Not Much Can Bug Woods, Who Increases Margin to Nine

Fourteen consecutive pars and a wasp sting failed to stop Tiger Woods from running away with the NEC Invitational on Saturday.

Woods finally cooled off at Firestone Country Club after a birdie-eagle-birdie start. He was stung on his left hand when he tried to remove a wounded wasp on the 15th green. All that mattered at the end of the day was his three-under-par 67, which gave him a nine-stroke lead at Akron, Ohio.

“It hurt quite a bit,” he said in reference to the sting, not a game that failed to produce a birdie after the fourth hole.

Woods was at 18-under 192, a 54-hole record at Firestone. Hal Sutton had a hole-in-one on the 12th and nearly holed out on the 18th for a 65, the best score of the day. He was at 201, along with Phillip Price and fast-fading Phil Mickelson.

Woods’ lead was cut to six strokes by Mickelson, who then bogeyed the 17th hole and made double bogey on the 18th.

“I know it’s much more drama for all of you when the finish is like last week,” Woods said of his thrilling PGA Championship victory over Bob May. “But I’d much rather have it when it’s like the U.S. Open.”

Woods needs a 64 to break the PGA Tour scoring record of 257, set by Mike Souchak in the 1955 Texas Open.

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Karrie Webb, like Woods, has her sights on records. She broke her own mark for 54 holes in the Oldsmobile Classic at East Lansing, Mich.

Webb, who matched the LPGA’s single-round record Friday with an 11-under 61, followed that with a 66 for a 193 total on the Walnut Hills course. Her 23-under total broke the record of 22 under that Webb set last year in the Australian Ladies Masters.

Cristie Kerr and Meg Mallon were tied for second at 201, eight strokes behind Webb.

The LPGA record for 72 holes is 26-under 262, also by Webb in the 1999 Australian Ladies Masters.

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Frenchman Jean Van de Velde shot a seven-under 65 in windy conditions that reminded him of Europe and took a two-stroke lead at 13-under 203 heading into the final round of the $3-million Reno-Tahoe Open. Brian Henninger is at 205, May at 206.

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Kermit Zarley shot a five-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Larry Nelson after the second round of the Senior PGA Tour’s FleetBoston Classic at Concord, Mass.

Zarley, 58, had an eight-under 136 total on the Nashawtuc Country Club course. Nelson shot a 70 Saturday.

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Jeff Quinney and James Driscoll will meet today in the 36-hole championship match of the 100th U.S. Amateur at Springfield, N.J.

Quinney, 21, of Eugene, Ore., who will be a senior at Arizona State, beat David Eger, 3 and 1, to advance, and Driscoll, 22, of Brookline, Mass., who just graduated from Virginia, defeated Luke Donald of England, 2 and 1, at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Upper Course.

Eger, 48, was trying to become the oldest Amateur champion, and Donald was trying to become the first non-North American to win the Amateur since 1911.