Funk Takes Five-Stroke Lead With Record-Tying 61

As Fred Funk made his way into the interview room Saturday, Brad Faxon smiled and squirted water at him. Funk dodged the spray, but trying to cool him off wasn’t such a bad idea.

Funk had just finished shooting a sizzling 11-under 61 to surge to a five-stroke lead over Faxon and Rory Sabbatini after two rounds of the B.C. Open at Enidcott, N.Y.

Funk, who began the day four shots behind Stephen Ames, finished with 11 birdies, including the last three holes, to tie the course record and give him a two-round total of 131.

“It was a strange day as far as hitting it close so many times,” said Funk, who started the day by two-putting from 15 feet on No. 10. “I was inside two paces of the hole an awful lot of times. I was conscious of it.”

Funk’s round tied the previous course record set by Hal Sutton in 1995, when the En-Joie Golf Club course was a par 71. It has since been redone and par is now 72.

Tournament officials made the decision to play two rounds today after an early morning fog held up the start of Saturday’s play for 45 minutes, wiping out plans to start the third round in late afternoon.

Inclement weather from Hurricane Floyd forced postponement of the first round Thursday.

*

Rachel Hetherington, looking for her third victory of the year, shot a seven-under 65, including a 31 on the front nine, in the third round of the $650,000 Safeco Classic at Kent, Wash.

Hetherington’s 13-under 203 total was one better than Catriona Matthew, who had a 68 and is looking for her first LPGA victory.

*

Hale Irwin, the Senior PGA Tour’s leading money-winner and winner of five tournaments this year, had seven birdies and an eagle in a course-record 63 and was one of six players tied for the lead after two rounds of the Bank One Championship at Dallas.

Irwin is tied at 10 under with Tom Watson, Gil Morgan, David Graham, Jim Colbert and first-round leader Albert Giannone.

Motor Sports

Rusty Wallace’s Ford was the fastest in practice and qualifying for today’s $2-million Winston Cup Dura Lube 300 at Loudon, N.H. Points leader Dale Jarrett will start alongside Wallace in his Ford after a qualifying effort of 129.213 mph.

Matt Hines set a Pro Stock Motorcycle elapsed time national record when he sped down the quarter-mile in 7.188 seconds at 187.57 mph at the NHRA Keystone Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway at Mohnton, Pa.

Miscellany

Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain defeated fifth-seeded Julian Alonso, 6-2, 7-6 (13-11), and will face Alex Correjta in the final of the Mallorca Open in Spain. The second-seeded Correjta defeated Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-4. . . . Third-seeded Nicolas Kiefer of Germany defeated George Bastl of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-2, to win the President’s Cup at Tashkent, Uzbekistan. . . . Rain postponed semifinals of the Samsung Open clay-court championship at Bournemouth, England.

The Ottawa Senators re-signed left wing Magnus Arvedson to a one-year contract worth $1.1 million. . . . Pittsburgh Penguin defenseman Darius Kasparaitis, discouraged by the slow movement of contract talks, plans to leave for Switzerland Monday to train with Senator holdout Alexei Yashin. . . . Natalie Williams had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Lisa Leslie had 18 points to lead the U.S. women’s basketball team to a 94-68 championship win over Australia in the USA Basketball International Invitational at Palo Alto. . . . Blaine Wilson finished with the top all-around score in the finals of the USA Gymnastics World Team Trials at Kansas City, Mo., to lead six men who qualified for the team that competes next month in China.