Armour’s 60 Not Good Enough to Propel Him Into PGA Lead

Harrison Frazar shot a 10-under-par 62 Thursday to take a one-shot lead over Vijay Singh and Fred Couples after two rounds of the 90-hole Las Vegas Invitational golf tournament.

Tommy Armour III shot a 60, flirting with golf’s magic number 59, a missed 2 1/2-foot par putt on the 14th hole the only blemish on his round. Armour is three strokes off the lead.

“If you’re going to shoot a 59, this is the time to do it,” said Frazar, who is winless in his second PGA Tour season. He is at 17-under 127.

Three players have shot 59 in a PGA event. David Duval was the latest with a 59 when he did it in the final round of the Bob Hope earlier this year.

Armour’s round came at the Las Vegas Country Club, a day after Craig Barlow shot a 61. Three courses are being used in the tournament that finishes Sunday, with the final two rounds at TPC Summerlin.

Barlow, who shot a 68 Thursday at TPC Summerlin; Jonathan Kaye, who shot a 66 at the Desert Inn, and Ryder Cup hero Justin Leonard, who shot a 64 at TPC Summerlin, were two shots off the pace at 129.

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Spaniard Sergio Garcia was knocked out of the World Match Play championship at Virginia Water, England, after slipping on a crucial tee shot and angrily throwing his shoe into the startled crowd.

The shot on No. 15 hooked into the trees and Garcia went on to lose, 2 and 1, to South African Retief Goosen. In other matches, Australian Craig Parry defeated British Open champion Paul Lawrie, 4 and 3, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington routed Carlos Franco of Paraguay, 7 and 6, and Notah Begay III won, 4 and 3, over two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain.

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Karrie Webb of Australia had four consecutive birdies on her way to an opening-round 66 and a one-stroke lead over Cindy Figg-Currier in the LPGA Tournament of Champions at Mobile, Ala.

Webb had birdies on holes seven through 10, dropping putts of five, 15, 20 and six feet on the undulating greens of the Magnolia Grove Golf Course.

Gymnastics

American Blaine Wilson finished fourth in the men’s all-round at the world championships in Tianjin, China, but U.S. women continued to struggle and battle injuries.

Wilson turned in the best performance by an American in this event since Kurt Thomas’ silver medal in 1979. Russia’s Nicolay Krukov won the men’s competition with a score of 57.485. Wilson finished 10th two years ago.

“These are all steppingstones for Sydney,” the 25-year-old four-time national champion said of next year’s Olympics. “And if this is what it’s going to be like, then I’m just going to have to focus on the little things.”

Romanian teenager Maria Olaru won the women’s all-around with a score of 38.774.

American Elise Ray finished eighth, despite a sprained finger on her right hand. She finished with a score of 38.017, including a 9.662 in her floor exercise.

National champion Kristen Maloney had to drop out after spraining her right knee in a fall from the bars Wednesday.

Vanessa Atler of Canyon Country was hampered by a sore left ankle from an injury suffered at the Pan Am Games this summer. She finished 31st in the 36-woman field with 35.731. Her best score was a 9.5 on the balance beam. But an 8.775 on the uneven bars and a 7.9 on the floor exercise hurt her chances.

Tennis

Under the watchful eyes of a vigilant bodyguard, Martina Hingis eliminated American Corina Morariu, 7-5, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the Swisscom Challenge at Zurich, Switzerland.

The top-ranked player, who received several disturbing faxes from a fixated admirer, appeared unconcerned, coolly coming back from a 5-2 deficit in the opening set to take the victory.

Second-seeded Venus Williams defeated Irina Spirlea of Romania, 6-3, 6-2, in a second-round match, the second time they have played since they bumped into each other during a changeover in the semifinals of the 1997 U.S. Open.

Michael Chang was upset by fellow American Jan-Michael Gambill, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), at the Heineken Open in Singapore. Also ousted was second-seeded Mark Philippoussis of Australia, who lost to Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6). Australian Todd Woodbridge also was eliminated, losing to Dutchman John Van Lottum, 6-4, 6-0.

Austrian Stefan Koubek upset Goran Ivanisevic in the $800,000 CA Trophy ATP tournament, 6-7 (7-3), 6-2, 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals at Vienna, Austria. Koubek will next meet sixth-seeded Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, who beat Sweden’s Magnus Larsson, 6-4, 6-2.

Miscellany

Stan Brock, who played offensive tackle with the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers in a 16-year NFL career, will be named the first coach of the Avengers, Los Angeles’ expansion team in the Arena Football League, sources said. Brock recently completed his second full season as coach of the Arena League’s Portland Forest Dragons. The Avengers, who will play their home games in the Staples Center, begin their inaugural season in April. . . . Basketball Hall of Famer K.C. Jones, former coach of the Boston Celtics, was hired by the University of Rhode Island as an assistant for the women’s team. . . . The arena in Little Rock, Ark., that had its opening postponed hours before its first event, a Laker exhibition Tuesday, because of questions about its integrity, will open Oct. 23 for a minor league hockey game. . . . Jay Sauter, who scored his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the year a week ago in Louisville, Ky., captured his second consecutive pole position at Texas Motor Speedway in Forth Worth with a lap of 179.152 mph. . . . Michael Schumacher of Germany, the 1994 and 1995 Formula One world champion, will make his return to the series at the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend after a three-month absence because of a leg injury.