Senior PGA Championship: Ames leads after round three in Michigan

Stephen Ames (Can) leads after a third round 67, on 12 under par in the $3.25 million Senior PGA Championship at Benton Harbor, Michigan, US, the second Senior Major of the year.

58 year old Ames scored 5 birdies and one bogey over the par 71, 6861 yard course.

Ames has two Champions Tour victories to his name, the 2017 Mitsubishi Electric Classic beating Bernhard Langer (Ger) by four shots and the 2021 Principal Charity Classic, beating Mike Weir (Can) by one shot.

Ames goes into today’s (Sunday) final round with a two-shot lead from Mike Weir and Bernhard Langer.

Langer, 64 years old, turned professional 50 years ago in 1972, The Masters champion of 1985 and 1993, and has a remarkable 43 Champions Tour victories on his CV and 119 tournament victories in his career, including this year’s 2022 Chubb Classic on the over 50’s circuit, with the ‘Chubb’ being his 10th win since he turned 60.

Dropped shot

Langer had rounds of 68, 68 and 67 and in the third round, scored 5 birdies and a solitary dropped shot on the par four 414 yards 18th hole.

“It’s always fun being in contention and it’s always fun being in the last group because you pretty much can see and know what you’ve got to do. But you know, that bogey on 18 hurts a little bit. Not happy about that,” said Langer.

“I can’t afford those mistakes tomorrow. I’ve got to play flawless golf to hopefully pull off the W tomorrow,” he concluded.

Defending champion Alex Cejka (Ger) lies in tied 5th after shooting rounds of 68, 69 and 68.

The final group of Weir, Langer and Ames tees off today at 12.50 pm (local US time).