Stewart Cink shot a 4-under-par 66, the best round of the event, to forge a tie with Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Australia's Mark Hensby atop the leaderboard at the US Senior Open at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs.
"I love the fact that ... I haven't played great these first two days," Cink said. "I've played pretty good golf but nothing spectacular."
Harrington and Hensby are co-leaders for the second straight day after again shooting matching 3-under 67s.
Cink, chasing his second win of 2025, opened his day on the back nine and kept things fairly buttoned up, posting a bogey on No 14 but otherwise shooting par through his first 11 holes.
That's when he found his stroke.
The 52-year-old nabbed birdies on Nos. 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9 to finish on a tremendous high note as he hit every single green on the day.
"It was not like I dug deep and found anything," Cink said. "I just kept doing the same thing and patience was rewarded."
After winning the Insperity Invitational in May, Cink has maintained a high level of play, placing fourth at the Senior PGA Championship coming in third at the Kaulig Companies Championship last week. Overall, he has eight top-10 finishes among 11 tournaments this season.
Harrington, who won this event in 2022, is getting steady overall results, but his luck on individual holes was a little more disparate. He balanced six birdies against three bogeys.
"Most of Thursday and Friday is jockeying for position, keeping yourself in the tournament, trying not to lose the tournament, but after the start I had today, I could have got some daylight between myself and the field and got out there," said Harrington, who birdied three of his first four holes. "I just have to go and do it all again the next two days."
Hensby is seeking his second Champions Tour victory, and like Harrington, he was a little up and down. But whereas Harrington spread both the positive and negative holes throughout his round, Hensby saved most of his drama for his final nine holes, which he played on the front nine.
After opening with a bogey and birdie in his first three holes and following that with six straight pars, Hensby went birdie, par, birdie, birdie, bogey, par, bogey, birdie, birdie.
"I played really well the back nine and then got off to a good start on the front nine again," Hensby said. "Then got a little scratchy."
Alone in fourth place is Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, who sits three strokes behind the leaders after shooting a 1-under 69.
Two players are tied for fifth at 2 under for the tournament, Bill Andrade (69) and South Korea's Y.E. Yang (68).
Steve Flesch (70), Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke (68) and Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez (70) are tied for seventh at 1 under.