Scott Hend has won everywhere from Asia to Canada to his native Australia in his long, workmanlike golf career. Now he is in position to contend for his first major championship.

Hend posted a 7-under-par 65 on Friday, the lowest round through two days of the Senior PGA Championship, to share the 36-hole lead with Brian Gay at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla.

Hend was 2 under for his day when he made the turn, but climbed the leaderboard quickly when he got birdies to fall at Nos. 11, 12 and 13. Hend added back-to-back birdies at Nos. 16-17 to shoot 5-under 31 coming in.

He and Gay sit at 10-under 134 at Concession — the new host of the major through 2028 – though both believed they could have been even better.

“I was disappointed in yesterday’s two double bogeys on the back nine, so I wanted to play that nine a bit smarter and a bit better today,” Gay said. “So I didn’t short-side myself as much as what I did yesterday, and it seemed to work out quite well.”

Hend has traveled Asia, collecting 10 wins on the Asian Tour from 2008-19. He has won three times since joining the European Senior Tour. He knows that the leaderboard is packed with challengers who have experience under the brightest lights.

“I haven’t got any majors in my back pockets, so the guys who have majors should be the ones that are favorites,” Hend said.

That includes Stewart Cink and South Africa’s Retief Goosen, who share third place at 8 under par with Ben Crane. Cink shot a 67 Friday while Crane and Goosen posted 69s.

Cink made an impressive eagle at the par-5 17th on a long, uphill putt. That pushed him to 9 under, but he bogeyed his final hole.

“Two bogeys today. You know, obviously you’d like to clean those up,” said Cink, who has won six times since joining the PGA Tour Champions and twice this year but is searching for his first senior major.

“But you know, all in all it was pretty good golf, and I would take days like today pretty much every day for the rest of my career and be happy, because there’s going to be some days that yield some low scores on days like this, and there’s not going to be too many over-par rounds.”

As for Gay, he is in the same bucket as Hend, seeking his first career major of any kind. An eagle at the par-5 seventh was counteracted by his double-bogey 7 at the 17th.

“Another pretty good day. A little volatile. Pretty similar to yesterday, except I butchered a couple of par-5s. Two of them with one bad tee ball, two good tee balls, but other than that, I putted well again.”

Argentina’s Angel Cabrera, the defending champion, went 9 over through 36 holes and missed the cut by seven strokes.

–Field Level Media

Striker Tai Baribo’s return to Philadelphia may be delayed beyond D.C. United’s scheduled visit to the Union on Saturday night.

The Israeli international led Philadelphia with 16 MLS goals in 2025. After joining D.C. (2-4-1, 7 points) from Philadelphia (1-6-0, 3 points) in a $4 million cash trade during the offseason, Baribo owns three of the four league goals scored by D.C. this season.

That includes the only tally in D.C.’s 1-0 home win against the Union to open the season.

But a thigh injury has kept Baribo out of the Black-and-Red’s last two matches — a 1-0 league loss last weekend at the New England Revolution and a defeat on penalties to One Knoxville following a 3-3 draw in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 on Wednesday night.

D.C. manager Rene Weiler said Baribo is questionable for Saturday.

“He trained for himself, so we have to check it tomorrow,” Weiler said Thursday. “I hope he will be with the team. And it would push the team, of course. I’m not sure if he (will be) ready for the game on Saturday, but we will check it out (Friday).”

With Baribo and a few other regulars who departed in the offseason, Philadelphia earned the 2025 Supporters’ Shield awarded to the best regular-season finisher.

Without him, the Union have endured a miserable start to 2026. They finally earned their first league win last Saturday with a 2-1 decision over a Montreal side that also only has one MLS victory on the year.

Philadelphia awaits its first multi-goal scorer of the season after Japhet Sery Larsen and Jesus Bueno each contributed their first goals to lead its second-half rally in Canada.

Meanwhile, manager Bradley Carnell admitted the uncertainty over arguably D.C.’s most important player have made preparations a bit more difficult.

“We always want to face the best opponents, and a D.C. United with Tai Baribo is certainly a force to be reckoned with,” Carnell said Thursday. “We are preparing and planning accordingly, but we cannot control what we cannot control. Whether he’s in the building, traveling or not, that’s a narrative we cannot drive and control, so we’re only focused on us and the team that we think will play.”

–Field Level Media

The Portland Timbers might be the more desperate team. The Minnesota United could be the more fatigued team.

The clubs meet Saturday night at Saint Paul, Minn.

Following Saturday’s match, Portland (2-4-1, 7 points) travels to San Diego and Salt Lake. The Timbers are 0-3-0 in road matches.

“It’s a group of fixtures we have to pick up points,” coach Phil Neville said. “We have to develop a different type of mentality. We’re going to have to dig in. We’re going to have to get victories. We’re going to have to get results.”

Portland became the first team this season to score on LAFC in last week’s 2-1 victory. That might be a spark that can lead to more consistent results.

“We’re gaining and building some leaders in the group,” Neville said. “Results help the confidence and belief, but also having the trust of your teammates.”

Portland gave up three goals in both of its last two outings away from home.

Minnesota (3-2-2, 11 points) has won its last two MLS games by 2-1 scores, including last Saturday at San Diego. But the Loons had a midweek detour from MLS play, edging host Sacramento Republic in 12 rounds of penalty kicks. That came with a revised lineup, though a few of the regulars were on the field.

The Loons plan to work new player combinations into the lineup in upcoming games.

“There’s going to be the opportunity for us to balance the minutes out across the squad,” Minnesota coach Cameron Knowles said. “Being able to stretch some guys that haven’t played a lot of minutes that we might be calling on in the next week or two.”

With four goals, Kelvin Yeboah is the only Minnesota player with more than one goal this year as he has half of the team’s eight goals. Kristoffer Velde has scored three goals to lead Portland.

The Timbers might have to wait to determine the availability of forward Alexander Aravena, who trained on the side this week.

“I think he’s going to be OK,” Neville said. “He felt something tight (in his thigh). But he felt a lot better (Thursday).”

Meanwhile, the Timbers are preparing for chilly conditions.

“It’s going to be cold,” Neville said. “You think about pitch conditions … It’s probably perfect for football, that’s the view of a lot of those players who are used to playing in those temperatures.”

–Field Level Media