Huston Shoots a 61, Ties Herron for Buick Lead

The golf course at Pine Mountain, Ga., was playing so easy that John Huston tried to make birdies on every hole. He wound up with a share of the lead in the Buick Challenge, and almost in the record books.

Despite missing two birdie putts inside five feet, a six-foot birdie putt and a 12-foot eagle putt, Huston still matched his best score on the PGA Tour with an 11-under-par 61 on Saturday.

That left him tied with Tim Herron going into the final round, each at 20-under 196, setting the 54-hole record in the event. Huston’s 61 was one stroke off the course record by Steve Lowery in 1997.

“You just can’t let up,” Huston said. “I was trying to keep the pedal to the metal and keep going, knowing that everyone else was playing under easy conditions.”

How easy?

Huston and Herron (65) were among a dozen players who shot 65 or better on the soggy Mountain View course at Callaway Gardens. The average score on a damp, overcast day was 68.2, the lowest it has been all week.

“I feel like I’ve just shot par,” Craig Parry said after his 66, which left him one stroke out of the lead at 197 with David Toms, who shot a 63.

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Tom Watson holed a 132-yard shot for eagle and needed only 23 putts to take a share of the third-round lead in the season-ending Senior Tour Championship at Oklahoma City.

Watson finished with a six-under 66 to tie Gil Morgan (69) at nine-under 207.

Second-round leader Hale Irwin was at 210 after a 73. He needs to finish fourth or better to become the first senior player to earn $3 million in a season.

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Se Ri Pak missed a chance to run away with the Nine Bridges Classic at Jeju Island, South Korea, shooting a four-over 76 in windy conditions to take a three-stroke lead into the final round.

Pak was the only player under par after two rounds. She had a three-under 141.

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Tennis

Unseeded Alexandra Stevenson defeated fifth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova, 6-4, 7-6 (6), in the semifinals of the Generali Open at Linz, Austria.

Stevenson will play in the final today against Justine Henin, who defeated Chanda Rubin, 7-6 (1), 6-4, in the other semifinal.

Stevenson, who became the first qualifier to reach Wimbledon’s semifinals in 1999, used 12 aces to reach her second final this year.

Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian and Fernando Gonzalez advanced to the final of the Swiss Indoors at Basel.

Nalbandian defeated Roger Federer, 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-3, and Gonzalez beat French Open runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

Sebastien Grosjean beat Karol Kucera, 6-3, 6-2, and Mikhail Youzhny defeated wild-card entry Vladimir Voltchkov, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open in Russia.

Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan beat Tommy Robredo, 6-4, 6-7 (5) 6-1, and Marcelo Rios defeated Hicham Arazi, 6-3, 7-5, in the semifinals of the Stockholm Open.

Former tennis great Boris Becker filed suit against Germany’s biggest Internet provider for using his image in newspaper and television ads without his permission.

Becker is seeking $5.6 million from Deutsche Telekom’s T-Online, Becker spokesman Robert Lubenoff said.

Becker on Thursday was sentenced in Germany to two years’ probation and fined $500,000 for evading $1.7 million in taxes.

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Basketball

Point guard Rod Strickland agreed to terms with the Minnesota Timberwolves, his agent, Leon Rose, said. Terms were not announced.

Strickland, 36, averaged 10.4 points and 6.1 assists last season with Miami.

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Motor Sports

Rip Michels closed Irwindale Speedway’s regular season by winning the Advantage Ford 200 in front of 5,220.

Former Grand American Modified Champion Dean Kuhn dominated the 50-lap West Coast Pro Trucks series’ West Coast Nationals.

Laguna Hills’ John Campbell became the first repeat champion of the Southern California region of The Ultra Wheels Super Trucks Series with a third-place finish in the 100-lap season finale. Joe Herold won the race.

Jamie McMurray, running the last 74 laps without stopping, won the Aaron’s 312 NASCAR Busch series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Michael Waltrip led three times for 40 laps in the 203-lap race, but he couldn’t make the distance, pitting for the final time on Lap 190. He finished second, nearly 11 seconds behind.

Rescue crews worked for 10 minutes today to remove several drivers from their cars after an eight-car wreck at the start of the rain-slicked Honda Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Race officials said there were no life-threatening injuries from the accident. Mexico’s Adrian Fernandez was removed from the track on a stretcher and in a precautionary body brace. Japan’s Toranosuke Takagi also was carried off the track on a stretcher.

The 70-lap race was stopped after the accident and heavy rain hampered cleanup.

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Winter Sports

Norway’s Andrine Flemmen, Slovenia’s Tina Maze and Austrian rookie Nicole Hosp each recorded a two-run combined time of 1 minute 49.91 seconds in the women’s giant slalom at Soelden, Austria, the first three-way tie for first place in World Cup history.

Sweden’s Peter Larsson defeated Olympic gold medalist Tor Arne Hetland and fellow Swede Tobias Fredriksson in the 1.5 kilometer sprint in front of 150,000 at Dusseldorf, Germany, in the first cross-country skiing World Cup event this season.

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Miscellany

Strong winds today in Hauraki Gulf off Auckland, New Zealand, forced postponement of America’s Cup challenger series racing for the third consecutive day.

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T.J. Simers’ column is on Page U2 in the World Series special section.