Richard Green of Australia birdied his final two holes Friday to shoot a 4-under-par 68 and carry a one-shot lead at the Regions Tradition into the weekend in Birmingham, Ala.
Green is at 13-under 131 after opening the first senior major of the season with a 63. His closest competitor is New Zealand’s Steven Alker, who shot 67 Friday to climb to 12 under.
Green and Alker are comfortably ahead of a group tied for third at 9 under: Chris DiMarco (65), Y.E. Yang of South Korea (68) and Germany’s Alex Cejka (69).
Green, 54, is vying for his first win on the PGA Tour Champions, major or otherwise.
“Good golf’s been brewing for a little while so it was nice to be hitting good iron shots and setting up putting opportunities,” Green said. “If I can keep doing that through the weekend, I’ll be happy.”
He started his round on the back nine at Greystone Golf & Country Club and had three straight birdies from Nos. 18 to 2. Still, three bogeys held him back before he stuck his second shot close at the par-4 eighth to set up a birdie.
Then Green rolled in a lengthy birdie putt at the par-4 ninth to reach 13 under.
“It was nice. It felt a little bit like probably what I should have got out of the day,” Green said of his finish. “I hit a lot of great iron shots and set up a lot of birdie chances and just missed ‘em all. They’re a bit tricky, some of the reads today, so I was pleased to have finished well.”
Alker, meanwhile, has nine PGA Tour Champions victories to his name, including one major, the 2022 Senior PGA Championship. He was not fully pleased Friday despite a card of six birdies and one bogey.
“It was just a couple of moments, ball-striking wasn’t quite as good as yesterday,” Alker said. “It’s a great feeling to shoot that score and be a little bit scrappy.”
The round of the day belonged to DiMarco, the 56-year-old who has yet to win on the senior tour.
He started his day with a bogey at the par-3 10th but quickly brushed it off by rolling in six birdies over the next eight holes. He added two more birdies on the front nine while keeping the card clean of bogeys.
DiMarco explained why he had plenty of reason to celebrate on Friday.
“My son (Cristian DiMarco) actually qualified for his first Korn Ferry event in Kansas City, so my wife and I are kind of watching his front nine and he was right down to the wire, he was even par,” DiMarco said. “I’m on 18, I’ve got about a 6-footer for birdie after playing really good on the back, I think I birdied five or six holes on the back with a little 8-footer, (and) my wife goes, ‘He made birdie to make the cut!’ So obviously I was, like, pretty pumped.
“Motivation, you know. Obviously so proud of my son and proud of myself today. I hung in there today.”
