U. S. Senior Open – Kirk Triplett & Kenny Perry Share Lead After Round Two – Interviews & Notes

PEABODY – (Radio & Photos) Kirk Triplett fired a 3 under par 67 Friday in the second round to move to 11 under after two rounds. Kenny Perry shot a 64 Friday and is tied for the lead at 11 under par with Triplett.

Interviews Below

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The 129s by Kirk Triplett (62-67) and Kenny Perry (65-64) are the lowest 36-hole totals in U.S. Senior Open history. Michael Allen held the record, shooting 130 at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club. Triplett and Allen were college teammates at the University of Nevada.

The 11-under-par totals by Triplett and Perry also tie Tim Jackson (2009) for the lowest 36-hole score in relation to par in championship history.

In the 2001 U.S. Senior Open at Salem Country Club, only one player (Isao Aoki) had a sub-par score through 36 holes. At present, 43 players are under par (play was suspended at 6:41 p.m. EDT due to inclement weather, with 24 players left to complete their second rounds at 6:45 a.m. EDT on Saturday).

Of the 132 completed rounds on Friday, 37 were under par. There are 24 golfers yet to complete their round and two of them are under par for the day. The record for most sub-par scores in a second round at a U.S. Senior Open is 39, set at Inverness Club in 2011. The record for any round is 40, set during the first round of this year’s championship.

The 36-hole cut is projected at 1-over 141, which would be the lowest cut score and also the lowest score in relation to par in U.S. Senior Open history. The previous low was 2-over 144 at Inverness Club in the 2011 championship.

No players carded a bogey-free round on Friday. Six players had bogey-free rounds on Thursday.

For the second consecutive day, the par-4 second hole played as the most difficult in the 2017 U.S. Senior Open. It played to a stroke average of 4.55 in the second round. There were more bogeys (77) than pars (67) at No. 2 on Friday.

Tom Watson (69-69) and Bernhard Langer (67-65) tied Hale Irwin for most rounds in the 60s (21) in their U.S. Senior Open careers. Watson also tied Jack Nicklaus for second place in most sub-par rounds (26), trailing only Irwin, who has 27.

Gene Sauers (5-over 145) will be just the third defending champion to miss the cut in the U.S. Senior Open in the last 11 years. Roger Chapman missed the cut in 2013, and Allen Doyle missed it in 2007.

Tom Lehman (58) and Bernhard Langer (59) are both attempting to become the oldest U.S. Senior Open champion. Allen Doyle (57 years, 11 months, 14 days) won the 2006 U.S. Open at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.

Kirk Tripplett – Scottsdale, Arizona (62, 67 – 129) -11