Round 2 Notes: Senior Open Championship

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Weather: Sunny early giving way to cloudy skies later in the day. Temperatures were in the mid-60s with light wind from the NW at 5-10 mph.

• Current Leaderboard: T1 -- Mark Calcavecchia/Lee Rinker/Rod Spittle (-7); 4 -- Peter Fowler (-5); T5 --John Cook/Mike Goodes (-4); T7 -- Barry Lane/Corey Pavin/Bob Tway (-3).

SENIOR BRITISH

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• Three are tied for the lead through 36 holes of the 2011 Senior Open Championship. It marked the first time since the 2004 event that as many as three players shared the second-round lead. Mark Calcavecchia, the 1989 Open Championship winner at Troon, started with birdies on his first two holes and fashioned a 3-under 69 in the morning to become the first player to the 7-under number. Calcavecchia was later joined at the top by Lee Rinker, a rookie this year on the Champions Tour, and finally by Canadian Rod Spittle, the winner of last year's AT&T Championship as an open qualifier. After shooting 70 yesterday at Walton Heath, Rinker added a bogey-free, 5-under 67 in the afternoon today to move into a tie for the lead. Spittle came on late in the day, making birdies on five of his final 9 holes to also shoot 67 today.

• Both Mark Calcavecchia and Lee Rinker are searching for their first victories on the Champions Tour.Earlier this year at the Regions Tradition, the Champions Tour's first major in 2011, Calcavecchia was three strokes in front after 36 holes and ended up T5 after a final-round 75 at Shoal Creek. His overall best finish in 26 previous starts on the Champions Tour is a distant second to David Frost at last year's 3M Championship in Minnesota. Both Spittle and Rinker have never been in this position as members of the Champions Tour. Rinker was last in this position on the PGA TOUR when he was tied for the 36-hole lead at the 1997 GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic and eventually finished second. Earlier this year at West Des Moines, Iowa, Rinker shot 65-64 on the weekend to finish T6 at the Principal Charity Classic, his best effort to date on the Champions Tour.

• Since the Senior Open Championship became an official event in 2003, in four of the previous eight years, a 36-hole leader/co-leader has gone on to win -- Bernard Langer (2010), Bruce Vaughan (2008), Loren Roberts (2006) and Pete Oakley (2004). Over the last eight years, no player that has gone on to win has been worse than T4 after 36 holes and that was Tom Watson in 2005 when he came from five strokes back over the last two days at Royal Aberdeen and then eventually defeated Des Smyth in a playoff.

• The last 36-hole leader/co-leader to win a major championship on the Champions Tour was Bernhard Langer at last year's U.S. Senior Open near Seattle.

• From the starting field of 144, a total of 76 players (74 professionals, 2 amateurs) made the 36-hole cut of 4-over 148. It matches the lowest to par in Senior Open Championship history. The 36-hole cut at the 2003, 2006 and 2009 Senior Opens also came at 4-over. Among the casualties missing the cut this year were Jay Don Blake (+5) who T3 last year at Carnoustie, Pete Oakley (+6), the winner of the 2004 Senior Open, and Bruce Vaughan (+11), the 2008 Senior Open champion.

• There have been 11 eagles made at the par-5 2nd hole thru two rounds and Mike Goodes eagled the hole for the second consecutive day. Steve Jones became the 13th different player on the 2011 Champions Tour to make two eagles in a round. In posting a 2-under 70 today, Jones eagled the par-5 2nd hole and then made a 2 at the difficult par-4 16th hole, the only eagle on a par-4 hole in Round 2.

• Kevin Spurgeon of England jumped 90 spots into a T17 in the standings after firing a second-round 66 today, the low score of the championship thus far. After posting 77 on Thursday, Spurgeon made eight birdies in his Friday round to improve his score from the previous day by 11 strokes. Spurgeon's lone victory on the European Seniors Tour came at the 2010 Mauritius Commercial Bank Open.

• Three-time Senior Open champion Tom Watson rallied from a 75 yesterday by carding a bogey-free 68 at Walton Heath today. Watson's round included birdies on three of his final six holes. Watson, also a fivetime Open Championship winner, improved 55 spots in the standings into a T17, six back of the leaders.

• Bernhard Langer, the defending champion in the event, went the other way. After shooting 2-under 70 on Thursday, Langer struggled with 76 and is T43 at Walton Heath after 36 holes. It was his highest score in this championship of the 14 rounds he's played.

• There were 32 sub-par rounds today compared to 27 yesterday. The second-round scoring average at Walton Heath was 73.99 (+1.99) compared to 74.55 (+2.55) on Thursday.

• Through two rounds, the hardest hole at Walton Heath has been the par-4 16th, yielding one eagle (Steve Jones) and just 12 birdies. The stroke average of the hole is 4.40.

• Craig Stadler withdrew before the start of the round for medical reasons. David Russell retired after 12 holes due to a knee injury. Massy Kuramoto retired after three holes today with a shoulder injury.