GOLF ROUNDUP : Strange Breezes to 69, Ties for Colonial Lead

Curtis Strange rode the wind and a string of nine consecutive pars to a one-under-par 69 to tie with Ben Crenshaw for the third-round lead in the Colonial tournament Saturday at Ft. Worth.

Crenshaw, who shared the second-round lead with left-hander Russ Cochran, had a 72 to retain a piece of the lead at 206, four-under-par.

“This certainly isn’t Open conditions,” said Strange, who has won the U.S. Open the past two years. “The rough doesn’t compare.

“But Colonial (Country Club) is one of those good, old traditional, hard golf courses. And you get a wind like this, it’s Open-type scoring.

“It was tricky out there,” Strange said. “Cross-winds, quartering winds. You never knew where it was coming from.”

Cochran, a left-hander who is winless in six seasons on the PGA Tour, shot a 73 and dropped into a tie for third with Corey Pavin (70) and Nick Price (67) at 207.

Scott Hoch (68) and John Huston (72) were next at 208.

John Mahaffey and Stan Utley were at 209, the only others to break par after three rounds. Utley had a 69 in winds that gusted to 30 m.p.h. and Mahaffey a 70.

Lee Trevino shot a five-under-par 67 for the second consecutive day to increase his lead to four strokes after two rounds of the Doug Sanders Kingwood Celebrity senior tournament at Houston.

Trevino’s 134 for 36 holes broke the tournament record by three strokes and left him four shots ahead of Bob Charles, who had a 68.

Six shots back are George Lanning, who carded a 71, and Orville Moody, who had a tournament-low 66, including a hole in one.

Trevino carded four birdies and only one bogey before an eagle on 16 put him at 10 under par. He was three under for the front nine.

Trevino birdied five, six and seven to put some distance between himself and field.

Charles birdied five holes to move to second place. He made several long putts, including a 25-footer for a birdie on the fourth hole.

Moody, who used a seven-iron to ace the 152-yard No. 4 eagle, cut eight strokes off his opening day score to jump back into contention.

Cindy Rarick tied her career low round, producing 12 points to take the lead after three rounds of the Pat Bradley International LPGA tournament at High Point, N.C.

Rarick has 19 points in the $400,000 tournament, being played under the modified Stableford scoring system.

Her round translated to a bogey-free six-under-par 66, which she shot at Pasadena in 1985.

“Even the first two rounds, I played very steady, except I had seven bogeys in two days,” Rarick said. “I had seven birdies, but I had seven bogeys. I thought ‘if I have a hot weekend, I can win this tournament.’ ”

Sherry Steinhauer scored five points and climbed into second place with 16 points.

Second-round leader Deb Richard gained no ground due to an up-and-down day in which she had two birdies for four points, but four bogeys which cost her four points.

Jan Stephenson, playing in her first tournament since her finger was severely injured when she was mugged in Miami four months ago, was at minus-six.

Under the modified Stableford system, a birdie is good for two points, an eagle nets five points and a double eagle is worth eight. Bogeys cost golfers a point and double bogeys and worse lose three points.