Up-and-Down McCarron Up by One Shot

Scott McCarron and Tommy Tolles, second-year players who have never won on the PGA Tour, hold the top two spots in the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans. But lurking just behind is Tom Watson, who knows his way around a winner’s ceremony, though it is a challenge to his memory.

McCarron, with only one top-10 finish in two years on the tour, had four bogeys and seven birdies in a gusting wind Saturday for a 69 and a three-day total of 12-under-par 204.

“It was a roller-coaster ride, up and down,” McCarron said. “I like roller-coasters, though, so it was fun.”

Tolles, whose best finish was third place in the Bob Hope Classic last year, used six birdies to complete the round of 66, putting him one shot back at 11 under.

Watson, who has won the New Orleans tournament twice but hasn’t won anywhere in nine years, was 10 under when he started and 10 under when he finished his round.

Will his experience make a difference?

“I think it took me a while to learn to handle the night before the final round,” Watson said. “The main thing is to take your mind off tomorrow’s round. There’s always a little tension but you just try to relax your mind.”

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Jimmy Powell and Orville Moody added a six-under-par 66 to their first-day 65 and continued to hold a one-shot lead over Simon Hobday and George Archer after two rounds of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf team event at La Quinta’s PGA West course.

The team of Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player and that of Lee Trevino and Mike Hill were four shots off the pace at 135 in the senior event.

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Former UCLA player Kristal Parker-Gregory shot a four-under-par 69 in wind that occasionally blew up to 35 mph and holds a three-shot lead over Laura Davies after the third round of the Standard Register Ping at Phoenix. Parker-Gregory, seeking the first victory of her two-year LPGA career, stands at nine-under 210.

Skiing

Picabo Street, the star of the U.S. women’s ski team, hit a gate during an exhibition race in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, and suffered head, neck and back injuries.

Earlier in the day she had won the U.S. Alpine Championship’s super-G at Sugarloaf-USA, adding that title to her downhill championship, won Friday.

Street said that she had a headache and a bruise and that she didn’t know if she would compete in today’s slalom event.

Donna Weinbrecht won the women’s moguls title in Freestyle World Cup skiing, edging Tatjana Mittermayer of Germany by 20 points after 11 events. Weinbrecht, an Olympic winner from West Milford, N.J., did not compete in the closing moguls event in Meiringen-Hasliberg, Switzerland.

Candice Gilg of France was the women’s winner and Japan’s Takehiro Sakamoto the men’s winner of that event.

Auto Racing

Mark Martin’s Ford edged that of Michael Waltrip by 0.175 seconds to win the Dura-Lube 200, a NASCAR Grand National event at Darlington International Raceway in South Carolina. Martin averaged 120.762 mph around the 1.366-mile track and earned $23,975.

Miscellany

When top challenger Haile Gebrselassie stumbled, Kenyan Paul Tergat broke away from a tight pack and won his second consecutive men’s title at the World Cross Country Championships in Stellenbosch, South Africa, running the 7.3-mile race in 33 minutes 44 seconds.

In the women’s race, defending champion Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia lost a shoe early, enabling compatriot Gete Wami to win. She covered the 3.8 miles in 20:12, six seconds faster than Kenyan Rose Cheruiyot.

Far back in the women’s field was Zola Pieterse of South Africa. The former Zola Budd, who won the race twice during the 1980s, was watched by her 5-month-old daughter.

Mark Ironside’s third-place finish at 134 pounds in the NCAA wrestling tournament in Minneapolis helped Iowa clinch its second consecutive championship. The Hawkeyes’ 108 1/2 points made it mathematically impossible for second-place Iowa State to overtake them going into Saturday night’s finals. The Hawkeyes have won five national titles in the past six years, and Iowa Coach Dan Gable has won 14 title in his 20 years as the Hawkeye coach.

Top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Filip Dewulf, 6-3, 6-4, and second-seeded Magnus Gustafsson beat Lar Burgsmuller, 7-5, 7-5, to advance to the final of the St. Petersburg Open in Russia.

Benny Craig, who had had only three at-bats all season, hit a pinch-hit, two-run home run in the seventh inning to break a 7-7 tie and lead UCLA to a 12-7 victory over USC in baseball at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Craig’s first collegiate homer came off freshman Steve Immel and sailed over the right field wall.

Sophomore Jim Parque gave up only two earned runs in pitching a complete game for UCLA (16-9).

Names in the News

Former UCLA basketball coach and player Walt Hazzard, 53, who suffered a stroke, remains in stable condition after being transferred to the coronary care unit at UCLA Medical Center from Midway Hospital.