Rocco Mediate played the first 13 holes in 9 under and closed with five pars for a 62 on Thursday to match the Senior PGA Championship and Harbor Shore records.
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The 53-year-old Mediate entered the day four strokes ahead at a tournament-record 14 under on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Harbor Shores course.
Mediate finished at 19-under 265 to break the tournament record of 268 set by Sam Snead in 1973 at PGA National.
Mediate broke through with the PGA Tour Champions major victory almost eight years after losing the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines to Tiger Woods on the first extra hole after an 18-hole playoff.
Montgomerie, aiming to become just the third player in the championship’s history to win three in a row, will now compete in the final group as he seeks his fourth major title in the senior ranks.
German Bernhard Langer (67) and American Brandt Jobe (68) tied for third at 13-under. He won the Senior PGA Professional in October to top the club pro qualifiers. To come back here, I wanted to make a good showing of it. Mike Goodes shot 64, and Kenny Perry, Kirk Triplett and club pro John DalCorobbo were another stroke back.
“I was ecstatic with today, believe it or not, ” Mediate said.
“Solid stuff”, Mediate said.
Mediate played alongside two-time defending champion Colin Montgomerie and Perry. I really did. I wanted to come here and contend on Saturday night. The six-time PGA Tour victor became the first wire-to-wire victor in the event since Nicklaus in 1991 at PGA National.
On Friday, Mediate started play on the 10th tee and birdied the par-4 16th and 18th. In Alabama, he won his sixth major championship as a senior and joined Nicklaus as the only players to win four different senior majors.
At 17-under 263, Spieth finished three strokes ahead of Harris English (66) at the Dean & Deluca Invitational.
Mediate also became the first wire-to-wire victor of the Senior PGA Championship in 25 years.
This time around – in his third Champions Tour start – Daly’s quint ended a roller-coaster ride of birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey-quintuple on his third through seventh holes of the day.
Wood had a front-nine 29 and held a four-stroke lead after a birdie at No. 11, but dropped shots on Nos. He has a PGA Tour-high eight top-10 finishes this season. News stories displayed here appear in our category for Sports and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.
Three share lead in Wentworth • Y.E. Yang, Scott Hend and Joost Luiten shot 7-under 65s to share the lead after the first round of the European Tour BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
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So Yeon Ryu (67), Marina Alex (67) and first-round leader Christina Kim (71) were tied for second.
