GOLF ROUNDUP : Sheehan, Gerring Move Up; Baugh Fades

Patty Sheehan and defending champion Cathy Gerring joined Deb Richard in another three-way tie after Friday’s soggy second round of a $450,000 LPGA tournament at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

Sheehan and Gerring shot five-under-par 67s. Richard, seeking her second consecutive victory, had a 70 to match them at six-under 138 through 36 holes.

Rosie Jones and Laura Baugh, who shared the first-round lead with Richard, didn’t fare as well. Jones fell two shots back with a 72, and Baugh soared to a 76 and fell six strokes behind.

Pat Bradley, the tour’s leading money-winner, shot a 72 for 141 and was tied with Melissa McNamara and Sue Thomas, who shot 70s.

Sheehan, a native of Middlebury, Vt., playing before about 30 relatives, overcame the rain with her putting. During one four-hole stretch when the rain was heaviest, she made two birdies.

After only one birdie on the front nine, she sank birdie putts of 15, 15, 18 and 12 feet. She also saved par out of two bunkers with good putts to finish the back nine in four-under 32.

But Sheehan still was not ready to claim that she was back to the early season form that helped her win $286,000 this year. She suffered a hand injury seven weeks ago, sat out three weeks and finished no better than a tie for 15th in three tournaments since returning.

“I don’t have great expectations about winning the tournament at this point,” she said.

Gerring, who played in the morning before most of the rain, had her best round since March.

Richard, who won her second tournament last week in sudden death at Youngstown, Ohio, earned her share of the top spot when she escaped trouble on the 17th hole. Her fairway shot landed behind a pine tree 50 yards from the hole, and the best she could do was reach the collar of the green. But she sank a 25-foot birdie putt.

Charles Coody solved the hilly course at Utah’s Jeremy Ranch with a seven-under-par 65 and took the first-round lead in the U.S. West Showdown seniors tournament.

Coody, ninth on the Senior PGA Tour money list with $328,689 and one victory, had an eagle, six birdies and one bogey on the par-72 layout. That gave him a one-shot lead over Bob Wynn and Bobby Nichols. Lloyd Moody and Bob Betley were two shots back.

USC’s Heidi Voorhees advanced to the final round of the 1991 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Hutchinson, Kan.

Voorhees beat Anne Marie Tobin, of Lynnfield, Mass., 7 and 6, in the fourth round, then defeated Martha Lang, of Geneva, Ill., 3 and 2, to reach the final.

Voorhees’ opponent in today’s 36-hole match-play final will be Amy Fruhwirth of Oxnard.