Woods Not Masterful, but Good Enough to Lead

The last time Tiger Woods worked on a swing flaw, he won the Masters by 12 strokes. That’s not good news for the 12 players within three strokes of him going into today’s final round of the GTE Byron Nelson Classic at Irving, Texas.

While not nearly as dominating as he was at Augusta a month ago, Woods was nevertheless good enough to shoot a three-under-par 67 on Saturday to be at 15-under 195, two strokes in front of Dave Berganio, Mike Standly, Jim Furyk, Lee Rinker and Dan Forsman. Another seven players are lurking three strokes behind.

But good is never good enough for Woods. The Masters champion did the only sensible thing--for him--after the third round. He went to practice.

“I’m going to have to play better tomorrow,” Woods said after an erratic six-birdie, three-bogey round on the TPC course at the Four Seasons resort. Then he was off to hit balls.

“A lot of guys can win this,” he said. “If one guy gets hot with the flat stick they can shoot 61, 62, 63.”

Rinker, who shot a 69, had the lead until he made a bogey on No. 16 while Woods made a birdie after a 340-yard drive for a two-stroke swing.

“I just had a brain cramp there,” Rinker said about a 112-yard wedge shot he left 20 yards short. “I should have hit a nine-iron.”

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The leaderboard at the LPGA Championship usually reads like the Who’s Who of women’s golf.

The question Saturday at Rockland, Del., was: Who’s that?

Leta Lindley and Chris Johnson shot two-under 69s and were tied at 210 after three rounds, two strokes ahead of Sherri Steinhauer and Kim Saiki.

Lindley, now in her third season, has never finished higher than third on the tour. She missed the cut in five of her last seven events and was 71st and 80th in the others.

Steinhauer, the second-round leader, had an inconsistent 73, notching bogeys on two of the final four holes. Saiki, who has never won on the tour, shot a 69 that included five birdies and three bogeys.

Steinhauer is the only one of the top four on the leaderboard to have won a major, capturing the du Maurier Classic in 1992.

Defending champion Laura Davies, the opening-round leader, followed her second-round 75 with a 74 and is at 216.

“This is very disappointing. About as disappointing as you can imagine,” she said. “There’s not much point looking at the leaderboard--I can’t win, I can’t do anything the way I’m putting.”

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George Archer got his balky putter to convert an eight-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a round of par 72, a five-under 139 total and a one-shot lead over Rik Massengale after two rounds of the $950,000 Cadillac NFL Classic at Clifton, N.J.

“I can’t believe I’m in the lead,” said Archer, 57, who had his right hip replaced 13 months ago. “There should be 50 guys ahead of me.”