Tim O’Neal closed out his round with three straight birdies to shoot a 4-under-par 68 on Saturday and sit with Vijay Singh and Freddie Jacobson tied atop the leaderboard after two rounds at the SAS Championship in Cary, N.C.
O’Neal, looking for his second career win on the PGA Tour Champions, opened his round with a par and a bogey, needing three strokes to find the green on the par-4 second hole at Prestonwood Country Club. A trio of pars were followed by three birdies and a bogey on holes 6-9 to get his round going.
Another run of six pars followed before the red-hot end to his round, a finish highlighted by a second shot from a fairway bunker that found the green on the par-5 17th. His final putt of the day put him at 6-under 138 through two rounds.
“The last three holes are downwind, so that did make it a little easier,” the 54-year-old O’Neal said after his round. “One’s a par-5. Yeah, it was really tough out there today, and to finish three birdies in a row was nice.”
O’Neal’s only win on the PGA Tour Champions came at the 2024 Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Va.
With temperatures noticeably colder than they were the day before, Jacobson played the role of a cool customer throughout his round. The 52-year-old Swede posted 16 pars and a pair of birdies — on the par-5 seventh and par-4 16th (holes O’Neal also birdied), to finish with a 2-under 70.
It was quite a contrast to Jacobson’s opening round, a 4-under 68 that included four birdies, two bogeys and an eagle on the par-5 12th hole.
“I’m so soft for being Swedish,” the winner of the 2011 Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour joked about the weather. “After all those years in Florida, I’m freezing as soon as it gets below 60.
“I really feel like I played consistent over the last couple of years. I’ve been in contention quite a lot,” Jacobson said about the significance of a potential win for him. “I haven’t really been carrying a big lead into Sundays or anything like that, but being in the mix, I think for anybody out here to win, it shifts.”
Perhaps the biggest obstacle for O’Neal and Jacobson will be the other golfer teeing off with a share of the lead on Sunday. Singh, a five-time Tour Champions winner, 34-time winner on the PGA Tour and three-time major winner from Fiji, posted five birdies and two bogeys en route to a 3-under 69 on Saturday.
“I played pretty solid,” said the World Golf Hall of Fame member, 63. “I drove the ball well when I needed to. It was a really tough day. I mean, I don’t like cold, and in the beginning when we started off it was cold, wind and rain, but I managed.”
Chad Campbell and Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen are tied for fourth, one shot back of the co-leaders. Both shot a 1-under 71 on Saturday. South African Ernie Els is among a half-dozen golfers tied for sixth at 4 under. First-round leader Retief Goosen, also from South Africa, followed up his first-round 65 with a 7-over 79 in the second round to fall 28 places to a tie for 29th.