Frank Bensel, left, and his caddie, 14-year-old son Hagen, pose with flags for the fourth and fifth holes at Newport Country Club after Bensel aced back-to-back holes Friday during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open in Newport, R.I. Jimmy Golen/Associated Press
NEWPORT, R.I. — Hiroyuki Fujita shot a 4-under 66 in the second round of the U.S. Senior Open on Friday, taking a one-shot lead as he attempts to earn his first victory on American soil.
Meanwhile, Portland native Jeff Martin made the cut by shooting a 1-over 71. Now the head pro at Wollaston Golf Club in Milton, Massachusetts, Martin was tied for 47th place at 1 over. The cut was at 2 over.
Fujita was at 11-under 129 at Newport Country Club. Richard Green, who shared the first-round lead with Fujita after both opened with 63s, followed up with a 67 and was one stroke back. Senior PGA champion Richard Bland shot a 64 to move into third place at 8 under, tied with Steve Stricker, who shot 66.
Frank Bensel, a club pro from New York, made back-to-back holes-in-one on Nos. 4 and 5 in the morning, but finished with a 74 that left him at 9 over.
“It was like an out-of-body experience,” Bensel said before posing for pictures with the ball, his 6-iron and pin flags.
“I’ve played a lot of golf in my life, and just to see a hole-in-one in a tournament is pretty rare,” he said. “The first one was great; that got me under par for the day. And then the second one, I just couldn’t believe it. To even think that that could happen was amazing.”
According to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds for one player making two aces in the same round are 67 million to 1. The odds of aces on consecutive holes aren’t known, but few courses have consecutive par-3s like the 7,024-yard, par-70 A.W. Tillinghast course on the mouth of Narragansett Bay.
Fujita, an 18-time winner in Japan, had never shot in the 60s in four previous PGA Tour Champions starts, and never finished in the top 120 of a PGA Tour event or in the top 30 of a major.’
“I was lucky yesterday, and I didn’t expect to play this well,” said the 55-year-old Fujita, who birdied three of his first five holes on Friday. “I didn’t expect that at all. I surprised myself a little bit. But it’s only day 2, and I want to continue to play consistent and not get too high or low and see where it takes me.”
PGA: Akshay Bhatia shot a 5-under 67 that included a free drop after his golf ball fell into a fairway drain, good enough for a share of the 36-hole lead with Aaron Rai after the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
Bhatia’s drive on the par-5 17th hole fell into one of five holes in a metal drain cap that were just big enough to accommodate a golf ball. He ended up making par in his second straight bogey-free round at Detroit Golf Club.
Rai shot 65 to match Bhatia at 13-under 131.
Taylor Montgomery (68), Troy Merritt (64), Erik van Rooyen (64) and Cameron Young (66) were two strokes behind the co-leaders.
LPGA: Nelly Korda posted on Instagram that she was bitten by a dog in Seattle and will not be able to defend her title next week at a Ladies European Tour event outside London.
She said it happened last Saturday, a day after the No. 1 player in women’s golf missed the cut in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She offered no other details, such as where the bite occurred or the seriousness of the injury.
n Grace Kim had a hole-in-one and combined with Auston Kim for eight birdies in a fourballs format for a 9-under 61 and a five-way share of the lead in the Dow Championship at Midland, Michigan.
The best score in the second round belonged to the Danish pair of Nicole Broch Estrup and Nanna Koertz Madsen, who birdied their last two holes for a 60.
Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho of the United States had a 64, as did the Thailand tandem of Jaravee Boonchant and Chanettee Wannasaen, while the Taiwan duo of Ssu-chia Cheng and Wei-Ling Hsu shot a 63.
The five leading pairs were at 12-under 128.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Gunner Wiebe of the U.S. established a one-stroke lead at the halfway point of the Italian Open in Cervia, Italy.
Wiebe posted a 2-under 69 to get to 9 under overall. Jannik de Bruyn of Germany was one stroke back after a 67. Denmark’s Sebastian Friedrichsen, Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult, Spain’s Adrian Otaegui and South African Brandon Stone were two strokes behind.
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