FRISCO, Texas – The Senior PGA Championship wasn’t Stewart Sink’s first choice for his first tournament after turning 50.
The potential prize will be much more than a consolation.
Cink shot his second consecutive 4-under 68 and trailed Padraig Harrington by four shots after the second round of the Senior PGA Friday at the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Texas.
Harrington followed his opening 64 with a bogey-free 68 and was 12-under with a 132. Japan’s Katsumasa Miyamoto was behind Harrington in his PGA debut after a 69.
Steve Stricker, who won his first major of the season two weeks ago at the Districts mimicry, shot a 67 and was at 7-under.
Making his PGA Tour Champions debut four days after his 50th birthday, Cink belatedly committed to the event 35 miles north of Dallas.
Cink, an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 2009 British Open, wanted to make sure he wasn’t out on the field at Colonial in Fort Worth, about 60 miles from Frisco’s Fields Ranch East PGA course.
He never imagined he’d get to challenge Charles Schwab, and is more than happy to take on players he’s used to seeing all the time on the regular tour.
“When I didn’t get into Colonial, I didn’t feel very upset,” Sink said. “I was really looking forward to playing here as a back-up. So it’s been a fun week. At least it lived up to my expectations, maybe more.”
Cink still wants to play on the regular tour, and specifically tries to keep himself in the running for lucrative events with the elevated handbags that were a response to LIV Golf.
said Cink, whose second outing was less eventful with five birds and a bogey after an eagle, five birds and three bogeys in his debut at Champions.
“I think if I just switched to this tour right away and played the rest of the summer right away, and never gave myself a chance to play in those big tournaments, I think I would look back and say, ‘Why didn’t I at least give it a chance?
Stricker digs for an eagle of 88 yards on 14 par-5 and climbed into the top 10, finishing all eight champions this year with two victories. The 56-year-old has a record 47 consecutive rounds of par or better.
“I expect to play well,” Stricker said. “I don’t know where that leads me, this will lead me.” who was almost entrenched in his approach Also on 5 18th. “But I expect to get up there and play well and have confidence in my game and what I’ve been doing lately.”
Cink and his wife Lisa, a cancer survivor who is pregnant with her husband, recently turned 50. Celebrate her historic milestone in Las Vegas and Zion National Park in Utah before heading to the Bahamas for more parties.
“We’ve been doing a lot of partying, having fun and kind of kicking,” Sink said. “Kind of a reminiscence situation. We were thinking back to the way we were feeling, like it was like this (finger tapping) that we just got started on the PGA Tour and now here we go for a new Tour at 50.”
Darren Clarke, the 2011 British Open champion, and South Korean Yi Yang, the Dallas resident who won the 2009 PGA Championship, both opened with 69 consecutive seconds. They are six years old with Alex Seca (70) and Adelson da Silva.
“Yesterday, I didn’t play great and then I finished strong,” Clark said. “Today I played really well all day. I kept giving myself chances to nine back there. Then I swung badly to 16. I totally misjudged the shot to 17. So I made two late bogeys like that, and that kind of tastes bad in your mouth.” .”
The South African-raised Brazilian who is playing in the United States for the first time, da Silva reached minus 8 before turning 71.
Defending champion Stephen Alker is last again at 5-under after 69.