Stewart Cink put himself in contention to win a third straight major, as he shares the lead after the first round of the U.S. Senior Open Championship on Thursday in Upper Arlington, Ohio.
Cink and co-leader Charlie Wi of South Korea each shot 3-under-par 67 at Scioto Country Club to sit atop a tightly bunched leaderboard. Wi got a boost from a five-birdie streak, while Cink shot 5-under 30 on the back nine after carding two bogeys among his first nine holes.
George McNeill, England’s Simon Griffiths and Sweden’s Freddie Jacobson are a stroke back as 15 players broke par.
Defending champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland is among 10 golfers tied for sixth at 1-under 69.
The others are Ben Crane, Tommy Gainey, Paul Stankowski, Wales’ Jamie Donaldson, Australia’s Richard Green and Greg Chalmers, Germany’s Alex Cejka, Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen and Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Cink opened with a bogey at the par-4 first hole and had another blemish with a bogey at No. 5 to make the turn at 2 over. He heated up on the back nine, with birdies at Nos. 10, 13, 14, 16 and 18 for a 30 and a 67 total.
“I don’t think I found anything,” Cink said of any adjustments when making the turn. “I just decided to start trusting what I’d already been in possession of. I’ve been off for a little while, and I started like I’ve been off for a little while. Middle of the fairway on 1, and I inexplicably lost my trust in the downswing and flared it out to the right in the bunker.
“I had to prove it to myself again that I could play decent golf a certain way. The back nine was really nice. I actually could have shot quite a bit lower on the back nine. I missed three very reasonably like inside — right around 10 feet or less birdie putts.”
Cink leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings after earning four wins in nine events. He captured the first two majors of the year, the Senior PGA Championship in April and the Regions Tradition in May. He also won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in January and the Hoag Classic in March.
Wi, whose best result this year is a tie for third at the Insperity Invitational in May, has three top-10 finishes in 2026 as he pursues his first win on tour. He is 31st in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
“I hit the ball pretty solid today, made a couple of putts,” Wi said. “It was a hot day. I just made sure that I stayed in the ballgame, meaning like mentally, because you could easily lose it out there. Yeah, overall it was just a solid day in the first round.”
Starting his round on the back nine, Wi carded birdies at par-4 holes Nos. 10 and 13 before a bogey at No. 18. He also bogeyed No. 1 before stringing together five consecutive birdies at Nos. 3-7 to get to 5 under.
“Today I was like, wait, did I just run off four in a row? On the fifth one I was thinking about it, come on, get it out of your brain, and I was able to make it,” said Wi, who had a five-birdie streak at the Regions Tradition.
However, disaster struck at No. 8. Wi had to take a penalty and drop on his third shot at the 496-yard par-4, which ranked the hardest hole of the round. Wi got to the green on his fourth shot and finished with a double bogey.
–Field Level Media
