Funk in 5-Way Tie for Tournament Lead

Fred Funk shot a seven-under-par 65 Friday to move into a five-way tie for the lead at the halfway point of the Buick Challenge at Pine Mountain, Ga.

Also tied for the lead at 10-under 134 after two rounds were Michael Bradley, John Maginnes, Davis Love III and Len Mattiace. First-round leader Bobby Wadkins dropped to three back with a one-over 73.

Brad Faxon, Fred Couples and Marco Dawson were among those a shot off the lead, and Brad Bryant and Stewart Cink were at eight-under.

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Jim Colbert, hoping for a late-season charge to repeat as senior tour money leader, shot a six-under 65 and took the first-round lead in the $1.5-million Vantage Championship at Clemmons, N.C.

Colbert, a two-time winner at Tanglewood in 1991-92, entered the second-richest event on the tour in third place on the earnings list, more than $311,000 behind Hale Irwin. However, a win on the par-71, 6,680-yard layout this weekend would earn Colbert $225,000 and close that gap with six tournaments remaining.

Six golfers, including Don January, who shot his age--66--were one shot behind Colbert.

Joining January at 66 were Kermit Zarley, J.C. Snead, DeWitt Weaver, Bruce Devlin and Rick Acton.

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Defending champion Gail Graham shot her second consecutive five-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic at Cornelius, N.C.

Dottie Pepper and Kim Saiki were a stroke back after 67s on a day when shifting winds gradually gained intensity on the layout along Lake Norman.

Basketball

Center John Salley, who earned his third NBA championship ring as a reserve with the Chicago Bulls last season, has signed a $2-million, one-year contract to to play in Greece with Panathinaikos.

The Sacramento Kings have withdrawn arbitration proceedings involving their top draft pick, Predrag Stojakovic of Serbia.

Sacramento chose Stojakovic with the 14th overall selection in the NBA draft, but Stojakovic last week signed a new two-year deal with PAOK of the Greek League. An arbitration hearing had been scheduled for Monday in London.

Tennis

Top-seeded Pete Sampras beat Sweden’s Mikael Tillstrom, 6-3, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoor championships at Basel.

In other quarterfinals, third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov, winner of the French Open, defeated Germany’s Marc Goellner, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2; Germany’s Hendrik Dreekmann beat Petr Korda of the Czech Republic, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, and Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic beat French qualifier Olivier Delaitre, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Jurisprudence

Defense lawyers at the tax-evasion trial of Steffi Graf’s father, Peter Graf, demanded a $10-million refund, saying much of the money at issue was not taxable.

Graf, 58, who’s on trial in Mannheim, Germany, with former family tax advisor Joachim Eckardt, is charged with failing to declare $28 million of Steffi Graf’s income between 1989 and ‘93, on which $13.1 million in taxes were due, according to authorities.

Football

USC general counsel Bob Lane said he hopes the suspension of senior tailback Shawn Walters can be resolved by the middle of next week. Walters, suspended the equivalent of a full season by the NCAA over a charge he accepted money from an agent, was to have played last week against Houston. But the NCAA informed USC of a new charge against Walters, by an anonymous caller, and USC held him out of the Houston game.

A new bowl alliance beginning in 1998 hopes to complete financial details with ABC next week and then move ahead with lining up bowls and conferences.

“All the involved conferences are very comfortable,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said.

The alliance will bring the six major conferences--Big 12, Big East, Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big Ten and Pacific 10--and Notre Dame together in a bowl package for the first time.

ABC and the bowl alliance reached a seven-year agreement in July that brought the Rose Bowl, Big Ten and Pac-10 into the alliance’s postseason package.

Pittsburgh, which lost to Ohio State, 72-0, last week, has changed starting quarterbacks for today’s game at No. 10 Miami. Junior Pete Gonzalez will start in place of Matt Lytle, who completed only three of 10 passes for 22 yards against the Buckeyes and has lost four of five games as a starter.

A 20-year-old man with Down syndrome who was barred from playing high school football because of his age, has won the right to play. Colorado’s High School Activities Assn. Executive Committee voted, 11-0, to let Gabriel Lane of Greeley Central High play football and also take part in swimming.

Miscellany

Boxing would be subject to federal regulation for the first time under legislation the Senate passed and sent the president. The bill, passed by voice vote, would require state boxing commissions to recognize a fighter’s suspension by another state.

It was approved by the House on Wednesday. A main purpose of the measure is to put controls on journeymen boxers who travel from state to state for often mismatched fights staged mainly for gamblers.

Damon Hill, a point from winning his first Formula One driving championship, has joined the TWR Arrows team. Hill was looking for a new team for next season after being dropped by the Williams-Renault team in a salary dispute.

Ted Musgrave won the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR race at North Wilkesboro, N.C. with a lap of 118.054 mph.