Golf Roundup : Alcott, Carner Join Davies in Lead : However, Both Are Among 27 Players Who Didn’t Finish

Former champions Amy Alcott and JoAnne Carner rolled in birdie putts a few minutes before play was suspended by darkness Friday and moved into a share of the second-round lead with British Women’s Open champion Laura Davies in the 42nd U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament at Edison Township, N.J.

They were among 27 players on the Plainfield Country Club course when United States Golf Assn. officials called play at 8:25 p.m., EDT. Earlier, play had been suspended for 1 hour 47 minutes by lightning and heavy rain.

Alcott, who won the Open in 1980, had birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 to go two under par, while Carner had birdied the 16th and was also two under par through 17 holes.

Davies had shot a two-under-par 70 almost seven hours earlier for a 36-hole total of two-under-par 142.

Also among those who did not finish were first-round co-leader Dot Germain, who is one under par with five holes to play.

After the second round is completed this morning and the field is cut to the low 60 and ties, the third round is scheduled to start.

Ayako Okamoto, Jody Rosenthal and 46-year-old Sandra Palmer were all one shot behind the leaders at 143 after firing second-round 72s. Nancy Lopez, seeking her first Open victory, was at par 144 after a round of 71.

Davies, a native of England, had five birdies, a bogey and a double bogey in a round that included only 25 putts.

Davies finished 11th in last year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Dayton, Ohio, and has played just once on the American tour this year. She held the first-round lead in the Dinah Shore tournament with a 66 but skyrocketed to an 83 in the second round and finished 33rd.

Alcott started the second round at even par and had 5 birdies and 3 bogeys in the 17 holes she played.

Carner had completed nine holes when the rains came, and she moved into a tie for the lead with her birdie at the par-4 16th hole. She started the round two over par but moved into contention with a birdie at No. 2 and an eagle at the par-5 No. 3.

Germain, who shared the opening-round lead with Bonnie Lauer at 69, also briefly moved into a tie for the lead after the rains with a birdie at the 12th hole, but she bogeyed No. 13 to slip one behind the leader.

Lauer was inconsistent in the second round. She moved to five under par through seven holes but lost six strokes to par coming home and shot a 76, including bogeys on the final two holes, for a 145 total.

Robert Wrenn gave up sugar and became one of the sweetest swingers on the PGA Tour.

Wrenn, who eliminated sweets from his diet two weeks ago, shot a bogey-free, nine-under-par 63 in the $600,000 Buick Open at Grand Blanc, Mich., for a two-round total of 128, the best 36-hole score on the Tour this year. Brad Fabel had a 129 after two rounds of last week’s Hardee’s tournament.

Wrenn held a four-stroke lead over Ken Green.

“It got to the point where I was eating a lot of sweets, two or three times a day,” Wrenn said. “I was having a lot of highs and lows, especially in heat like this. I don’t know if the (elimination of) sugar is doing it or not, but if I shoot scores like this, I’ll never eat sugar again.

Wrenn, 28, a rookie who earned a communications degree from Wake Forest in 1981, won the 1983 Indonesia Open. But his best finish in a Tour event was a tie for ninth in the Deposit Guaranty at Hattiesburg, Miss., in April.

Green, the 1985 Buick Open champion, shot his second straight 66 for a two-round total of 132 over the 7,014-yard Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club today.

“I got away with murder today,” Green said. “Yesterday was a good 66, and today was an awful 66.”

First-round leader Ed Dougherty, who shot a 64 Thursday, was tied with Don Pooley and Jodie Mudd at 134. Pooley shot a 66, Mudd a 67 and Dougherty a 70.

England’s Neil Coles maintained his two-stroke lead and finished as the only player under par for the tournament after a wind-blown second round of the $240,000 Senior British Open at Turnberry, Scotland.

Coles added a three-over-par 73 to his opening round of 66 for a one-under-par 139. At 141 were Arnold Palmer, Bob Charles of New Zealand and Harold Henning of South Africa. Palmer and Henning had 73s, Charles a 74.

Despite a 75 and a 144 total, Gary Player kept alive his hopes of a Seniors’ grand slam. Player has already won the Senior Tournament Players Championship, the U.S. Seniors Open and the U.S. Seniors PGA.