Kraft Tied for Lead After Record Round

L.A. Times Archives

May 23, 1999 12 AM PT

From Associated Press

A nine-under-par 61 on Saturday tied the Colonial course record and gave Greg Kraft a chance to get rid of the bad taste from his collapse at Doral two months ago.

Scott Verplank will get another chance to win on the PGA Tour for the first time in 11 years.

Billy Mayfair will have a chance to make those long hours on the putting green pay off.

All three are tied for the lead at seven-under 203 after three rounds of the MasterCard Colonial at Fort Worth.

But it’s not like they’re the only ones who will have a chance today.

At the end of a topsy-turvy third round at Colonial Country Club, 28 players were within five shots of the lead and none was banking on anything.

John Cook had a 70 and was at 204. The six players at 205 included U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen (65), PGA champion Vijay Singh (66) and Phil Mickelson (70).

Tom Lehman, who bogeyed two of the first four holes but still had a 64, and Davis Love III (68) were among those another stroke back.

“There’s so many people,” Verplank said after his four-under 66, a remarkable score given the late afternoon firmness of Colonial. “It’s possible someone could go out early tomorrow and shoot a 61. And if it gets difficult in the afternoon, that could be enough to win.”

That’s what Kraft did Saturday, finishing off his 61 with a 60-foot chip for birdie.

The 61 matched the course record set by Keith Clearwater and Janzen in 1993. Neither went on to win that year, when conditions were so perfect that Fulton Allem established a 72-hole scoring record of 264.

That’s probably safe this year. The 203 is the highest 54-hole score at Colonial since Ben Crenshaw led after the third round in 1990 with a six-under 204.

Kraft signed his card before the last group reached the second tee, then said he hoped it would be good enough to be within shouting distance of the leaders at the end of the day.

But as the greens got baked by the sun, the leaders didn’t go anywhere. Of the top 10 players on the leaderboard at the start of the round, only Mayfair (69) broke par.

Corey Pavin, who led after the second round in his attempt to win for the first time since the 1996 Colonial, shot a four-over 74 and is five shots off the lead.

Tiger Woods, facing one of the strongest European fields in years outside the British Open, took a two-stroke lead after the second round of the Deutsche Bank Open at Heidelberg, Germany.

Woods fired a 68 on a windy, damp day to move to seven-under 137. The 1997 Masters champion moved into the lead when he sank a 20-foot-putt on the ninth hole at the $2.1-million event.

Woods, whose last title at home came four months ago, reportedly was paid a $1-million appearance fee to be the star attraction at the event, which has six of the world’s top 10 players entered. He lived up to his billing by drawing a huge gallery and grabbing the lead after being locked in a battle with two-time U.S. Open champion Ernie Els for most of the round.

Els’ challenge was blunted when he hooked his drive left into the rough on the 15th hole and stumbled to a double-bogey. Woods, playing one group behind, blasted his way out of the same patch to save par a few minutes later.

After that, no one else made a charge at Woods, who dropped a stroke off his lead when he missed a 10-foot putt on the 18th hole for the only bogey of his round.

Els, the first-round leader, shot a 73 to finish at 139 along with Swedes Jarmo Sandelin and Jesper Parnevik.

A stroke back at 140 was 19-year-old Sergio Garcia of Spain.

Jack Nicklaus, his golf comeback accelerating as quickly as his recovery from hip-replacement surgery, shot a two-under 70 in the Senior PGA Bell Atlantic Classic at Avondale, Pa.--his first below-par round of any kind since his operation.

Nicklaus has played about 25 practice rounds since receiving a ceramic left hip in January, and none was as good as Saturday’s.

Dare it be said so soon? Jack is back, far ahead of even his own ambitious recovery schedule.

“It’s probably a little better than I thought it would be,” said Nicklaus, who shot a two-over 74 Friday. “I suspected that I should shoot around 75 both days and I’m a little better than that.”

Unlike Friday, there were more good shots than bad. Many more, although he trails leader Tom Jenkins by seven shots. Rocky Thompson, Gil Morgan and Jesse Patino are one stroke back at six under.

Playing with poise belying her status as a rookie on the LPGA tour, Akiko Fukushima shot a five-under 65 and increased her lead to four strokes after three rounds of the inaugural Philips Invitational at Austin, Texas.

Fukushima is at 14-under 196 after 54 holes at the 6,101-yard Onion Creek Country Club course.

“My father called me Friday night from Japan and kept saying, ‘Stay calm. Stay cool,’ ” Fukushima said through her interpreter.

“I think he was the one who needed to stay calm and stay cool.”

Rookie Mi Hyun Kim of South Korea and tour veteran Beth Daniel are tied for second.

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In Front

Leaders through Saturday’s play (Complete scores, Page 16):

MASTERCARD COLONIAL--PAR 70

Greg Kraft: 75-67-61--203 -7

Scott Verplank: 72-65-66--203 -7

Billy Mayfair: 68-67-68--203 -7

John Cook: 68-66-70--204 -6