After 54 holes at Oak Hill Country Club, Paul Broadhurst leads the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
Ahead of Sunday’s final round, here are some of today’s talking points from Rochester…
Broadhurst in new (but familiar) territory
A two-time Senior Major Champion since turning 50 in 2015, Paul Broadhurst will take a 54-hole lead into a Senior Major for the first time in his career.
In 2016, at Carnoustie, he overturned a four-stroke deficit to lift The Senior Open Presented by Rolex, and last year at Benton Harbor he came from two strokes behind to win the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
On the Staysure Tour in his two victories at the Scottish Open and win at the Paris Legends Championship, he has held the lead, or a share of it, going into the final round. In his two wins on the PGA Tour Champions circuit he has come from behind on both occasions going into the final day.
Strong short game leads to success
It should come as no surprise that Broadhurst is where he is on the leaderboard – he largely has his impressive short game to show for it.
He tops the leaderboard in scrambling, with 15 successful scrambles from 17 attempts and is also number one on sand saves. He is T8 for putts on greens in regulation, with just 68 over the first three rounds.
It’s not just his short game, however, which has been strong this week. He is also ranked second for driving accuracy, hitting 32 of 42 fairways.
Goosen flies into contention
Retief Goosen, who turned 50 in February, will go in search of his first professional victory in more than ten years as he attempts to overturn the two-stroke deficit after a second round of 67.
The South African, a two-time U.S. Open Champion and two-time European Tour Number One, last tasted victory in 2009 in the Transitions Championship on the US PGA Tour.
Goosen has three top-20 finishes in his fledgling senior career.
Oak Hill eases up - slightly
Despite two weather delays, the first lasting for more than two hours, a hole played under par for the first time at this Championship – two holes, in fact.
The par five fourth hole played an average of 4.9 strokes, while the par four 14thhole played at 3.9 strokes.
After scoring averages of 74.4 and 75.4 during the first two rounds respectively, today’s average was 73.
