Just as they did a year ago, Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer will go head to head into the final round of the Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid.
Last year Montgomerie held off Langer in the final round at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor to win is first Senior Major, and once again the two former European Ryder Cup teammates and later captains will meet again on Sunday as the final pair in the 76th Senior PGA Championship at the Dye Course in French Lick.
Montgomerie shot a two under par 70 on Saturday to take a three-shot advantage over Langer with one round to play, the German Langer climbing the leaderboard with a three under par 69 to get in the second position in a round that included a magnificent eagle on the par-4 eighth hole.
“Delighted with the day's performance,” said Mongomerie. “It was going to be tricky, of course it's going to be tricky, there's no question. It's a very, very difficult golf course. It's back to proper Major golf, this, where par means something. I was delighted only to drop one shot today, which happened to be the first from the middle of the fairway.
“But to play the rest of the round three under with no mistakes was a good effort. And I'm very proud of what I achieved today, because you had to play chess with the course. You have got to course manage your way around. It's a great challenge.”
Looking ahead to the final day where he will be aiming for a third Major in 12 months, he said: “Long day ahead tomorrow. There's seven miles to walk, and the emotions will go up-and-down like a roller coaster, we know that. But I came here to be in contention on Saturday evening and I am. So, job done so far.”
Langer birdied the last to keep himself in the frame and said: “I was very happy with the finish and finishing two under par for the tournament and in the hunt for tomorrow.
“A 69 is a pretty good score around here. The course is extremely demanding. If you don't hit the fairway, you don't know where you're going to end up. And I did that today. I hit a lot of fairways, gave myself some opportunities. There were still a couple of loose swings, but I had made some great swings.”
One of those was on the eighth where he holed a 7 iron from 162 yards although he then had two terrible lipouts. “All in all it evens out, I guess, somewhere.”
