Eagle at 18th Hole Gives Dent Senior Lead

An eagle at the par-five 18th hole produced the leader again at the Burnet Senior Classic on Saturday, but this time it was Jim Dent who used the finishing hole to jump to the front of the field at Coon Rapids, Minn.

Dent hit a driver in the fairway, 260 yards to within 25 feet on No. 18, then made the putt on the 535-yard hole to take a one-shot lead.

There were 17 players within four shots of first-round leader Jimmy Powell when play began, and 18 were within four shots of Dent with one round remaining at the 6,909-yard Bunker Hills Golf Course.

Dent, who started the day three shots behind Powell, bogeyed three of his first six holes. But he had five birdies and an eagle the rest of the way to shoot a four-under-par 68. His two-day total of eight-under 136 was one stroke better than J.C. Snead, Tom Wargo, Al Geiberger and Vicente Fernandez.

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Three years ago Greg Kraft shot a six-under-par 66 and holds a one-shot lead over four players going into the final round of the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic in Madison, Miss.

Kraft is at 16-under 200 after 54 holes. Keith Clearwater, who shot a 61 Friday, had a 72 and is four shots behind Kraft.

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Brandie Burton sank a 60-foot birdie putt on the final hole, completing a six-under-par 66 that gave her a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the LPGA’s Friendly’s Classic at Agawam, Mass.

Burton completed three rounds at 11-under 205, a shot better than Mardi Lunn, who shot 70.

Dottie Pepper, who has won twice this season, dropped five strokes off the pace after a 73. Two-time U.S. Women’s Open winner Annika Sorenstam (72) and Connie Chillemi (74) were at 213.

Burton had the best of it on a day when wind gusts reached 30 mph at the 6,381-yard Crestview Country Club course. Burton pulled ahead with three birdies on the last four holes.

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Former Pepperdine University standout Kevin Marsh tied the course record at Santa Maria Country Club with a six-under-par 66 and took a five-shot lead after three rounds of the 97th Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship.

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Tim Hogarth of Van Nuys defeated Jeff Thomas of South Plainfield, N.J., 8 and 7, to win the U.S. Amateur Public Links championship at Wailua Golf Course in Lihue, Hawaii.

Tennis

Second-seeded Michael Chang secured a spot in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic finals in Washington with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over unseeded Kenneth Carlsen.

Chang had already beaten Paul Haarhuis, 6-4, 6-3, earlier in the day.

Fourth-seeded Wayne Ferreira also advanced to the finals, beating Renzo Furlan, 6-3, 6-7 (13-11), 6-3, in the semifinals.

The two top seeded players, Thomas Muster of Austria and Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, advanced to the finals in the $1 million Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany.

Muster had little trouble with sixth-seeded Alberto Berasategui of Spain, taking early service breaks in both sets to win, 6-3, 6-3. Kafelnikov had a tougher time in defeating Alex Corretja of Spain, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Amy Frazier fought gusting winds and struggled past top-seeded Anke Huber, 7-5, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4, to advance to the finals of the A&P; Tennis Classic at Mahwah, N.J., where she will play Maggie Maleeva, who defeated unseeded Jane Chi, 6-2, 6-2, in only 65 minutes.

Auto Racing

Tim Steele set an ARCA record for wins, leading the final 31 laps of the Pepsi 400K at Pocono Raceway at Long Pond, Pa.

It was the ninth superspeedway victory for the Coopersville, Mich., driver, breaking a tie with Jeff Purvis, Jimmy Horton and the late Grant Adcox. Three of those victories came at Pocono.

Steele led four times for a total of 59 of the 100 laps on Pocono’s 2.5-mile tri-oval, and his Ford beat that of runner-up Ron Barfield to the finish line by 2.895 seconds.

Blaine Johnson led top fuel qualifying, John Force led funny cars and Steve Schmidt pro stock in qualifying for the 18th annual Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals in Morrison, Colo.

Mark Martin turned a lap of 168.410 in his Ford Thunderbird to win the pole in the rain-delayed conclusion to qualifying for the Miller 500, to be held today at Long Pond, Pa.

The pole was the third for Martin at Pocono and the 30th of his career. The 41-car lineup was set with one qualifying session after what was to be the opening round of the time trials was cut short because of rain Friday.

Ron Hornaday Jr. won for the second time this season, passing Mike Bliss on the 106th lap and holding off Mike Skinner to win the Ford Dealers 225 race on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series at Louisville, Ky.

Hornaday won by 0.661 seconds in his Chevrolet and earned $36,875. He also took the series point lead by 23 points over Jack Sprague, who finished eighth.

Miscellany

Daniel Zaragoza of Mexico stopped Japan’s Tsuyoshi Harada in the seventh round of a scheduled 12-round bout at Osaka, Japan, to retain his World Boxing Council super bantamweight title.

John Michels, a former USC offensive lineman drafted 27th overall by the Green Bay Packers, agreed to a four-year deal with the team. The deal included a reported $1.205 million signing bonus.