Golf Roundup : Dickinson’s Hot Finish Ties King for Open Lead

Judy Dickinson finished with two birdies and an eagle to gain a share of the second-round lead with Betsy King Friday in the 41st U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament at Kettering, Ohio.

Dickinson and King, the current Ladies British Open champion, were tied at 143 after two trips over the rain-soaked 6,243-yard NCR Country Club course.

King, who birdied two of the last three holes, and Dickinson each shot a one-under-par 71 in muggy heat that produced a brief afternoon thunderstorm.

“I’m voting for rain delays,” said Dickinson, whose birdie-birdie-eagle string came shortly after the delay. A day earlier, she came back from another storm delay to chip in for a birdie on the 17th, then make a birdie on the 18th.

The thunderstorm delay, however, eventually produced another incomplete round.

Joan Pitcock, an 18-year-old amateur and a student at Tulsa University, was on the green at the 18th hole with about a 50-foot putt for a birdie when another thunderstorm rumbled into the area after 8 p.m.

Pitcock, four under par for the day--the best score of the tournament--and only two off the lead at one over par for the tournament, invoked the lightning rule and refused to finish the hole.

She was in the next-to-last threesome on the course. The three players behind her also marked their positions on the course and will return to complete their rounds this morning.

Dickinson, a runner-up in this tournament a year ago, and King held a one-stroke advantage over Amy Alcott, who birdied five times in a stretch of six holes on the back nine while, shooting a 69 for a 144 total.

Hollis Stacy was in a group at 145.

Defending champion Kathy Baker and first-round leader Beth Daniel were in a group at 146. Baker had a 72; Daniel slipped to a 76.

Pat Bradley, the LPGA’s leading money-winner, who needs a victory here to keep alive her hopes of a one-year sweep of all the ladies’ Grand Slam tournaments, improved to a 71 and was four strokes off the pace at 147.

Tony Sills, playing his first tournament in five weeks, shot a six-under-par 65 for a share of the lead with Jodie Mudd at 135 after two rounds of the $500,000 Anheuser-Busch tournament at Williamsburg, Va.

Sills needed only 24 putts in his round on the 6,776-yard Kingsmill Golf Club course.

Sills returned to the PGA Tour this week after spending some time in Los Angeles with his father, who is ill.

Mudd, whose 65 tied him with rookie Adrian Stills for the first-round lead, carded a 70.

Stills, at 28 the youngest of the black golfers on the tour, shot a 71 for a share of second place at 136. Tied with Stills were Mark O’Meara, Mark Hayes and Tony DeLuca. O’Meara tied the course record with a 63.

Charles Owens and Bruce Crampton shot four-under-par 68s to share the first-round lead in the Senior PGA Tour’s Greenbrier-American Express Championship at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Arnold Palmer sank a 100-foot putt for a birdie 4 on the 18th hole and had a 71.

Tracy Nakamura, 17, of Monterey Park defeated Christy Herb, 16, of Bonita, 2 and 1, to win the California Junior Girls’ championship at Pebble Beach.