Notebook: Round 2, Senior British Open

text size

Weather: Mostly sunny and breezy with highs in the low 60s. Winds were from the SSW at 10-15 mph.

• Second-round Leaderboard: T1 -- Bernhard Langer/Corey Pavin (-4); T3 -- Dan Forsman/Jay Haas/Larry Mize/Ian Woosnam (-3); 7 -- Mark Calcavecchia (-2); T8 -- John Cook/Jay Don Blake/Russ Cochran (-1).

• Only four players have posted a pair of sub-par rounds after the first two rounds at the championship. Of the four, only Corey Pavin has two straight rounds in the 60s (69-69). The three others are Jay Haas (70-69), Larry Mize (69-70) and Mark Calcavecchia (70-70). Mize is bidding for his second straight win, having won the Montreal Championship two weeks ago. No Champions Tour player has won the event prior to the Senior British Open and then won the tournament. Tom Watson almost pulled off the feat. In 2003, Watson finished T2 at the Ford Senior Players Championship and then won the Senior British Open two weeks later, defeating Carl Mason in a playoff at Turnberry.

• Ian Woosnam and David J. Russell had the day's best showings. The pair each fired a 4-under-par 67. Russell's shaved eight strokes off his opening-round 75 and it moved him from a T61 on Thursday to T11 heading into the weekend.

• Scott Simpson made perhaps the day's biggest move. After an opening-round 78, Simpson shot a 2-under-par 69 on Friday and jumped from a T116 to T38.

• Defending champion Loren Roberts enters the weekend tied for 13th, five strokes behind co-leaders Bernhard Langer and Corey Pavin.

• The current co-leaders Langer and Pavin have something in common. Both have served or will serve as Ryder Cup captains. Langer led the victorious European squad in 2004, while Pavin is set to lead the U.S. team this fall in Wales.

• A total of 73 players made the cut at 7-over-par 149 out of a starting field of 144. None of the six amateurs in the field made the 36-hole cut.

• Back-to-back birdies by Bob Gilder allowed him to make the cut on the number. Gilder capped his comeback by chipping in from off the green at No. 18 to go from 8-under-par to 7-under-par.

• After two rounds No. 12 is the most difficult hole with an average score of 4.598. No. 18, which ranked as the most difficult on Thursday, is now second at 4.542. Only three players birdied No. 12 today -- Mark Carnevale, Kevin Spurgeon and Jeff Sluman.

• Tom Watson, a three-time winner of this event, currently stands T24, seven strokes behind.