Fehr Keeps Lead in Las Vegas

Rick Fehr shot a 69, three under par, Friday at the Las Vegas Invitational golf tournament, dipping to 20 under and taking a two-shot lead over Davis Love III and Fred Funk.

The round didn’t come close to Fehr’s record-setting pace of 17-under after the first two rounds but was good enough to keep him in the lead going into the final 36 holes of the five-day tournament.

Fehr was atop a crowded leader board that featured some big names. Love was two shots back, and Fred Couples was in a group at 16 under, four back, with three others. Lee Janzen and Paul Azinger were another two strokes behind along with Tiger Woods, who shot a 68 that could have been much better. He had made the turn five under.

Woods, though, appeared to have strained a groin muscle while hitting his second shot from an awkward lie on the 15th hole and limped the rest of the way in. Tour officials said he was expected to play today.

Fehr, who had shot 62 on Thursday, was the first golfer off on the Desert Inn course and, with three birdies on his first four holes, looked as if he was going to add to the three-shot lead he carried into the third round.

But he took a double bogey on the ninth hole after hitting a shot out of the rough into the water, and needed to come back with two birdies on the back nine to shoot his third straight round in the 60s.

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Caroline Pierce, the leader by three strokes, and Michelle McGann shot the only rounds in the 60s in the JAL Big Apple Classic on a bone-chilling day at Wykagyl Country Club at New Rochelle, N.Y.

The 67s by Pierce and McGann, who was tied for second with Dottie Pepper after 36 holes, were three strokes better than any other round in the tournament.

Pierce, who went out in 31 during the warmest part of the day, was at three-under-par 139 going into today’s final round and was the only player below par for 36 holes.

The chill that followed Thursday’s wind pushed the temperature down to 38 degrees when the first group teed off. It didn’t get much above 50, dipping back into the 40s as the final groups finished.

Tennis

Tim Henman of Britain and Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia advanced to the semifinals of the Lyon Grand Prix at Lyon, France, along with Arnaud Boetsch and Thomas Enqvist. . . . Spaniards Felix Mantilla, seeded second, and Alex Corretja, seeded fourth, advanced to the semifinals of the Marbella Open at Marbella, Spain. . . . Top-seeded Michael Chang beat Argentina’s Javier Frana and moved into the semifinals of the Singapore Open. Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek had to quit because of a knee injury. Jonathan Stark became the second American to make the semifinals when he fired 12 aces to defeat Germany’s Martin Sinner.

Helena Sukova knocked Arantxa Sanchez Vicario out of the quarterfinals of the Leipzig Open and will play Iva Majoli of Croatia in the semifinals. Majoli outlasted Olympic champion Lindsay Davenport in the day’s other quarterfinal match. . . . Monica Seles has withdrawn from the European Indoor Championships in Zurich later this month after beginning a new rehabilitation program in an effort to avoid surgery on her injured left shoulder. Seles began what is expected to be a month-long rehab program immediately after leading the United States to the Fed Cup title last weekend.

Jurisprudence

A swimming pool mechanic and his employer were acquitted of charges related to the carbon-monoxide death of former tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis.

Gerulaitis died Sept. 18, 1994, while sleeping in a cottage on a friend’s Long Island estate.

The prosecution argued that the mechanic had failed to read the installation instructions for a pool heater, and had failed see the risk even after he was told by experts that it was improperly installed.

The mechanic, Bartholomew Torpey, 34, of Sag Harbor, N.Y., was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide. His employer, East End Pools and Courts Inc. of Sag Harbor, was acquitted of reckless manslaughter.

Torpey’s attorney had called his client a scapegoat and said that a family of four had stayed overnight without incident in the same guest house just days before Gerulaitis.

Investigators determined that a heater for a pool on the estate was improperly vented--with the exhaust pipe emptying carbon monoxide fumes inside the cottage rather than through the wall to the outside.

Former World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion Tony Tubbs has been charged with possession of crack cocaine.

Police in Norwood, Ohio, said Tubbs was sitting in the back seat of a car that officers stopped early Thursday. Officers said they ordered Tubbs out of the car and noticed what they said was a rock of crack cocaine on the floor near one of his shoes. The charge is a fifth-degree felony. Police said conviction could bring punishment of a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Motor Racing

Butch Leitzinger lapped Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile oval-road course at 115.08 mph to win the pole for IMSA’s World Sports Car final Sunday.

Leitzinger drove a Ford R&S; Mk III owned by veteran IMSA competitor Rob Dyson.

Leitzinger, Dyson, John Paul Jr. and Andy Wallace will share driving duties on the two-car team.

Starting next to Leitzinger in the front row will be Max Papis of Italy, who turned a best lap of 115.05 mph in a Ferrari 333SP.

Darin Brassfield earned the provisional GTS-1 pole with a lap of 116.14 mph in an Oldsmobile Aurora. Andy Pilgrim got the GTS-2 pole at 108.31 mph in a Porsche 911.

Ron Hornaday Jr. won’t have far to look for his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship pursuers when the green flag drops on today’s Kragen 151 race at Sears Point near Sonoma.

Mike Skinner, runner-up in the standings, qualified his Chevrolet at a track-record 90.212 mph to win the pole for the $264,964 race. Hornaday’s Chevrolet, which toured the 2.52-mile road course at 89.834, was pushed to the No. 2 starting position.

Jack Sprague, third in the points, took the No. 3 starting slot, also in a Chevrolet, at 89.596. Only 98 points cover the trio with four races remaining.

Boxing

Julio Cesar Chavez, who fights Joey Gamache at the Pond of Anaheim on Oct. 12, will have an open workout outside the Pond today at 1 p.m.