Steady Dougherty Is in Control

As the bigger names faded, Ed Dougherty shot a four-under-par 68 Saturday at Dearborn, Mich., to take a one-stroke lead after the third round of the Senior Players Championship, the final senior major of the year.

Dougherty had an 11-under 205 total on the TPC of Michigan. Allen Doyle was a stroke back after a 70, and Tom Watson (72) and Doug Tewell were two back at 207.

“I just wanted to play fairways and greens,” said Dougherty, who has never won a major. “Normally on this tour, you have to go really low to win. But this is a week where par is a good score again.”

Watson began the round tied for the lead with Hale Irwin at nine under but dropped five strokes on the first six holes before rallying with three birdies and an eagle on the final 10 holes.

“I was on the mat,” said Watson, who won the Senior PGA Championship two months ago. “I had to pick up the pieces.

“Obviously I’m grateful to be back in contention. It has put me in a good frame of mind. I’m looking forward to Sunday now.”

Irwin double-bogeyed the 15th and 16th holes and dropped to six under with a 75.

“That was a disaster,” Irwin said. “I’ve been saying all along that I wasn’t playing well. Now I need to go back to the drawing board. I just fooled everybody by making every putt yesterday.”

Defending champion Ray Floyd and Gil Morgan shot 69s to reach seven under.

Lee Trevino, the 61-year-old star playing in his final major, shot a 75 for a two-over 218 total.

Jeff Sluman was amazed he was atop the leaderboard after an erratic round in the Greater Milwaukee Open.

“Well, my score indicates that I played very well. I guess I did, I just didn’t drive the ball very well,” Sluman said after a seven-under 64 despite hitting only five of 13 fairways.

At 14-under 199, Sluman is one stroke ahead of Harrison Frazar, Shigeki Maruyama and second-round leader Kenny Perry.

Sluman, who had seven birdies and no bogeys, began the day six strokes behind Perry, who took a three-stroke lead into the weekend but failed to follow up his 63 on Friday with anything close to another dominating round. On a windless, dry day made for low scores, Perry shot an even-par 71 on the short 6,759-yard course to remain at 13 under.

Frazar, seeking his first victory in his 100th PGA Tour event, shot a 62, one off the course record held by Steve Lowery.

“It was kind of an easy 62 if there’s any such thing,” Frazar said. “Really the only time I had a question if I was going to make a bogey was on the par-3 14th. I hit it in the bunker and blasted it to about eight feet and made that for par, and that was the only time I ever came close to making a bogey. So, pretty easy.

“I guess they usually are easy if you shoot 62. I’ve never heard anybody say that was really hard.”

Emilee Klein followed her opening 64 with an even-par 72, but she still maintained a two-shot lead after two rounds of the Michelob Light Classic at St. Louis.

Klein is at eight-under 136, two ahead of Sherri Turner (70) and three ahead of Karrie Webb (69), Nanci Bowen (68) and Denise Killeen (71).

Klein is seeking her first victory since 1996.

U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen made a 10-foot birdie putt on the closing hole to finish with a five-under 66 and a three-stroke lead in the Scottish Open.

His 54-hole total of 197 is the lowest in the five-year history at Loch Lomond.

Adam Scott, a 20-year-old Australian, had a 31 on the back nine and shot 67 to finish at 200. John Daly had his 10th consecutive round of par or better, this time a 66 that left him five strokes behind with Paul McGinley.

Arizona State’s Chez Reavie beat Walker Cup veteran Danny Green on the 38th hole to win the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at San Antonio.