Parel makes move, heads to front at Seniors Players

AKRON, Ohio—Scott Parel took advantage of Retief Goosen’s problems Saturday to take the third-round lead in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, the fourth of the PGA Tour Champions’ five major tournaments.

Seven strokes behind Goosen at the start of the day, Parel birdied two of the last three holes—holing a 30-footer on the par-4 18th— for 3-under 67 and a onestroke lead over Goosen at Firestone Country Club.

“I had quite few short ones on the front nine that I didn’t make,” Parel said. “I guess it all evens out.”

Goosen followed his opening rounds of 69 and 62 with a 75. The South African played the first four holes in 4 over, making a bogey on No. 1, a double bogey on No. 3 and another bogey on No. 4. He had two more bogeys in the back nine and made only one birdie in the round.

“I started off pretty scruffy, let me put it that way,” Goosen said. “It was a tough day out there for me. Everything seemed to go wrong. Get the wrong lies in the bunkers and all that kind of stuff. But I just kept fighting. I kept telling myself, ‘Stay in this thing, we still have another 18 tomorrow. It’s not the end of the world.’”

Parel had a 5-under 205 total. He won twice last year on the 50-and-over tour.

“It’s only Saturday,” Parel said. “It would be great if that happened tomorrow, but today is only Saturday, so the lead means nothing today.”

He was surprised that Goosen and the second-round leaders struggled.

“I thought it was pretty soft. The greens I felt were a little softer than what I thought they would be, so I was kind of surprised,” Parel said. “I thought scoring behind me would be pretty good, so I don’t know what happened. But this golf course, it will get your attention. You start hitting some wayward tee shots and you can get in some bad spots out here.”