Defending champion Colin Mongtomerie and Germany’s Bernhard Langer are in contention at the halfway mark of the US Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid at Harbor Shores.
The European pair posted second rounds of 66 and 64 respectively to move to nine under par and into a share of third place, five shots behind pacesetter Rocco Mediate, who followed his opening round 62 with a 66 to lead on 14 under par.
Langer surged up the leader board thanks to eight birdies and one bogey as he looks to make it back-to-back wins in America following victory in the Regions Tradition last week.
"The last few weeks I drove it really well," said Langer. "I found something last week, changed my swing thought slightly on the driver and I drove it the best I probably I have ever driven it in my life two rounds in a row. I didn't miss one fairway on Saturday or Sunday. Not one. And there's a couple of tight fairways out there. That set me up for aggressive second shots and it was key. I'm still driving it good. I haven't hit many bad tee shots here."
Langer is targeting a career grand slam in the one Senior Major Championship he has yet to win.
"The clock is ticking," he said. "I'm going to be 59 soon. So, the longer I wait, the harder it's going to get. But last week was a special tournament for me, not just because I hadn't won that tournament either, but it was my 100th victory as a professional golfer and that's pretty unique. Not a lot of people get to that number."
Montgomerie is going for a hat-trick of victories in the US Senior PGA Championship, having won his maiden Senior Major in 2014 at Harbor Shores.
But the Scot will have to reel in Mediate, who is looking to add his own Senior Major to the two PGA Tour Champions victories after winning six times on the PGA Tour.
"I haven't been here in a long time," said Mediate. "I'm looking forward to trying to drive it in the first fairway and see what happens from there. That's all you can really do. They're going to be coming and it's going to be fun. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's nervy. It's cool."
