Ryan Armour and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson moved into a tie with first-round leader Y.E. Yang of South Korea on Saturday after 36 holes of the PURE Insurance Championship in Monterrey, Calif.
Stenson, a rookie on the PGA Tour Champions, shot a 5-under-par 67 at Pebble Beach Golf Links to move up four spots to tie at the top of the leaderboard at 8-under 136 with one round to play on Sunday.
Yang, who was up by three strokes after his 64 on Friday at Pebble Beach, carded an even-par 72 on Saturday at Spyglass Hill Golf Course. Armour, who shot 5-under 67 on Friday at Pebble Beach, posted a 3-under 69 at Spyglass.
Zach Johnson (68 at Spyglass) and New Zealand’s Steven Alker (68 at Pebble Beach) are tied for fourth, one stroke back at 7 under.
Armour carded birdies at Nos. 3, 10, 14 and 15 before dropping a stroke with his lone bogey at the par-4 No. 16.
“I actually drove it poorly for me, which I was missing some fairways and hitting in places I usually have not seen,” Armour said. “But iron game was solid, stayed below the hole quite a bit. Then I holed some putts on the back nine, made a solid putt on 10, 14, 15. Then barely missed one on 17. Let one get away from me on 16. But overall, when I can get out of here at 3 under at Spy, I’m happy.”
Yang got off to a rough start at Spyglass with bogeys at the par-5 No. 1 and par-4 No. 2, but got the strokes back with birdies at a pair of par-4 holes, Nos. 8 and 9, to make the turn at even-par 36. He rebounded from a bogey at the par-5 No. 14 with a birdie at the par-3 15th hole.
Stenson countered his lone bogey at the par-4 No. 4 at Pebble Beach with birdies at Nos. 2, 6, 7, 14, 17 and 18.
The 50-year-old said he’s making “slow progress” as the six-time winner on the PGA Tour plays more competitive golf in his first year on the senior tour. His first event was the Senior PGA Championship in April, followed by the U.S. Senior Open in July. This is his sixth event on tour.
“I had eight and a half months with no competition up until April and it really kicked on from the Senior U.S. Open was the start of my season,” Stenson said. “Yeah, I feel like I’ve been a work in progress, making some progress, and even after that break I would say it’s more positives than negatives. Yeah, we keep chipping away and working on things and yeah, nice to be in this position. See what we can do tomorrow.”
Three golfers are tied for sixth at 6 under: Paul Goydos, Kirk Triplett and Australia’s Michael Wright.
