Golf Roundup : Briton Brand Scrambles to a 67, Ties Maltbie for Lead

Britain’s Gordon Brand Jr. scrambled to a three-under-par 67 and tied Roger Maltbie for the second-round lead at 134 Friday in the $700,000 World Series of Golf at Akron, Ohio.

Brand, 27, a former club pro who qualified for this elite event as the European Open champion, said he hit only four fairways on the Firestone Country Club course, “and I don’t have any idea how many greens I missed.

“I think I had about 26 putts. If I hadn’t pitched and putted very well, I’d have had a 74 or 75.”

Maltbie, who shot a 69, said: “The course is playing about as easy as it can.”

Tom Kite, Fuzzy Zoeller, Calvin Peete and Billy Glasson moved within a shot of the lead at 135.

Hal Sutton, who birdied the last two holes; Tom Watson, and defending champion Denis Watson of South Africa were at 136, placing nine players within two strokes of the lead going into the final two rounds of the chase for a $126,000 first prize.

Sutton shot a 68. Tom Watson, trying to salvage something from a disappointing, non-winning season, closed with a 67. Denis Watson, who shared the first-round lead with Maltbie, slipped back with a 71.

Gene Littler and John Mahaffey combined for an eight-under-par 64 to tie the team of Don January and Mike Sullivan at the halfway point of the $450,000 Shootout at Jeremy Ranch near Park City, Utah.

Littler and Mahaffey made up two strokes on January and Sullivan, who had led after the first round with a 59. In Friday’s round, January and Sullivan shot a 66 to share the lead at 125.

George Bayer and Tim Norris were two strokes behind the co-leaders.

Lori Garbacz, gunning for her first victory in seven years on the women’s tour, parlayed a hole-in-one into a three-under-par 69 and took the lead at the halfway point of the $300,000 LPGA National Pro-Amateur at Denver.

Garbacz had a two-round total of 139, a stroke ahead of Amy Alcott and two shots in front of Betsy King.

Alcott, who stands fourth on this year’s LPGA money list after winning last week’s World Championship of Women’s Golf, moved into contention with a second-round 68. King, the defending champion and first-round leader, double-bogeyed her next-to-last hole for a 72.