Senior British Open 2012: Fred Couples Will Catch Bernhard Langer on Sunday

The 2012 Senior Open Championship is set up for a thrilling final round and in the end, Fred Couples will continue his charge and overtake Bernhard Langer to win the tournament.

Langer currently holds the lead with a score of -7, but Couples is lurking in second place at six-under. Peter Fowler will also factor in to the action on Sunday and he sits in third at -5.

The full leaderboard is available at Europeantour.com.

Langer opened the tournament with a fantastic round of golf. He did not bogey a single one of the first 18 holes and took the early lead after shooting a 64.

But Turnberry was not as kind to the 54-year-old German during the second round. He ended up having three bogeys to match his three birdies, and suffered through an atrocious triple-bogey on the 13th hole.

This allowed Gary Hallberg to take the lead with a spectacular performance on Friday. The American shot a 63—the best round of the tournament thus far—but like Langer, he has struggled to stay consistent.

Langer followed up his poor round with positive play and took the lead after shooting a 66. Hallberg did the opposite, clunking his way through the course on Saturday and finishing with a 73. 

Couples, however, has quietly climbed up the leaderboard with steadily improving performances.

The 52-year-old sputtered into Scotland and did not turn any heads with an opening round 72. But the next morning, he shaved four strokes off his score and finished with a respectable 68.

Then the weekend came and Couples once again improved by four strokes. He blazed through Turnberry and rocketed up towards the top of the leaderboard after hitting birdies on five of the first nine holes and recorded a score of 64. 

It is unreasonable to think that Couples will continue this trend and shoot a 60 on Sunday, but judging by his performances thus far, he will be extremely sharp in the tournament’s final stanza.

Langer, however, has not played consistently and is all too capable of blowing a lead. He proved this at the U.S. Senior Open earlier in July when he blew a four-stroke lead on the final day. 

Couples’ constant improvement every time he takes the course shows that he will be focused and determined for the final round at the Senior British Open, and he will emerge as the winner.