American Marco Dawson leads defending champion Bernhard Langer by one shot at the halfway stage of the weather-affected Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex at Sunningdale Golf Club.
The 51 year old made four birdies on the front nine but bogeyed the 12th hole for a three under par second round of 67 to move to eight under par, with Langer poised on seven under par following a round of 68.
They will be joined in the final group for round three by Montgomerie, the three-time Senior Major Champion, who completed the final six holes of his second round on Saturday morning, birdieing the 14th hole for a second consecutive round of 67.
Montgomerie, who battled persistent heavy rain during the first 12 holes on Friday, is two shots back on six under par alongside American pair Jeff Sluman (69) and Fred Couples (66), Australian Peter Fowler (65) and Miguel Angel Jiménez, the Spaniard who finished his round of 69 with back-to-back bogeys.
Dawson claimed his first victory on the US Champions Tour at the Tucson Conquistadores Classic in March, and now finds himself at the top of a packed leaderboard of legends.
“It's nice,” he said. “It's only the halfway point. We had a bit of a delay, so it kind of throws things out of whack a little bit. We have to try to get as much as we can in today. We still have another two rounds. But yeah, it's nice.
“Lately, even though my stats don't show, I'm driving the ball well. I feel like I'm driving the ball well but I'm making a lot of putts. I had a three-putt back there but it was on the par five, and it was just, you know, a misread. But overall, I've been putting well so far this week.”
After a runaway 13-shot wire-to-wire win at Royal Porthcawl last year, Langer will have to make up a slender deficit this time, after five birdies and three bogeys in his round, including dropped shots on the 16th and 17th holes.
“It should be exciting the last two rounds,” said the two-time Masters Champion. “When you have a good venue like this, it's usually the cream that rises to the top, as they say, and you have got a great leaderboard at this point. I think that might continue as the tournament goes on.”
A total of 83 players made the cut on three over par – the most number of players to contest the final two rounds in the history of The Senior Open Championship.
