GOLF ROUNDUP : Gallagher Follows Orders, Shoots 63

Jim Gallagher nearly went home to be with his ailing wife, but did what she told him instead.

Gallagher made nine birdies and shot a seven-under-par 63, missing the course record by one shot, Saturday to tie Bruce Lietzke for the lead after three rounds of the Colonial tournament at Ft. Worth.

“I was talking to Cissye on the phone a half-hour before my tee time Thursday and I was ready to go home,” Gallagher said. “She was running a high fever, has tonsillitis and an eye infection and has a 4-month-old baby to take care of.

“If she’d said come home, I’d have gone. But she said ‘stay and play, and if you stay, play good.’ ”

Lietzke, tied with Gallagher at nine-under-par 201, had a 64.

Corey Pavin, who held the second-round lead, sandwiched 16 pars between a first-hole birdie and a last-hole bogey. The round of 70 dropped him back into a tie for third with Davis Love III at 202.

Love, a three-time winner who has earned more than $1 million this season, hit a ball out of bounds and had a double bogey on the seventh hole, but still shot 68.

Colonial member Mark Brooks was tied at 203 with Mark Calcavecchia after each shot 68.

Nancy Lopez won two skins and $45,000 on the front nine of the $450,000 LPGA Skins Game at Frisco, Tex.

Meg Mallon, playing in her first Skins Game, took one skin worth $15,000. The final four holes at the Stonebriar Country Club were halved, leaving today’s 10th hole worth $115,000.

Jan Stephenson, who won $200,000 in the first LPGA Skins Game in 1990, and Pat Bradley were shut out.

Lopez sank a wide-breaking, 30-foot downhill putt to birdie the 525-yard, par-five third hole and win $15,000.

On the 395-yard, par-4 fifth, Lopez won $30,000 when she lagged a 20-footer to within two feet for a par and watched Stephenson and Bradley miss five-foot par putts.

“Merry Christmas,” Mallon said to Lopez after that hole.

Mallon hit a five-iron within 15 feet of the pin on the 159-yard, par-three second hole and sank her birdie putt.

Gibby Gilbert took a step toward his first victory on the PGA Senior Tour by shooting a two-under-par 68 to take a one-stroke lead heading into today’s final round of the Bell Atlantic tournament at Malvern, Pa.

Gilbert’s two-round total of 135 put him at five-under-par, one shot better than Harold Henning, who had a 69. Lee Trevino, the first-round leader at 65, slipped to 72 and was at 137.

Arnold Palmer shot his second 69 and was within three shots of the lead, along with Gary Cowan (72) and Jim Colbert (68).

Colleen Walker shot a three-under-par 69 to take a three-shot lead over JoAnne Carner after the third round of the LPGA Corning Classic at Corning, N.Y.

Walker has a three-day total of 204, 12 under par. Carner, who won the Corning Classic in 1984, shot a 67.

Mitzi Edge had eight birdies in a round of 66 and is tied with Nancy Ramsbottom, who had a 69, four shots behind.

Carner, 53, is trying to become the oldest person to win a non-seniors tour event. Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open in 1965 when he was 52.