Unknowns Lead Lpga Championship
Golf
The leaderboard at the LPGA Championship usually reads like the Who’s Who of women’s golf.
The question Saturday in Rockland, Del., was: Who’s that?
Leta Lindley and Chris Johnson both shot 2-under-par 69s Saturday and were tied at 210 after three rounds, two strokes ahead of Sherri Steinhauer and Kim Saiki.
Lindley, now in her third season, has never finished higher than third place on the tour. She missed the cut in five of her last seven events and was 71st and 80th in the others.
But the 24-year-old Californian started Saturday’s round with two birdies, making putts from 6 and 17 feet, and at 3-under was one of only four players under par after 54 holes on the DuPont Country Club course.
“I never looked at the scoreboard. I just played my game,” Lindley said. “You have to have fun in that position.”
Steinhauer, the second-round leader, had an inconsistent 73, notching bogeys on two of the final four holes. Saiki, who has never won on the tour, shot a 69 that included five birdies and three bogeys.
“I would love for my first win to be a major championship, but I’m not going to change anything,” Saiki said. “I’m just going to go through my routine and, hopefully, come out a winner.”
GTE Byron Nelson Classic
Good is never good enough for Tiger Woods.
The Masters champion did the only sensible thing - for him - after shooting a 67 for a two-stroke lead at 15-under-par 195 going into the final round of the GTE Byron Nelson Classic in Irving, Texas.
He went to practice.
“I’m going to have to play better tomorrow,” Woods said after an erratic six-birdie, three-bogey round on the TPC course at the Four Seasons resort. Then he was off to hit balls.
“A lot of guys can win this,” he said after finishing three rounds with a two-stroke lead over Dave Berganio, Mike Standly, Jim Furyk, Lee Rinker and Dan Forsman and with another seven players, including former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett, who shot a 66, lurking three strokes behind.
“If one guy gets hot with the flat stick they can shoot 61, 62, 63,” he said, referring to what a hot putter can do on the relatively simple TPC layout.
The putter has been the most reliable club for Woods all week. For the second day in a row he needed only 26 putts - and that despite one three-putt green.
“My chipping and my putting has saved me,” said Woods.
Cadillac NFL Classic
George Archer got a balky putter to convert an 8-foot birdie on the last hole and retained the lead after two rounds of the $950,000 Cadillac NFL Classic in Clifton, N.J.
Archer’s up-and-down par round of 72 gave him a 5-under-par 139 total and a one-stroke lead over Senior PGA Tour rookie Rik Massengale, who jumped into contention with a 68 on the tight Upper Montclair Country Club course.
Dave Stockton and Hugh Baiocchi of South Africa were tied for third, two shots off the lead. There were 22 sub-par rounds.