Davies Displays Power

Laura Davies is getting reacquainted with an old friend--her driver--and wound up in a familiar place Friday at the LPGA Championship in Wilmington, Del.

Davies overpowered the long DuPont Country Club and birdied the last three holes for a five-under-par 66, giving her a two-stroke lead over Wendy Ward and putting her halfway home to her first major championship since 1996. Davies was at six-under 136.

On no other course can Davies, the biggest hitter in women’s golf, use her driver so often. On no other course has the 36-year-old from England had so much success--three victories, two of them in the LPGA Championship.

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Steve Pate shot a six-under 65 for a share of the second-round lead with Bob May in the St. Jude Classic at Memphis, Tenn.

Pate, who has struggled this year after winning the PGA Tour’s comeback player award last year, had eight birdies and two bogeys for a 10-under 132 total.

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Lee Trevino had his best round in two years, shooting a six-under-par 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Cadillac NFL Golf Classic at Clifton, N.J.

CBS analyst Gary McCord, who played with Trevino, was a shot back, along with Dave Stockton, J.C. Snead, Leonard Thompson and Bruce Summerhays.

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Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys, gunning for his record-tying fifth title, and Tim Hogarth of Northridge, the two-time defending Los Angeles City champion, are tied for eighth place after 36 holes of the SCGA Amateur Championship at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club. Darrin Sullivan of San Diego, who works in the cart barn at Rancho Santa Fe, has the lead at four-under-par 138. Hogarth and Steinberg are six strokes back.