Funk Thinking Big After a 67

Fred Funk shot a five-under-par 67 Friday to increase his lead to three strokes after the second round of the $1.5-million Buick Challenge at Pine Mountain, Ga.

Funk, who nearly withdrew because of a sore back before Thursday’s opening round, held off the challenge of rookie Steve Flesch, D.A. Weibring and leading money-winner David Duval with a 14-under 130 total.

Funk, 42, in his 10th full year on the tour, made two birdies on his final three holes Friday to give him some breathing room in bidding for the $270,000 first prize.

By winning, Funk would be a lock for a spot in the Tour Championship--only the top 30 on the money list qualify--later this month in Atlanta. That event has a first prize of $720,000 and a minimum paycheck of $64,000. He is currently No. 30 on the money list with $825,458.

Flesch, who shot a 66, was three shots back at 133, tied with Weibring, who had a 65. Duval was another shot back.

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Brian Barnes of England overcame a miserable driving day with good bunker play and a hot putter to share the lead with Bud Allin and Raymond Floyd at six-under 64 in the $1.5-million Vantage Championship at Clemmons, N.C.

They lead three other golfers by a stroke--Larry Nelson, Jay Sigel and Bob E. Smith. Six others are another shot back at 66.

Tennis

Top-ranked Martina Hingis, bothered by leg cramps, had one match point before retiring against Patty Schnyder in the semifinals of the $6.7-million Grand Slam Cup at Munich, Germany.

Hingis won the first set, 7-5, and Schnyder won the second, also 7-5, in the first meeting between the Swiss teenagers.

In the third set, Hingis took a 5-1 lead and held a match point at 5-3, but she wasted it by netting a backhand. She also questioned two calls that went against her as she lost her serve.

Schnyder, 19, held serve to come within a game of tying the score. During the changeover, Hingis, 18, had her thighs massaged by a trainer.

Back on the court, she had trouble running as Schnyder hit shots into the corners. Hingis quickly lost the game and with the score at 5-5, she retired, after 2 hours, 11 minutes.

In Sunday’s final, Schnyder will play Venus Williams, who beat Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-4, 6-0.

In men’s quarterfinals, Andre Agassi rallied to beat Petr Korda of the Czech Republic, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1, and Karol Kucera of Slovakia defeated Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, 5-7, 6-4, 8-6.

Greg Rusedski of Britain defeated Arnaud Clement of France, 6-4, 6-1, to advance to the semifinals of the $400,000 Toulouse Open at Toulouse, France. The top-seeded Rusedski faces Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer, who beat Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Roger Federer of Switzerland, the 17-year-old Wimbledon junior champion, was defeated by second-seeded Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Names in the News

Bobby Rahal won the provisional pole in the opening round of time trials for Sunday’s inaugural Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. Rahal drove around the 1.527-mile, 10-turn downtown street course in 60.191 seconds, a speed of 91.329 mph. . . . Doug Kalitta (top fuel), Cruz Pedregon (funny car) and Bruce Allen (pro stock) were the leaders after the first round of qualifying at the Parts America Nationals at Topeka, Kan.

Polish heavyweight Andrew Golota, fighting at home for the first time, won a unanimous 10-round decision over aging former champion Tim Witherspoon at Wroclaw, Poland. The judges scored it 99-91, 100-91 and 98-93 for Golota, who is 32-3 with 27 knockouts. Witherspoon is 46-8. . . . Former Chicago Bear defensive end Alonzo Spellman was ordered to stand trial in Royal Oak, Mich., on a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon.

Miscellany

The eighth-ranked USC women’s volleyball team defeated UCLA for the fourth consecutive time, 15-9, 9-15, 15-3, 15-6, at USC’s North Gym. USC (9=3, 4-1 in Pacific 10) won its fifth match in a row. UCLA fell to 3-8, 3-2.

The U.S. Soccer Federation is within a week of picking its new coach, and Washington D.C. United General Manager Kevin Payne isn’t helping the chances of D.C. United Coach Bruce Arena, a leading candidate. The federation wants to have a new coach in place by the team’s exhibition against Australia Nov. 6 in San Jose. But Payne said he won’t release Arena from his contract until after the Interamerican Cup games, Nov. 14 and Dec. 5.

NBA referee Joe Crawford was sentenced to six months of house arrest and three years’ probation in Philadelphia for federal income tax fraud. He was one of eight NBA referees accused of downgrading first-class airline tickets purchased by the league and pocketing the difference without reporting it on his income tax.