Golf Roundup : O’Meara, North Tied in Hawaiian Open

Mark O’Meara, winner of last week’s Bing Crosby National Pro-Amateur, moved into a first-place tie with Andy North at 133 Friday by shooting a six-under-par 66 in the second round of the Hawaiian Open at Honolulu’s Waialae Country Club. North, the former U.S. Open champion, fired a 67.

O’Meara, playing under ideal weather conditions, said, “I don’t think we’ll ever see a golf course that plays any easier than this one did today.

“The greens were soft, the breeze was minimal and there’s very little rough.”

Four players were tied for second, one shot behind the leaders. They were Jim Simons, Larry Nelson, Larry Mize and Scott Simpson.

Mize had a second straight 67 and would have been tied for the lead but for a self-imposed penalty on his 14th hole. He drove under a tree, attempted to “move a leaf from behind his ball and the ball moved ever so slight,” Mize said.

He called the stroke on himself that left him one shot back.

Simpson had a 68 and Nelson posted the best round of the tournament, a 64.

Hal Sutton, who shared the first-round lead, shot a 71 that dropped him to 137.

Donna White chipped in on two straight holes for an eagle and a birdie to pull herself into a tie at 139 with Lauren Howe Friday after the second round of a $200,000 women’s tournament at Sarasota, Fla.

White, who won this tournament in 1983, wound up with a two-under-par 70. She had a chance to take sole possession of first place but bogeyed the final hole.

Tied at 140 were Patty Sheehan (71), Patty Hayes (72) and JoAnne Carner (69).

Betsy King, the leading money winner last year on the Ladies Professional Golf Assn. Tour, and Lynn Connelly, who shared the first-round lead with Hayes, Carner and Dot Germain, were at 141.

Germain couldn’t keep pace with the leaders when she shot a 77 for a 145.