As the afternoon wore on, Micah Rudosky’s Friday morning round of 72 looked like it might be enough to make the Senior PGA Championship weekend.
A two-day total of four-over golf (146) at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan, saw Rudosky shoot up the leaderboard on Day 2 after sitting in a tie for 103rd after the opening round. The championship cut line would take the top 70 and ties.
When the final scorecards closed out the round, Rudosky’s total earned him a tie for 73rd, tantalizingly close to his first PGA-major cut.
Much like he did on Day 1, Rudosky opened his round with four straight pars. A double bogey on the 14th (Rudosky’s fifth hole of the day) dropped him to five over, and with plenty of work to keep himself in contention.
Then came the charge. An immediate response on 15 – a birdie on the par 5 – followed by a bogey on 17 and birdie on 18 helped him salvage a 36. Then, steady on his second nine, Rudosky parred seven of the nine holes to accompany a birdie on the par 4 sixth hole.
Six birdies on the difficult layout over the two days kept Rudosky in contention. His four-over total earned him the eighth-best total of the 35 club professionals who qualified for the event in late 2021.
His second straight appearance in the Senior PGA Championship earned him a much higher finish than his 2021 effort at Southern Hills in Tulsa.
His score tied him with a number of longtime PGA stalwarts, including Stuart Appleby and David Toms. New Zealand's Steven Alker (-16) fired an eight-under round of 63 on Sunday to surge to the title over Canada’s Stephen Ames (-13).
