Bernhard Langer Leads Halfway Through Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS

Jul 12, 2013; Omaha, NE, USA; (Editors note: Caption correction) Bernhard Langer gestures to the gallery after making his putt on the seventh green during the second round of the 2013 U.S. Senior Open at the Omaha Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Bernhard Langer stepped onto the 18th tee with a one shot lead and hit a drive that landed in the fairway.

Despite this, he had a problem, the driver that Langer had used for more than two years was broken.

“As I picked up my tee I heard it rattle in my driver head and I’m going, wow, what’s the rattling for,” Langer said. “I grabbed the head, it was loose, so something broke inside the screw that holds the shaft in I think that’s broken. I have to go and see the tour rep down there or the guy that repairs the clubs and see if he can fix that one or I have to go to my backup driver.”

Langer would recover finishing the rough off with a birdie and a two stroke advantage over Doug Garwood and Bill Glasson at the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS.

The highlight of Langer’s round came on the par 4 seventh hole when his tee shot missed the green. Langer would hole a 25 yard pitch for an eagle to move to 8 under par for the tournament.

“I went for the green with a driver and pulled it a little bit left and didn’t have much of a shot,” said Langer. “I short-sided myself and landed the pitch just perfect and it rolled right in, so that was a bonus.”

Langer leads the Champions Tour in both scoring average and greens in regulation and shot a 6 under par 64 despite his first bogey of the tournament on the 13th hole. The Golf Channel broadcast thought Langer did well to leave the 13th green with a bogey.

“I hit a good 3-wood, had mud on the ball with my second shot and the ball just took off left into the trees under a branch,” Langer said. “Horrible lie, so I chipped it over the green. I had a branch in my backswing as well so I had no backswing. Somehow managed to thin it and hit it over the green.”

Langer’s two round stroke count of 129 is one shy of the tournament record set by Fred Couples a year ago. In addition, it was his second lowest 36 hole score on the Champions Tour.

After coming in with low expectations, Doug Garwood finds himself two shots back with the potential for his third consecutive top 10 finish.

Garwood started the season as a conditionally-exempt player placing eighth in the fall National Qualifying Tournament at TPC Scottsdale after a double bogey on the second playoff hole. He was in the first tee time of the day at 7:45 a.m. and had four birdies and two bogeys on the front nine with pars sandwiched between on holes 3 and 6.

Garwood went 1 under par on the back nine with birdies on 16 and 18. His round of 67 is his eighth consecutive sub-par round on the Champions Tour although that does not necessarily change his mindset.

“I really don’t have goals or expectations as far as the rest of the tournament,” said Garwood. “I stay in the now pretty much and just deal with what’s right in front of me. Not even thinking about the weekend yet.”

Also two behind is Bill Glasson who has shot under par in nine of his 10 rounds at Fox Chapel Golf Club. Glasson used a long putter en route to a 4 under par front nine and had three birdies on the back nine to shoot 64.

“I was surprised that we were playing the ball down and I was happy that we were playing late in the day playing the ball down,” Glasson said. “I think that had, if there was an advantage to be had, that was it, the fact that we played late with the ball down.”

Glasson recorded top 10’s in the past two Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS.

Of note: Kenny Perry shot the low round of the day with a 63. He shot the same 63 in the second round of last year’s tournament.

Dick Mast had the shot of the day holing his second shot on the 13th hole on the fly… Bobby Clampett has gone 169 holes without a three putt… Perry [63], Michael Allen [64] and Loren Roberts [66] were the lone golfers not to record a bogey… Nick Price withdrew following the second round citing his back.

Tee times will start at 7:55 a.m. and other than the first group, everyone will tee off in groups of three. Langer, Garwood and Glasson will comprise the final group which starts at 12:41 p.m.

He said it: “He’s playing flawless golf. The only reason he made bogey on that 13th hole, he had a mud ball that shot it way left of the green. He’s hitting it perfect, so he’s going to be a hard man to catch. I’m going to have to keep shooting 62s to catch him.” – Kenny Perry on Bernhard Langer.