GOLF ROUNDUP : January’s Craft Work Yields One-Shot Lead

Don January, using a modified putter grip, birdied four of the final five holes Saturday and took a one-shot lead over Chi Chi Rodriguez after two rounds of the Ameritech Senior Open at Acme, Mich.

January’s second-round 69 left him at eight-under-par 136 on the 6,679-yard Bear course at Grand Traverse Resort.

January, 60, who hasn’t won since 1987, could become the second-oldest winner on the Senior Tour. Mike Fetchick was 63 when he won the Hilton Head Seniors International in 1985.

Rodriguez and January, playing in the same threesome, each eagled the par-five sixth hole: January from 15 feet, Rodriguez from two feet.

They were tied at seven-under after January’s birdie on the par-three 17th.

Rodriguez, putting first at the par-four 18th, left an eight-footer short. January then dropped in his seven-footer for the lead.

January, who needed only 23 putts in the first round and 27 in the second, has been at war with the United States Golf Assn. over a rule enacted in January that outlaws so-called paddle grips, which bulge in the middle.

Early this week, January cut two grips in half. He put half a paddle grip low on the shaft of his putter about a quarter inch below half of a legal round grip.

Split grips became legal when extra long putters were approved by the rules-making body.

“I’m putting with a grip I putted with for 40 years, so now I feel comfortable,” January said. “It means a lot to me. I just proved it the last two days.”

Debbie Massey, trying for her first LPGA championship since 1979, had her best round of the season at seven-under-par 65 and moved into a three-way tie for second, two strokes behind Beth Daniel in the LPGA Phar-Mor Youngstown Classic in Vienna, Ohio.

Massey, Danielle Ammaccapane and Nancy Brown each had two-day totals of eight-under-par 136, leaving them two strokes behind Daniel’s 10-under-par 134. Daniel, who has won six LPGA titles since last August, has rounds of 65-69.

Tied at six-under-par 138 were Patty Sheehan (70-68), Ayako Okamoto (70-68) and Dottie Mochrie (67-71).

Massey had eight birdies and one bogey on the 6,297-yard course at Squaw Creek Country Club, including a string of four consecutive birdies beginning at No. 13.

Jane Crafter missed the cut for today’s final 18 holes, ending her chance for a $1 million bonus offered by the tournament sponsor to anyone winning both the Phar-Mor Inverrary and the Phar-Mor Youngstown.