, was 10 pictures worse on Friday with a 76. That left him eight behind.
