Neighbors Woods, O’Meara in World Match Play Final

Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara will play a little friendly round of golf today--as they often do. But this time there’ll be more than a few dollars at stake.

The Florida neighbors reached the final of the $290,000 World Match Play Championship at Virginia Water, England, when Woods defeated Lee Westwood, 5 and 4, and O’Meara beat defending champion and PGA champion Vijay Singh by a record 11 and 10 on Saturday.

It’s the first all-U.S. final since 1975, when Hale Irwin beat Al Geiberger, and only the fourth in the tournament’s 34-year history.

“This is definitely a great final,” Woods said. “It will be fun playing against one of my best friends, someone I consider like an older brother. I’ll be happy if he wins and he’ll be happy if I win.”

They’ve never played together in the final of a match-play event or as the final twosome on the final day of a stroke-play tournament.

“Playing head-to-head, we don’t get that chance very often where we’re in the same tournament and just happen to play well at the same time,” Woods said.

O’Meara, who broke the previous tournament record set in 1978 when Tom Watson beat Dale Hayes 11 and 9, suggested it would be just another round of golf with Woods--but for more cash.

“We play a lot together,” O’Meara said. “[Woods] has been playing well at home. I think he took 30 bucks off me the last time we played.

“I’m pretty smart. I go to the putting green afterward and try to go nine, double-or-nothing. I can usually win my money back on the putting green.”

Unlike O’Meara, Woods struggled early with the windy, wet 7,006-yard West course at Wentworth--and a nagging flu and a partisan crowd of 12,000 cheering for the Englishman.

He was down by three holes after the first seven as Westwood putted well. But he rallied as his putting got better and Westwood’s turned sour to lead by one after 18. He never trailed after that.

Woods went 4-up after 28 holes with a string of birdies, getting two with eight-foot putts and one at the 28th with a 25-footer.

He increased the lead to five after 30, two-putted from six feet at the 31st for bogey before ending the match at the 32nd with a birdie--his seventh one-putt green in eight holes.

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Jim Furyk, trying to break a victory drought on the same golf course where he won his first pro tournament three years ago, shot a nine-under-par 63 to take a three-shot lead into the final round of the Las Vegas Invitational.

Furyk had five consecutive birdies on the back nine to get to 21 under on a day when the winds calmed and the leaders found the TPC Summerlin course much tamer than it had been in gusty winds a day earlier.

Furyk, who hasn’t won since the 1996 Hawaiian Open, has had a number of near misses.

“The more times you get in contention the better your chances are to win,” Furyk said.

Mark Calcavecchia shot a 65 and was second at 18-under 270, while Scott Verplank hit a ball into a desert canyon flanking the 18th hole and finished with a double bogey for a 67 that left him another stroke back.

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John Morgan had two eagles in a course-record nine-under 63 and held a three-stroke lead over four players after two rounds of the Raley’s Gold Rush Classic at El Dorado Hills, Calif.

Morgan, a native of England and a non-winner in his second season on the Senior PGA Tour, holed a seven-iron from 165 yards on the par-four fifth and hit a four-wood within six feet on the par-five 14th for his eagles as he posted an eight-under 136 total at the Serrano Country Club course.

Jim Colbert, the 1996 champion, shot a 67 and was at 139 along with Dana Quigley, Gary McCord and Dale Douglass, all of whom had 68s.

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In Front

Leaders on the major tours after Saturday’s play:

$2-MILLION LAS VEGAS

INVITATIONAL--Par 72

Jim Furyk 67-68-69-63--267: -21

M. Calcavecchia 65-71-69-65--270: -18

Scott Verplank 67-68-69-67--271: -17

Justin Leonard 70-66-71-66--273: -15

Kirk Triplett 70-65-72-66--273: -15

Bob May 69-65-72-67--273: -15

$1-MILLION RALEY’S

GOLD RUSH CLASSIC--Par 72

John D. Morgan 73-63--136: -8

Jim Colbert 72-67--139: -5

Dale Douglass 71-68--139: -5

Dana Quigley 71-68--139: -5

Gary McCord 71-68--139: -5