Golf Roundup : Watson, Knox Share Hartford Lead

Tom Watson, seeking his first tournament victory in two years, and Kenny Knox both overtook Tim Simpson Saturday and shared the third-round lead in the $700,000 Canon-Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open golf tournament at Cromwell, Conn.

Watson shot a one-under-par 70, and Knox, 29, who won the Honda tournament in March, shot a 67 to tie at 202. Simpson had a 74, after rounds of 64 and 66.

Paul Azinger shot a 66 to move into a third-place tie at 203 with Roger Maltbie, who shot a 70.

After a birdie on the third hole, Watson was alone in front of the field until his second shot fell short and he bogeyed the par-4 18th at the Tournament Players Club of Connecticut course. Knox, playing in the group before Watson, birdied the 18th.

Watson overtook Simpson on No. 3 when he made a 10-foot birdie and Simpson’s par putt lipped the cup from four feet away.

It was the first bogey of the tournament for Simpson.

Unlike the first two rounds, when he had 12 birdies and no bogeys, Simpson had two bogeys, a double bogey and just one birdie in the third round to fall back to 204 with Chip Beck and Jim Dent.

Watson gave back a stroke on the seventh hole when he missed a tap-in from about eight inches away.

Watson has won eight major titles and has been the leading money winner five times in his 16 years on the PGA Tour. He hasn’t won a tournament since the Western Open in July 1984 but has shown signs of regaining his old form this season with four third-place finishes.

Knox, who shot a 66 in the opening round and a 69 in the second round, had an eagle, five birdies and three bogeys.

Curtis Strange, Jim Donald, Scott Hoch, Dan Forsman and Mark O’Meara, who shot a 64, were at 205.

Amy Benz squandered a five-stroke lead on the final three holes with a bogey and two straight double bogeys, allowing Amy Alcott to take over first place in the $300,000 LPGA Mazda Hall of Fame tournament at Sugar Land, Tex.

Alcott finished the day with an even-par 72 for a 54-hole total of 212. Benz, who led the tournament through the first two rounds, shot a 75 and was at 213.

Benz, who has not won a tournament since joining the LPGA Tour in 1983, had a five-stroke lead when Alcott bogeyed No. 15. But she then three-putted for a bogey on No. 16--her second bogey on the back nine--while Alcott rapped in an 18-footer for a birdie.

Then on No. 17, Alcott two-putted from about 50 feet for a par while Benz, who took three to reach the green, three-putted for a double bogey.

On the par-4, 395-yard No. 18, Benz hit her second shot into the water and two-putted for a double bogey. Alcott parred the hole to take the lead.

Penny Hammel, the 1985 LPGA Rookie of the Year, shot a 71 and was at 214.

Spain’s Severiano Ballesteros, poised to set another European golf record, maintained his three-stroke lead after three rounds of the $195,000 French Open at Versailles, France.

Ballesteros, bidding to become the first player to win four straight tournaments on the European circuit, shot a three-under-par 69 for a total of 200.

Ballesteros finished with an eagle and a birdie to move clear of Argentina’s Vicente Fernandez, who shot a 69 for a 203.

“Records are a bigger incentive than prize money these days, but I also want to become the first European to win a million pounds ($1.5 million),” said Ballesteros, winner of the British Masters, Irish Open and Monte Carlo Open.

A win in the French Open would leave Ballesteros less than 40,000 pounds ($60,000) short of his goal.