Langer leads by two as he chases back to back Senior major titles

FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
SAMMAMISH, Wash. (AP) — Bernhard Langer waited much of Friday morning for the soupy fog on the Sammamish Plateau to finally lift. He spent the evening waiting for someone to make a charge up the leaderboard.
In between, Langer put himself in position for a second consecutive major championship.
Langer overcame a shaky front nine with an eagle and birdie on the inward half to take the lead at 3 under in the second round of the U.S. Senior Open as many of the other contenders simply tried to stay close entering the weekend.
After a fog delay of more than two hours brought play to a halt just before 8 a.m., Langer shot a 2-under 68 making a number of key putts on the back nine when his round easily could have slipped away.
"You never quite know. It's the type of golf course that any hole can get to you," said Langer, coming off a victory last week in the Senior British Open at Carnoustie. "You just got to be careful and hit good shots."
Langer was careful, not to mention a little fortunate with the putter Friday. He's the only player with two rounds in the 60s on the par-70 layout at Sahalee Country Club, and will take a two-shot lead into the third round.
If successful this week, Langer would be the first player on the Champions Tour to win consecutive majors since Tom Watson in 2003 in the Senior British Open and Tradition.
But Watson didn't win those titles in back-to-back weeks with eight time zones in between.
"This is a big enough event to pick yourself up and get motivated and get moving," Langer said. "I don't have a lot of problems with that."
While Langer managed to tame the ball-hawking tree limbs of Sahalee, others were far less successful. Only four players finished the second round under par, with another four sitting at even. First-round leader Bruce Vaughan gave back all of his 66 from Thursday before he made the turn. He shot 82.
Little known J.R. Roth had a 66, the best round of the day. He curled in a 25-foot bender on the 18th to finish at 1 under for the tournament. John Cook (68) and Tommy Armour III (68) also were 1 under.
"I think the way USGA sets up the golf course it really is good for me, because I'm just one of those guys that grinds it out," said Roth, playing in his first USGA event in 35 years.
Hometown favourite Fred Couples and Watson led the group at even par. Constantly trying to stretch out his always stiff back, Couples sent a wave of roars echoing between the cedars and firs of Sahalee when he dropped in a tricky 35-foot bender on the par-3 ninth that got Couples back to 1 under. A pair of bogeys early in his back nine pushed Couples to 1 over, but a birdie at No. 16 and pars on the last two holes left Couples right where he started.
"I didn't realize last year that they shot so many under, wherever they played," Couples said about Fred Funk's winning score of 20 under last year at Crooked Stick. "But I think that kind of killed us here because there may not be anyone under par when the tournament is over; it's that hard."
After a bogey at No. 1 and birdie at No. 2, Watson made 14 straight pars before a bogey at the 17th when his tee shot imbedded in the bank near the water hazard in front of the green. Watson took a drop, but chunked his chip and made bogey.
He rebounded with a birdie on the uphill par-4 18th, the second-toughest hole on the course.
Scott Simpson and Tom Kite wer 1 over, four shots back.
He was 1 over on the front nine after missing a short par putt on the ninth, then jump-started his round with an eagle on the long par 5 11th hole, sinking a 40-foot putt for the first eagle on the hole this week. Langer made long par saving putts on Nos. 12 and 15, then birdied the par-3 17th, knocking a 6 iron to six feet. Langer delicately two-putted on the 18th to finish his round.
"I hit it straight and made some putts. It's always the same, isn't it?" Langer said. "Just different venues, different conditions, but it's always same idea, hit it where you're looking and try and play smart."
While scores were generally closer to par than Thursday's first round when just eight players broke par, low scores were still tough to find. Larry Mize was 3 under on his round with two holes to play before a double bogey on his 17th hole. Roberts seemed poised to join Langer at 3 under before a double bogey at the 15th. Cook also made a pair of bogeys on his final three holes.
"Here there's no mystery, you just have to put the ball in the fairway and then you have to hit quality iron shots with the right trajectory and distance," Cook said. "Otherwise, you might as well just pack up and go, because it will eat you alive."
The second round had barely started when fog brought play to a halt. The low cloud deck engulfed the course and made it nearly impossible to see the end of the driving range. Play was stopped at 7:48 a.m. and the delay of 2 hours, 12 minutes pushed the afternoon starting times back. The final groups finished just after 9 p.m.
SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 140 (2x70)
137 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 69 68
139 John Cook 71 68, J.r. Roth 73 66, Tommy Armour III 71 68
140 Michael Allen 69 71, Loren Roberts 68 72, Tom Watson 70 70, Fred Couples 70 70
141 Tom Kite 72 69, Scott Simpson 70 71
142 Mark Calcavecchia 69 73, Joe Ozaki (Jpn) 69 73, Chien-Soon Lu (Tpe) 71 71, Javier Sanchez 71 71, J.L. Lewis 72 70
143 Olin Browne 73 70, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 71 72, Larry Mize 74 69, Jay Haas 70 73, Peter Senior (Aus) 73 70
144 Russ Cochran 75 69, Mike Reid 74 70, Keith Fergus 71 73, Tom Lehman 69 75
145 Jeff Hart 73 72, Joey Sindelar 74 71, Mark Wiebe 73 72, Don Pooley 72 73
146 Bruce Fleisher 77 69, Ralph West 71 75, John Morse 72 74, Fred Funk 76 70
147 Tom Purtzer 72 75, Jeff Sluman 73 74, Corey Pavin 72 75, Mark Johnson 75 72, James Mason 75 72, Tim Jackson 68 79, Jim Rutledge (Can) 73 74
148 Bruce Vaughan 66 82, Steven Hudson 73 75, Mike Goodes 73 75, Allen Doyle 72 76, David Frost (Rsa) 76 72, Jeff Thomsen 75 73, Jim Chancey 73 75, Bob Tway 73 75
149 Rich Parker 72 77, Gene Jones 78 71, Craig Stadler 74 75, Jim Roy 76 73, Morris Hatalsky 77 72, Bob Gilder 75 74, Bill Britton 76 73, Rod Spittle (Can) 75 74, Dan Forsman 78 71, John Grace (Ae) 74 75, Jon Fiedler 75 74
150 Gary Hallberg 73 77, Gil Morgan 76 74, Denis Watson (Zim) 79 71, Paul Trittler 77 73, Hal Sutton 73 77, Rod Nuckolls 73 77, Graham Marsh (Aus) 74 76, Mike Lawrence 77 73, Bill Sautter 73 77, Tsukasa Watanabe (Jpn) 75 75, Bob Niger 77 73
MISSED THE CUT
151 Andy Bean 76 75, R.W. Eaks 74 77, Casey Boyns 73 78, Mike Hulbert 75 76, Mark Houser 76 75, Ron Ptacek 72 79, Hale Irwin 73 78, John Jacobs 77 74
152 Ron Vlosich 75 77, John Adams 76 76, Mark O'Meara 75 77, Dave Eichelberger 78 74, Curt Byrum 79 73
153 Phil Blackmar 76 77, Christoffer Lange 75 78, Jerry Johnson 81 72, Rick Lewallen 80 73, Bob Ford (Eng) 79 74, Tommy Brannen 76 77
154 Jerry Courville 77 77, Robin Freeman 77 77, Mitch Adams 77 77
155 David Ogrin 79 76, Tom Jenkins 78 77, Trevor Dodds (Na) 78 77, Tim Parun 81 74
156 Pat Laverty 75 81, Will Copeland 78 78, Dale Douglass 78 78, Mike Donald 76 80, Ken Lacy 77 79
157 Dave Bell 82 75, Brad Bryant 79 78, Stacey Hart 79 78, Steve Krause 78 79, Ben Crenshaw 76 81, Glenn Ralph (Eng) 81 76, Mike Booker 76 81
158 Tom Bryant 79 79, Michael Paul 83 75, Lindy Miller 83 75, Buddy Marucci 76 82, Jeff Klein 80 78, Tom Brandes 82 76, Eddie Terasa 81 77, Kevin Klier 82 76
159 John Vaccaro 80 79, Pat Thompson 74 85, Thomas Herzan 81 78, Fuzzy Zoeller 76 83, Dirk Maust 81 78, Tim Matthews 76 83, Bobby Wadkins 79 80
160 Kim Dolan 79 81, Martin Rifkin 84 76, Ken Palladino 77 83
162 Vinny Giles 81 81, Gary Sowinski 84 78, Dale Tallon (Can) 81 81, Doug Harris 81 81
163 Tim Walton 76 87, Mike Diffley 83 80
164 Tom Cleaver 83 81, Mark Nickeas 83 81
165 Larry Stubblefield 86 79, Jay Norman 82 83, Jim Stormont 84 81, John Paesani 81 84
166 Dave Massey 82 84, Pete Williams 81 85, Gary McClure 78 88
167 Dan Bieber 83 84, Pat Diesu 91 76, Steve Moran 85 82
168 Scott Sullivan 87 81
169 Rick Ten broeck 86 83
170 Tom Norton 80 90
171 Scott Mahlberg 82 89
172 Ned Weaver 84 88, Tommy Robinson 83 89, Mark Battista 91 81
174 Gary Lindeblad 89 85
178 James Ferguson 90 88