Irwin Lead Is Seven in Senior PGA

Defending champion Hale Irwin birdied four holes in a row midway through the front nine and holed out for an eagle at No. 13 en route to a seven-under-par 65 and a 36-hole score of 134 in the PGA Seniors’ Championship at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

New Zealand left-hander Bob Charles birdied the 18th hole of the 6,722-yard Champion course at PGA National Golf Club for a 70 and was at 141, followed by Gibby Gilbert, whose 73 left him at 142.

“I don’t look it as a seven-shot lead, or as any lead,” Irwin said. “Maybe if it was Sunday, I would play a little differently [today], but we still have 36 holes to go. I have to stay focused, be aggressive and try to play the same way I have the last two days.”

Irwin birdied Nos. 4-7 on putts of 15, 10, six and 12 feet to grab the lead, then climaxed his day by holing a 155-yard pitching wedge from a fairway bunker at the par-four 13th.

Gil Morgan, who two weeks ago won the Tradition, the first major of the season on the Senior PGA Tour, shot a 73 and was at 143.

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Nick Price shot a second-round 69 that gave him an eight-under 134 and a one-stroke lead over Brad Faxon, Rick Fehr and Lennie Clements in the MCI Classic at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Price was 10 under through 16 holes but bogeyed Nos. 17 and 18 at Harbour Town Golf Links.

Three-time Masters winner Nick Faldo missed the cut for the second week in a row, the first time that has happened in 43 events since the Memorial and U.S. Open in 1994.

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Nanci Bowen fought through cold, windy conditions at Murrells Inlet, S.C., to post a one-over 73 that gave her a 138 total and the lead at the halfway point of the LPGA Tour’s inaugural Susan G. Komen International.

Bowen, whose only LPGA victory came in the 1995 Nabisco Dinah Shore, leads Tina Barrett and Patty Sheehan by two strokes.

Laura Davies, scheduled to play Friday night with a Myrtle Beach pro soccer team, shot 76 to squeeze into the weekend field at 144.