First-round leader Scott Parel and Retief Goosen are 2 strokes back.
Staff Reports
PITTSFORD, N.Y. — KitchenAid Senior PGA Champion Paul Broadhurst, 53, is mounting quite a title defense. With a two-day total of 137, which includes Friday’s 3-under-par 67, Broadhurst is tied for the lead with Esteban Toledo at Oak Hill Country Club.
Broadhurst is on hallowed ground for defending champions, as Curtis Strange finished his back-to-back script on the East Course at the 1989 U.S. Open (he won the 1988 U.S. Open at The Country Club). Broadhurst, who played bogey-free golf Friday (only player in the field to do this), added birdies on Nos. 7, 10, and 11. He has never led or co-led a PGA Tour Champions Major at the 36-hole mark.
Another day of unsettled weather led to a shuffle of the leaderboard with Broadhurst and Toledo vaulting 15 players. Both players carded 3-under-par 67 to reach 3-under 137 on Oak Hill’s East Course.
“Moving Day” is most often associated with Saturday in the game of golf, but Toledo made his move Friday. After holding serve with an even-par 70 on Thursday, Toledo’s 67 Friday afternoon gave him a share of the 36-hole lead in the Senior PGA Championship, along with Broadhurst.
Toledo is a four-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions, but his best finish in a PGA Tour Champions major came at the 2015 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at French Lick Resort, when he finished alone in second, four shots behind Colin Montgomerie. Toledo fashioned five birdies on Friday and was in the lead after 16 holes, but a bogey on 17 relegated him into a tie for the top spot.
Toledo withdrew from last year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship after one round due to a back injury.
First-round leader Scott Parel and Retief Goosen were two strokes back.
Parel shot 73, making consecutive double bogeys on Nos. 17 and 18. Goosen had a 72.
There were 21 players within 6 shots of the leaders. The group includes Jesper Parnevik and Rocco Mediate at 2 over, and Corey Pavin and Brandt Jobe among seven players at 3 over.
After 15 players carded sub-par scores in the opening round, only four managed to shoot in the 60s on Friday. Aside from Broadhurst and Toledo, Champions Tour money leader Scott McCarron and Mike Goodes both shot 69 to move into a tie for 42nd.
At the halfway mark of the Senior PGA Championship, only 4 players are under par: Paul Broadhurst (-3), Esteban Toledo (-3), Retief Goosen (-1), and Scott Parel (-1).
The cut was set at 9-over 149, halving the 156-player field to 78 entering the weekend. Greece native Jeff Sluman carded an 80 and missed the cut in his final competitive tournament in Rochester.
There is more unsettled weather in store for the third round. With thunderstorms in the forecast Saturday afternoon, officials moved up the third-round tee times to between 7 and 9:12 a.m., with groups going out threes rather than twos. A series of late-morning storms led to the opening round being delayed by 2 hours, 15 minutes.