Darren Clarke finds himself in a share of eighth place after shooting an opening four-under-par 68 at the PGA Tour Champions’ Simmons Bank Championship, while Pádraig Harrington took two strokes more and is tied for 18th.
The penultimate event on the circuit saw Harrington arrive in sixth place in the Schwab Cup rankings after victories in both the U.S. Senior Open and the ISPS Senior Open Championship, but likely needs victory both this week and in the season-ending Charles Schwab Championship if he’s to finish the season as the tour’s number one-ranked player, while Clarke ranked 13th after one victory alongside Thomas Bjorn in the tour’s only paired event.
Clarke traded two birdies and two bogeys on his opening nine holes, and then dropped another shot on 13 to fall the wrong side of par, but closed out the day in style, reeling off five straight birdies to shoot up the leaderboard and into the top 10.
Harrington made back-to-back birdies on five and six, but after finding the hazard on the seventh, gave those back as he went on to make a double bogey. One more birdie on the front side got him to the turn at -1, and he traded another two birdies with one bogey on the back nine and will be frustrated with a three-putt par on the closing hole.
New Zealander Steven Alker had no such problems as he recorded 11 birdies in a bogey-free effort to storm to a five-stroke overnight lead. His 61 set the new course record at Pleasant Valley Country Club, beating the 62 that he himself had recorded at the venue last year.
Despite winning just one in 2025, Alker has 16 top-10 finishes to his name in the campaign and is projected to move to the top of the Schwab Cup rankings with a victory this week.
Tag Ridings, Justin Leonard, Stewart Cink and Greg Chalmers share second place at -6, with Billy Andrade and Cameron Percy a shot further adrift at -5.
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