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Rookie Hanna Has the Touch

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From Associated Press

The crowd roared, but Jen Hanna didn’t hear them.

The television cameras followed her every move, but she paid them no attention.

The rookie shot a five-under 67 Saturday to take a two-shot lead after the third round of the Memorial of Naples, an LPGA event at Naples, Fla.

“I told my caddie that I felt like I was in a bubble out there because nothing really bothered me,” Hanna, 23, said. “The crowd didn’t bother me. The cameras didn’t bother me. They did yesterday because it was the first time playing under those kind of conditions. I’ve had galleries before, but not cameras.

“I went out there today just totally in a zone. It felt like it was me and him out there.”

Hanna, 13th on the Futures Tour money list last year, birdied three of the final four holes for a 13-under 203 total. She is attempting to become the first player to win in her first event since Beverly Hanson in 1951.

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Hanna, 23, attended Furman and qualified for the tour by tying for 13th in the tour qualifying school tournament. Her only previous LPGA tournament was the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open in 1998, when she shot 91 and 82 and tied for last.

England’s Helen Dobson shot a 64, the best round of the day, to join Nancy Scranton at 205. Scranton shot 68.

Cindy Flom (66), Catrin Nilsmark (68), Jane Crafter (69) and Tina Barrett (70) were three strokes back at 206. Defending champion Meg Mallon, the leader after the first two rounds, shot a 72 to drop into a five-player group at 207.

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Australia’s Graham Marsh made four putts over 50 feet en route to a five-under 67 and a two-stroke lead in the MasterCard Championship at Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Marsh, a six-time winner on the Senior PGA Tour, made a 60-foot putt on the second hole, a 54-footer on the fourth, a 51-footer on the sixth and a 66-footer on the 11th. He had two other birdies and a bogey to reach the 36-hole mark at nine-under 135.

Hale Irwin, Lee Trevino and Dana Quigley followed at 137. Irwin and Quigley shot 69s. Trevino had a 70.

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John Jacobs, the first-round leader after a 64, shot a 74 to drop into a fifth-place tie with George Archer and Jim Colbert at 138.

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