Ace Helps Nike Tour Player Shoot a 59

Notah Begay III became the third player to shoot a 59 on a U.S. pro tour, making birdies on the final two holes to break 60 at the Nike Dominion Open Friday at Richmond, Va.

Begay joined Al Geiberger and Chip Beck, both of whom did it on the PGA Tour, with his 59, which included a hole-in-one on the third, his 12th hole of the day.

Begay, 25, who played with Tiger Woods and Casey Martin at Stanford, shot a 27 on the back nine.

Geiberger shot his 59 at the Memphis Classic in 1977 and Beck got his at the Las Vegas Invitational in 1991.

Begay made nine birdies and two eagles on the 7,020-yard, par-72 Dominion Club course.

“After the hole-in-one, 59 came into my mind,” he said. “I guaranteed myself a piece of immortality.”

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Hal Sutton made birdies on three of the last five holes to shoot a 65 and take a one-stroke lead over Harrison Frazar at the GTE Byron Nelson Classic at Irving, Texas.

Tiger Woods, the defending champion and coming off a win last weekend at the BellSouth Classic, shot a 71 and is five strokes off the lead.

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Rookie Se Ri Pak shot a 68 to take a two-shot lead over Lisa Walters at the LPGA Championship at Rockland, Del. Pak’s two-day total of nine-under 133 was the lowest 36-hole score in the history of the tournament.

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Fred Gibson, a Senior PGA Tour rookie seeking his first victory, battled ferocious winds to shoot a five-under-par 65 and take the first-round lead in the Saint Luke’s Classic at Belton, Mo.

Golf Notes

A federal judge in Fort Wayne, Ind., granted Indiana golfer Ford Olinger, who suffers from a hip ailment, an exemption that allows him to use a golf cart in a local qualifier for the U.S. Open. Olinger was granted a temporary injunction against the U.S. Golf Assn. after claiming “unlawful discriminatory practices in failing and refusing to provide a reasonable accommodation.”