GOLF DIGEST: US PGA TOUR: Pádraig Harrington made a fine start to the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston after a four-under par 67 left the three-time major winner inside the top 10 and some three shots better than the world's best player, Tiger Woods.
Having started on the 10th at TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts, the Dubliner eased into his round with six straight pars before the first birdie of the day came at the par-three 16th.
It would ignite Harrington for he closed-out the nine with an eagle three at the par-five 18th to turn in three-under 32. What some wouldn’t give for that score on the closing hole come Monday afternoon.
Further birdies came at the third and fourth but just when it looked like the 38-year-old would keep a bogey off the card, he dropped his only shot of the day at the sixth to drop back to four-under.
Harrington, who earlier in the week said he was done with “tinkering” with his swing, has shown a welcome return to form and is well-placed in this €5.2million event, the second of four in the FedEx Cup play-offs.
Harrington was joined on four-under by the likes of Sweden’s Daniel Chopra and Canada’s Stephen Ames, while Woods could only manage a 70, the same as Spain’s Sergio Garcia and Colombia’s Camilo Villegas.
World number four Steve Stricker was in the driving seat after an eight-under 63 left him two clear of a chasing pack that included Masters champion Angel Cabrera and the American trio of Scott Verplank, Justin Leonard and Matt Kuchar.
SENIORS: Australian Peter Senior, widely tipped in only his second European Senior Tour event, was looking a sound bet after opening his Travis Perkins plc Senior Masters account with a three-under-par 69 to lie in a three-way tie for the lead at Woburn Golf Club yesterday.
Senior joined Zimbabwe’s Tony Johnstone and Italy’s Costantino Rocca at the top of the leaderboard on a blustery first day at Woburn.
Scot Sam Torrance, meanwhile, is well placed to mount an assault on the summit of the European Senior Tour Order of Merit after an opening one-under-par 71.
Torrance, who needs a top four finish to overtake both Ian Woosnam and Mark McNulty in the race to finish number one, lies just two shots off the pace.
For 11 holes Senior was on fire, rolling in five birdies to pull clear of the field. But a bogey at the 12th and double bogey at the 14th saw him drop back before drawing level with the leaders with a birdie on the 17th.
CHALLENGE TOUR: Welshman Sion Bebb stormed to the top of the leaderboard at the Fred Olsen Challenge de España with a stunning eight-under-par 63 in the second round.
An eagle and six birdies on day two gave him the clubhouse lead at 11-under-par 131 at Tecina Golf in the Canary Islands, with Englishman Richard McEvoy five shots behind at six under after a five-under-par 66 in the second round.
Bebb has been in fine form of late, finishing in the top 15 in five of his last six events – three of which were top 10s.
