Bernhard Langer takes the opening round lead at The Senior Open Championship
Bernhard Langer shot an six-under par 64 on Thursday, in the opening round of The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex in Ayrshire, Scotland, taking advantage of perfect scoring conditions at Turnberry Ailsa links.
He birdied three holes each before and after the turn to take a one-stroke lead over Mark McNulty. David Frost, Tom Lehman, Jay Don Blake, Michael Allen and Chien Soon Lu were further a stroke back, sharing the third spot on the leaderboard.
Langer won the Senior Open in 2010, when it was last held on the Scottish soil. He also called it as one of the highlights of his career.
The very next week saw him record the second senior major title victory of his career, as he defeated Fred Couples with a three-stroke margin at the US Senior Open.
This year, he is once again targeting the same result with a consistent play over the whole week.
“I’m very pleased with the way I played,” he said. “I played smart, played well, hit some good drives, good iron shots and made a few putts. I maybe even left a couple of putts out there, as well. But overall, it was very solid. No blemishes”.
“The only trouble really I had was the 18th,” he added. “I drove it in the fairway bunker but I had checked it out in practice, that bunker is maybe the only one on the whole golf course where you have a chance to reach the green. I didn't reach
the green but I got close enough to get it up and down”.
This year, Langer has played a total of three 50-and-over tour’s events so far and succeeded in recording top-five finishes in each of them.
He almost won the third senior major championship of his career at the US Senior Open. However, he faltered in the final round and lost by a two-stroke margin to Roger Chapman.
According to him, he was really disappointed after he lost to Chapman, as the game was completely in his control and he lost it in the final moments. He now believes that he can recover the wounds with a victory this week.
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