Newton Citizen

SUNNINGDALE, England - Fred Funk shot a 5-under 65 for a three-shot lead at the Senior British Open on Friday.

He is a tournament-record 11 under through two rounds and leads Tom Watson by seven shots.

Funk has gone 36 holes without a bogey and his round, capped by a 174-yard 8-iron at the last hole for an eagle 2, gave him an 11-under 129, a 36-hole record total for the event.

He has a three-stroke lead over Sam Torrance, who also shot 65 and 2006 winner Loren Roberts another two shots back at 134.

Watson, trying to follow up his British Open runner-up finish on Sunday with a fourth Senior British Open title, shot 69 to share sixth place.

'I turned a good round into a mediocre round ... with poor putting,' Watson said. 'I had a lot of opportunities to make birdies today and didn't make them.

'If I had putted average it would have been 67, maybe 66. If I had putted well, maybe 64. Tee to green was good.'

He knows he has work to do.

'I'm a lot of shots off the lead the way Freddie's playing. We'll have to cut off his knee, or something,' Watson joked.

'He's a straight driver of the ball and if you do that you're going to hit a lot of greens.'

Watson made a grip adjustment on his putter late in his round which he hopes will help over the weekend.

'I'm just going to try and weaken my grip a little bit so I can feel both hands together a little bit more, to make myself release it better,' he said. 'We always have to try something.'

Senior PGA champion Michael Allen shot a 65 and was tied for fourth with Tom Kite (68).

Watson was tied at 4 under with Greg Norman (69), Mark McNulty (67), Don Pooley (66), Denis Watson (68) and Gordon J. Brand (68).