GOLF ROUNDUP : Mudd, Mayfair Lead; Norman Trails by Three

Jodie Mudd and Billy Mayfair have the lead, but Greg Norman could have the advantage going into the final round of golf’s richest tournament.

Mudd and Mayfair shared the top spot at 205 after 54 holes of the Nabisco Championships at Houston, which offers $3.5 million in individual prize money as the last official event of the season on the PGA Tour.

Nick Price was next at 207, and Norman was three off the pace at 208.

But Mayfair, Mudd and Price--decided longshots in a field of the top 30 money-winners of the year--have won a combined total of one tournament this year. And they have a combined career victory total of four.

Norman has won four in this country alone in the last 14 months and has collected a career total of 60 around the world.

“With this much money at stake, it’s going to come down to who can rise to the occasion for the big bucks,” Mudd said Saturday after he had gained a tie for the lead with a three-under-par 68 on the Cypress Creek course at Champions.

Norman, of course, has demonstrated that ability on four continents over two decades.

Mayfair, a tour sophomore, has yet to win as a pro. Price’s only American victory came in the 1983 World Series of Golf.

Mudd said he doubted his own ability “to put away a big event” until he won the Players Championship this spring.

Now, he said, “I think I can win a big event. I just have to go do it. I have a chance.”

Mayfair, who had a third-round 70, said he was “thrilled to death to be playing. I think I can win. I don’t see why I can’t win.”

Price, who had to come back from a double bogey to salvage a par 71, was perhaps the most confident of them all.

“I’m playing well. I really think I can win,” he said.

Norman said nothing at all. He simply headed for the practice tee after completing a 71 that left him in prime position to attain two major goals: a second consecutive Vardon Trophy and the season’s money-winning title.

He has an all but insurmountable lead in the race for the Vardon, a computer-generated scoring average. And he’s all but unbeatable in the money-winning race. Norman came into this tournament as the leader with $907,977, but he was challenged by 12 others who had at least a mathematical chance of overtaking him.

Going into today’s final round, however, Tim Simpson and Paul Azinger are the only players under par who have a chance of catching him.

Norman was tied at 208 with Ian Baker-Finch and Chip Beck. Baker-Finch closed with a 67 and Beck shot 71.

Dale Douglass shot a six-under-par 66 to take a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the $400,000 Rancho Murieta (Calif.) Senior Gold Rush.

Douglass is at seven-under-par 137 through 36 holes. Three golfers trailed Douglass by one stroke at 138 entering the final round on the 6,701-yard Rancho Murieta north course--first-round leader Bob Charles, George Archer and Monday qualifier Bob Betley.