Vijay Singh of Fiji and Y.E. Yang of South Korea each carded a 4-under-par 68 and tied first-round leader Cameron Percy of Australia for the top spot through two rounds of the Senior PGA Championship on Friday in Bethesda, Md.
The leaders stand at 6-under 138, and 12 players are within three strokes of them at the major championship being held at Congressional Country Club.
The group at 4 under par includes major winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland, while major champions Stewart Cink and Justin Leonard are in the fivesome at 3 under.
Both Singh and Yang improved their scores after posting 70 in the first round. Singh bogeyed his first three holes to balloon to 3 over for the tournament, but made birdies on the fifth, eighth and ninth holes to card a 36 on the front side. He extended his birdie streak to four at the 10th and 11th holes and added two more at Nos. 14 and 16 to tie for the lead.
“It was pretty cold in the morning. I don’t like cold,” said Singh “Rough start; I bogeyed my first three holes. I said, ‘Well, here we go.’ I was planning for the weekend off.
“But my caddie said, ‘Just keep going.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been playing very well. I’ve been driving the ball good.’ 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.”
Similarly, Yang got off to a difficult start. He started on the back nine and was 2 over after bogeying the 13th and 14th holes. But Yang got those shots back with birdies at Nos. 15 and 18 and finished in brilliant fashion, recording birdies on four of his final five holes to card a 32 on the front nine.
Percy followed up his opening-round 67 with a 1-under mark in cool early-morning conditions on Friday. He birdied his final hole to get to 6 under.
The field averaged 74.80 on Friday after posting an aggregate 74.78.
Harrington moved up 20 spots after his 69 on Friday.
“I like being 4 under a lot more than 1 under, that’s for sure,” said Harrington. “At 1 under I was feeling like I was — like (caddie Ronan Flood) said it to me when we got through the first hole, he said, ‘Look, we’ve only played 28 holes. There’s still a long way to go in this tournament.'”
–Field Level Media
