GOLF ROUNDUP : Cook’s 62 Puts Him Ahead by 5

John Cook is taking nothing for granted despite a five-shot lead in the Las Vegas Invitational.

“I still have to shoot under par on the weekend if I’m going to have a chance,” Cook said Friday after a 10-under-par 62. “You have to come out and attack. If you don’t, somebody is going to run right over you.”

Cook did the running away in ideal playing conditions in the third round of this 90-hole tournament.

Already assured of the best season of his 13-year PGA Tour career, Cook completed a rotation over three desert resort courses with an effort that matched the best score on the tour this season.

He birdied eight of the first 10 holes on the new TPC at Summerlin and was in position to make a run at a score in the 50s.

Cook went nine under for the day with an 18-inch tap-in for a birdie four on the 13th, then lost any chance he might have had for a sub-60 score when he missed the green and bogeyed the next hole.

Birdies on two of the last three holes, however, put him through three rounds in 196, 20 under par and within reach of the tour record of 31 under for a 90-hole tournament, set in this event a year ago.

Going into the final two rounds at the TPC, his closest pursuers are John Adams and Peter Persons, tied at 201. Each had a 68 at the Desert Inn.

Las Vegas local Robert Gamez, Keith Clearwater and Mike Standly followed at 202. Gamez slipped to a 70 and Clearwater shot 66, both at the Las Vegas Country Club. Standly had a 65 at the TPC.

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Jeff Sluman upset defending champion Seve Ballesteros, and Ian Woosnam went on a birdie spree in an 8-and-7 victory over Jose Maria Olazabal in the World Match Play Championship at Virginia Water, England.

Sluman defeated five-time titlist Ballesteros, 2 up, after losing a four-hole lead, then rallying. He moved in front for good with a chip into the hole from 30 yards at the 33rd hole.

“That shot changed the match,” said Sluman, who meets Woosnam in today’s semifinals. In the other semifinal, British Open titlist Nick Faldo plays PGA champion Nick Price.

Woosnam set a tournament record with seven consecutive birdies to finish the match. When Woosnam’s six-iron at the 29th hole landed a yard short of the pin, Olazabal sank to his knees in mock submission and conceded the match.

Greg Norman withdrew from his quarterfinal against Price after five holes because of a neck ailment. In the other quarterfinal, Faldo defeated Mark O’Meara, 5 and 3.

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Chi Chi Rodriguez, the Senior Tour’s all-time leading money winner, shot a four-under-par 68 to take a one-shot lead in the opening round of the $500,000 Raley’s Senior Gold Rush at Sacramento.

Two-time defending champion George Archer (34-35) and John Paul Cain (35-34) trailed Rodriguez (34-34) by one stroke. Six others were at 70.