Toms Takes the Lead in Tucson

David Toms and second-round leader Joel Edwards were deadlocked until the final hole of the Nortel Open’s third round Saturday in Tucson. Then their paths headed in different directions.

Toms completed a three-under-par 69 with a par on the 18th. One twosome later, Edwards four-putted the same green and relinquished his share of the lead.

Toms’ score at the 7,148-yard Tucson National course left him at 11-under 204, one shot ahead of 14-year veteran Ronnie Black, whose 66 boosted him into position to win his third PGA tournament.

Defending champion Phil Mickelson, who also won in Tucson in 1991 as an amateur, and Edwards were at 206.

Lee Janzen and Bob Lohr both shot 66, matching Black for the low score of the round, and finished at 207. Dillard Pruitt, Bruce Lietzke, Fred Funk and Bob Estes joined them at three shots off the pace.

Curtis Strange, Bob Tway and Jeff Maggert were at 208, while Mark O’Meara, winner of the first 1996 tour event last week, and four other golfers were within five shots of Toms.

Mickelson, Janzen and Lietzke are among seven players who got their first PGA title at Tucson, possibly a good omen for Toms and Edwards.

Toms had his best finish at Tucson in 1992. Two years later, he lost his card and had to requalify in 1995 by finishing third in earnings on the Nike Tour.

Edwards, whose best finish was a tie for second in the 1992 B.C. Open, has played seven seasons on tour without finishing higher than 106th on the money list.

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Liselotte Neumann of Sweden continued her mastery of the LPGA season-opening Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Fla., posting a workmanlike even-par 72 to head into the final round with an eight-shot lead.

After beginning the day with a LPGA-record nine-stroke lead after 36 holes, Neumann had a two-birdie, two-bogey round for a 54-hole total of 11-under 205.

Missie McGeorge shot a two-under-par 70 and was at three-under 213. Laura Davies was one-under after a 71.

No other golfer in the 43-player field of LPGA tournament winners from the past two years and active LPGA Hall of Fame members were under par on the wind-blown Grand Cypress Resort’s 6,382-yard, par-72 course.

College Football

Tommie Frazier, after struggling early in his debut as a pro-style quarterback, led the West to three fourth-quarter touchdowns and a 34-18 victory in the East-West Shrine Game at Stanford.

The victory also enabled former UCLA Coach Terry Donahue, who guided the West, to go out on a winning note.

Frazier, who led Nebraska to the national championship earlier this month, threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to UCLA’s Kevin Jordan and scored on a five-yard run. In all, Frazier completed 11 of 20 passes for 163 yards and gained 33 yards in six carries. He was named the game’s MVP.

Nevada wide receiver Alex Van Dyke threw a 36-yard touchdiown pass to Fresno State’s Charlie Jones for a touchdown in the West comeback.

Andre Davis of TCU scored two first-half touchdowns for the West. The first on a two-yard run, the other on an 11-yard pass from Washington’s Damon Huard.

Florida’s Chris Doering, who had five receptions for 105 yards for the East, caught a 49-yard touchdown pass from Michigan State’s Tony Banks. South Carolina’s Stanley Pritchett scored on a four-yard run and Connecticut’s David DeArmas kicked a 42-yard field goal.

Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George of Ohio State was held to 32 yards in 11 carries for the East.

John Mackovic agreed in principle to a new five-year contract that will keep him coaching football at Texas through the year 2000. The new pact will be worth $600,000 a year.

Winter Sports

Austria’s Guenther Mader won his 12th career World Cup event by shattering the two-mile Hahnenkamm course record in the downhill at Kitzbuehel, Austria. He raced down the icy course in 1 minute, 54.29 seconds, nearly two seconds better than the previous best of 1:56.04 by Franz Heinzer of Switzerland in 1992. It was his first downhill victory, enabling him to join Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg and Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland as the only skiers to win all five disciplines--slalom, giant slalom, super-g, combined and downhill--at Kitzbuehel.

Despite suffering a severe concussion in a fall during a practice run last Wednesday at Kitzbuehel, World Cup points leader Lasse Kjus of Norway said he would participate in next month’s World Championships at Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Katja Seizinger was an easy winner in a World Cup super-giant slalom before hometown fans in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Martina Ertl retained her World Cup lead with a second-place finish.

Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan won the 15-kilometer cross country race in 40 minutes, 11.3 seconds for his second World Cup victory at Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.

Austrian Ludwig Gredler won his second 10-kilometer sprint of the World Cup biathlon season in Anterselva, Italy. Vladimir Dratshev of Russia took the overall lead.

Jani Soininen of Finland sailed 117 1/2 and 119 meters for 228.7 points and his first World Cup ski jumping victory at Engelberg, Switzerland.

Japan’s Koji Takazawa leads the field after the first day of ski jumping at the Nordic Combined World Cup event at Strbske Pleso, Slovakia.

Tennis

Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco upset top-seeded Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3 to reach the final of the Indonesian Open in Jakarta. Fifth-seeded Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands defeated Michael Joyce of Santa Monica, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

Second-seeded MaliVai Washington was upset by Guy Forget of France, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the BellSouth Open in Auckland, New Zealand.

Marc Rosset of Switzerland, bothered by a hand injury, withdrew from the Australian Open. Rosset, seeded 13th, was injured when he punched an advertising sign during the Hopman Cup final last weekend in Perth.

Miscellany

South Africa opened its first African Cup tournament with a 3-0 victory over Cameroon, delighting a crowd of 80,000 including President Nelson Mandela. The competition, held in southern Africa for the first time, began without defending champion Nigeria, which is boycotting in a political dispute with South Africa.

The UCLA Bruin Diving Invitational will be held next Saturday and Sunday at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. Scheduled to compete are 15 to 20 of the NCAA’s top men’s and women’s teams.

Names in the News

Bret Saberhagen of the Colorado Rockies decided against having an operation on his ailing right shoulder and, instead, will try a rehabilitation program for two more months.

The Florida Marlins signed pitcher Livan Hernandez, 20, who defected from the Cuban national team in September, to a four-year major league contract.

Dean McAdams, 78, who quarterbacked Washington’s football team to 7-2 record and a No. 10 ranking in 1940, died at a Seattle nursing home.