EUROPEAN SENIORS TOUR

LONGMUIR SHARES LEAD, CHILLAS
ONLY THREE STROKES BEHIND

After a disappointing first half of the year on the US Seniors circuit, where his travails on the greens have cost him dear, Scotland's Bill Longmuir rediscovered his putting stroke to share the lead at the Bad Ragaz PGA Seniors Open in Switzerland.
Longmuir had 27 putts in his second round of eight under par 62 - seven fewer than on day one - and will now go into Sunday's final round tied at the top with England's Nick Job (64) and Spain's Juan Quiros (61) on nine under par 131.
The trio are two shots ahead of England's Carl Mason (67) and overnight co-leader John Bland (68) of South Africa, who are both on seven under par.
Longmuir, who mixed eight birdies with 10 pars for his 62, said: "That is the first time I have walked off the course this year and been happy with my score. For some reason I started holing some putts and that made such a difference to everything: it changed my body language and improved my ball striking. It had such a big effect."
The now US-based Scot, who is chasing his sixth victory on the European Seniors Tour, gained his card to the 2006 US Champions Tour with an impressive series of performances at last year's Qualifying School in California.
So far he has failed to replicate that form in competition this season, due, in the main, to the putting problems which have seen him average 31 putts a round: a statistic that leaves him languishing in 84th place on the US Champions Tour Putting Stats.
However, some recent sessions with Birmingham-based putting coach Paul Hurring have given Longmuir a much-needed lift and he produced his best putting display of the year on some difficult greens at Bad Ragaz Golf Club, where heavy rain has fallen over the past few days.
Quiros also impressed on the greens, requiring just 24 putts in his round of nine under par 61, the best score of the day.

LEADING SECOND-ROUND TOTALS


131 Nick Job (Eng) 67 64, Juan Quiros (Esp) 70 61, Bill Longmuir (Sco) 69 62.
133 Carl Mason (Eng) 66 67, John Bland (SAf) 65 68.
134 Peter Teravainen (USA) 70 64, John Chillas (Sco) 67 67, José Rivero (Spa) 67 67, David J Russell (Eng) 68 66.
135 Stewart Ginn (Aus) 65 70, Bertus Smit (SAf) 68 67, Horacio Carbonetti (Arg) 68 67.
136 Luis Carbonetti (Arg) 68 68.
137 Bob Cameron (Eng) 70 67, Bobby Lincoln (RSA) 71 66, Mike Miller (Sco) 68 69, Gery Watine (Fra) 73 64, Martin Gray (Sco) 68 69, Jim Rhodes (Eng) 71 66, Doug Johnson (USA) 68 70.
138 Alan Tapie (USA) 70 68, Adan Sowa (Arg) 68 70, Giuseppe Cali (Ita) 70 68, Bill Hardwick (Can) 71 67, Katsuyoshi Tomori (Jap) 66 72, Jimmy Heggarty (NIr) 69 69.
139 Gavan Levenson (SAf) 69 70, Paul Leonard (NIr) 67 72, Ronald Stelten (USA) 71 68, Bob Larratt (Eng) 69 70.