Sigel Refuses to Fold After Playing His Ace

With two swings Saturday, Jay Sigel took the lead and command of the Senior Tour Championship at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Sigel sank a 20-foot birdie on the fourth hole, then made a one-hop hole in one on the way to his third consecutive three-under-par 69, a nine-under 207 total and a three-stoke lead over Bob Charles heading into the final round of the Senior PGA Tour’s closing event.

Kermit Zarley was third at 212. Second-round leader Vicente Fernandez was in a group at 213, along with two-time Tour Championship winner Mike Hill, Jim Dent and John Bland.

“It was kind of a shocker,” said Sigel, who followed his 10th career ace with 13 pars. “I was amazed at how I managed myself after the ace. Sometimes, it can affect you. I didn’t want that to bother me, and it didn’t.”

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Paul Stankowski shot a six-under 67 and took a one-shot lead after the third round of the Kapalua International in Hawaii.

Stankowski, who started the round in a four-way tie for second place, moved to 16-under 201 through 54 holes. Steve Jones and Bob Gilder, who shared the lead after each of the first two rounds, fell into a second-place tie at 202. Each golfer shot a four-under 69.

Tennis

Monica Seles clinched her return to the co-No. 1 ranking by defeating Irina Spirlea, 6-3, 6-3, to reach the final of the Bank of the West Classic at Oakland.

Seles, who last week was upset by Jennifer Capriati in the semifinals of a tournament in Chicago, will face Swiss teenager Martina Hingis, who defeated Brenda Shultz-McCarthy, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Win or lose, Seles has earned enough points to rejoin rival Steffi Graf at the top of the rankings. Graf did not play this week.

Todd Martin advanced to his first final since January when his Swedish opponent, Magnus Norman, quit because of an ankle injury in the Stockholm Open. In the other semifinal, Thomas Enqvist defeated wild-card entry Thomas Johansson, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Yavgeny Kafelnikov of Russia defeated David Prinosil of Germany, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, and Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia beat Alex O’Brien, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), to advance to the Kremlin Cup finals at Moscow.

Boxing

Ireland’s Steve Collins (34-3) gained a sixth-round victory over Nigel Benn to defend his World Boxing Organization super-middleweight title at Manchester, England. Benn (42-5-1) quit after the sixth round and then announced his retirement.

In undercard bouts, England’s Naseem Hamed (24-0) stopped Argentine Remigio Molina (27-1) with 28 seconds left in the second round to retain his WBO featherweight title, and American Ronald Wright won a unanimous decision over England’s Ensley Bingham to keep his WBO light-middleweight title.

Auto Racing

The Winston Cup championship will be decided today at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the NAPA 500, the last of 31 races this season.

Terry Labonte holds a 47-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate and defending series champion Jeff Gordon. Also within reach of the top spot is Dale Jarrett, who is 99 points behind. Kyle Petty, who didn’t win a race this year, finished a disappointing final season with Felix Sabates’ team by failing to qualify for today’s race.

Joe Bessey won the crash-filled General Tire Hoosier 500K at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Soccer

Defender Eddie Pope is expected to make his national team debut today when the United States plays Trinidad and Tobago in a World Cup ’98 qualifying match at Richmond, Va. Coach Steve Sampson is considering using the D.C. United player to counter the speed of Trinidad’s European-based stars, Dwight Yorke (England) and Russell Latapy (Portugal).

Dejvi Gavevski scored three goals to lead Macedonia to an 11-1 victory over Liechtenstein in a 1998 World Cup qualifying match.

Miscellany

Shane Reynolds of the Houston Astros gave up a grand slam to Japan’s leading home run hitter, Hideki Matsui, and the Japanese all-stars beat a team of major leaguers, 6-4, at Yokohama, Japan.

The final game of the eight-game exhibition series will be played today at the Tokyo Dome with the major league all-stars leading, 4-2-1.

Canadian Elvis Stojko beat Russian Ilia Kulik in a 7-2 split on the judging panel to win Skate Canada’s $30,000 top prize at Kitchener.

Russia’s Irina Slutskaya, 17, earned the $30,000 women’s first prize. Tara Lipinski, a 14-year-old American who is 4 feet 8 and 69 pounds, finished second.

Hans Froemming, winner of 5,592 harness races in a career spanning more than six decades, died Friday of a stroke. He was 86.