Rod Pampling one behind Bernhard Langer at US Senior Open
Rod Pampling – during today’s second round – image USGA
Rod Pampling has followed up his opening round of 68, which saw him leading after day one of the US Senior Open, with a second round of 72 and at the halfway mark of senior golf’s most significant tile he trails only Bernhard Langer by one shot as the event enters the weekend at Sentry World at Stevens Point in Wisconsin.
On a golf course where only five players would finish the opening 36 holes under par and only three rounds in the 60’s were recorded by the whole field over the opening two days, Pampling is one shot behind Langer and one ahead of Retief Goosen, Dicky Pride and Jerry Kelly.
53 year old Pampling played amongst the afternoon field on day two and recorded one birdie and two bogeys in his solid round on one of the most demanding layouts in recent memory in this event, so much so that a score of 9 over par would make the cut in the field of 156.
“Yeah, it was nice,” said Pampling. “I hadn’t been sort of in a situation like this in a major for a while. I’ve had a lot of good events, but not the lead. To handle the situation, I think I played pretty solid out there.
“Just, had a few breaks here and there. The putter didn’t cooperate as well as it did yesterday. Nothing to stress about. Just go home and little cool down session now. Yeah, just address the speed of the greens, and it will be fine.
“The greens are a little bit tricky this afternoon. I never had the nice putts yesterday, so was always a lot more break today. My speed was just a bit off. I’d played mostly in the morning, so, yeah, I was just coming up a bit short. I’ll address that now and be ready to go tomorrow.”
Pampling is chasing his second PGA Tour Champions title after winning the Boeing Classic in 2020 but the man he is chasing, Langer, is in pursuit of his 46th title on the Champions Tour.
New Zealand’s Steve Alker began with a round of 76 yesterday but through ten holes today had worked himself into the top ten with three birdies but he would drop five shots in his last five holes for a round of 73 and is now 29th and nine shots from the lead.
Mark Hensby and Richard Green were the only other Australasians to make the weekend and they did so right on the number with second rounds of 76 and 80 respectively.
