Leader Is Coldly Efficient

Mark Calcavecchia’s day ended before it was halfway done. Cold and rain didn’t dent his big lead in the Phoenix Open, but lightning and hail finally stopped him short.

A dreary day in the Arizona desert was anything but that for Calcavecchia, who played eight holes Saturday in two under par to keep the five-shot lead he built a day earlier by shooting a 60 on the TPC of Scottsdale course.

Keeping warm with mittens he borrowed from a maintenance worker, Calcavecchia got to 19 under for the tournament, five ahead of Scott Verplank and six in front of Rocco Mediate when play was halted.

Tiger Woods was 14 shots back after playing 17 holes in one under.

“It really wasn’t that bad once it stopped raining,” Calcavecchia said. “We’ll just bundle up again tomorrow and go at it.”

Tournament officials said the round would resume at 7 a.m. PST today, with the fourth round starting an hour later. Without more rain, they said, the tournament could be concluded today.

That won’t be too soon for Woods, whose streak of 52 consecutive rounds of par or better came to an end Friday when he struggled to a two-over 73.

Woods, playing the back nine first, gave the estimated 78,000 fans who braved the unpleasant conditions something to cheer about early when he made birdies on the 13th and 14th holes. With the crowd urging him on, Woods appeared ready to mount one of his comeback charges.

But he couldn’t birdie the par-five 15th hole, and slammed his three-wood into his bag in frustration after he hooked his tee shot into a waste area on the 17th hole and ended up making bogey.

Woods, who started the week with a 65, has not won in five tournaments. The last time he finished more than 14 shots back in a tournament was the 1998 Tour Championship.

Calcavecchia, meanwhile, was as relaxed as he was a day earlier and added to the streak of 16 birdies in his last 24 holes with a birdie on the first hole.

He was never in any trouble through eight holes, making two birdies against six pars, and was in the ninth fairway when lightning forced the round to an end.

“Nobody’s going to get wound up overnight because we didn’t get a chance to finish,” he said. “It will be fun playing 27 tomorrow.”

Calcavecchia forgot gloves to keep his hands warm, and ended up using a mismatched set borrowed from a maintenance worker. On one hole, he held them to his ears to keep warm, but said the conditions were not as bad as they appeared.

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Michele Redman and Grace Park will have no trouble keeping track of Australian Karrie Webb in the final round of The Office Depot at Miami.

Webb, seeking her third consecutive victory in the event, moved into contention with four birdies on the last eight holes, all on putts inside 10 feet, finishing with a three-under 69.

Redman shot a five-under 67 and Park had a 70 on Doral’s Blue Course for five-under 209 totals. Webb was a stroke back along with Laura Diaz (69) and Vicki Goetze-Ackerman (70).

Redman, in her 10th year on the LPGA tour, birdied the last four holes, and five of the last six.

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Jack Nicklaus just wanted to make a good putt.

The 25-footer rolled into the cup at the third hole and it was worth three skins, $60,000 and enough to give him the lead after nine holes of the two-day Senior Skins Game at Wailea, Hawaii.

Arnold Palmer and Hale Irwin each won one skin worth $20,000, with hard-luck Gary Player getting shut out.

That leaves $500,000 up for grabs today at Wailea Golf Club’s Gold Course.

“I hit it, oh, about 25 feet,” Nicklaus said. “Gary hit a nice shot about five feet behind the hole. I didn’t think he would miss so I wanted to make a good putt.”

After Nicklaus got things started, Palmer stepped up on the par-four fourth hole.

As the gallery roared, Palmer knocked a seven-iron approach shot within 1 1/2 feet to set up his first skin.

Irwin birdied the next hole to make him the third winner of a skin over consecutive holes. He knocked in a six-footer for his $20,000.

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South Africa’s Hennie Otto shot a one-under 71 in windy conditions to hold the lead for the third consecutive day in the South Africa Open at East London.

Otto had a 10-under 206 total, two strokes ahead of compatriot Roger Wessels (72). Otto gained considerable attention two weeks ago in the South African Masters when he broke all of his clubs and tossed them into a lake.

England’s Justin Rose (68) and Zimbabwe’s Mark McNulty (69) were tied for third at 209.

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Australia’s Tod Power shot a nine-under 63 to take a two-stroke lead over David Gossett and two others in the Canon Challenge at Sydney, Australia.

Power had a 15-under 201 total, and Gossett, the 1999 U.S. Amateur champion, shot a 67 to match Germany’s Thomas Gogele (64) and New Zealand’s David Smail (69) at 202.

Paul Gow, the Australian who opened the tournament with an Australia-New Zealand Tour-record 60, shot a 74 to drop into a tie for fifth at 203.