Senior British Open: Second-round notebook

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AYRSHIRE, Scotland -- This marks the first time in Bruce Vaughan's Champions Tour career that he has held sole possession of the lead after a round. The only other time he was atop the leaderboard was at last year's Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach where he shared the first round lead with Morris Hatalsky. He eventually finished tied for 21st.

Defending champ Tom Watson is just off the pace at Royal Troon. (Inglis/Getty Images)

• A total of 71 players made the cut at 10-over-par 152 from a field of 144 players.

• Gary Hallberg's 3-under-par 68 was the only sub-par round recorded on Friday. A total of 12 players posted rounds under par on Thursday. Hallberg is coming off a tie for second at the 3M Championship in Minnesota last Sunday. His 68 on Friday moved him up 55 places from a tie for 64th to ninth.

• Strangely, Eduardo Romero and defending champion Tom Watson find themselves in an almost identical spot were they were last year after 36 holes. In 2007 at Muirfield, Watson and Romero were 1 under par but were tied for second, one stroke behind last year's 36-hole leader Des Smyth. They are tied for third this year along with Bernhard Langer.

• Heading into Saturday's third round, only five players are below par after 36 holes. In addition to Bruce Vaughan (-3), John Cook (-2), Bernhard Langer (-1), Eduardo Romero (-1) and defending champion Tom Watson (-1) are under par.

• After two rounds, Ken Green is enjoying a successful debut on the Champions Tour. Green, a five-time winner on the PGA TOUR, turned 50 on Wednesday. He is currently tied for 13th after rounds of 75-71.

• Thanks to an eagle-par-birdie finish, Greg Norman finds himself eight shots off the lead after 36 holes. After opening with a 4-over-par 75 on Thursday, Norman followed with a 1-over-par 72 on Friday. He is coming off a fourth place finish at last week's British Open Championship, where he was the 54-hole leader.

• How big was Tom McKnight's eagle at No. 18? He was 12 over par heading to No. 18, but with his eagle he improved to 10 over par, making the cut right on the number. In addition, Juan Quiros made a birdie at the final hole to also make the cut. On the other hand, John Ross made a triple bogey at the final hole to miss the cut by one stroke. He finished eighth in this event a year ago.

• The most difficult hole on Friday was again No. 11 with an average score of 4.881 (+.881) after averaging 4.785 on Thursday. No. 9 was the second hardest at 4.727 (+.727). The easiest hole remained No. 16 at 4.699 (-.301) after averaging 4.916 (-.084) on Thursday.

• The field averaged 76.756 on Friday, a slight increase from the previous day when the field averaged 76.566.