Baird Not as Sharp, but Is Still the Leader

Briny Baird followed a career-best 63 with an erratic two-under-par 69 Friday to maintain the lead in the Buick Classic at Harrison, N.Y.

Baird topped the field at 10-under 132, a stroke ahead of Retief Goosen, who shot a 66 at Westchester Country Club.

Skip Kendall (66) was two strokes back at 134, while Joey Sindelar (69) followed at seven under. Tiger Woods shot a 69 and was tied at 136 with Brad Faxon (67), J.L. Lewis (68) and Shigeki Maruyama (69).

Baird, winless in four seasons on the PGA Tour, had seven birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey. He birdied the first two holes to get to 10 under, but immediately gave the strokes back with the double bogey on No. 3.

“I wasn’t as upset as you might think,” said Baird, the son of Champions Tour player Butch Baird. “I’m thinking, ‘All right, it’s the equivalent of going par, par, par.’ You play mind games with yourself out there sometimes.”

Woods, playing the back nine first in his morning round, birdied four of the first nine holes to reach eight under, but dropped back with three bogeys and a birdie on the front nine. In the first round, he was five under after 10 holes but settled for a 67.

Players were again allowed to lift, clean and place in the fairways, which were saturated by 7 1/2 inches of rain in the last three weeks.

“The course can’t take much more water,” Goosen said. “The fairways are pretty much mud as it is. They can’t cut the rough, so it’s just getting thicker and thicker.”

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Rachel Teske, who defeated Annika Sorenstam in a playoff last weekend, shot a four-under 68 and took a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the Rochester (N.Y.) LPGA.

The native of Australia was at seven-under 137 after two rounds at the tree-lined Locust Hill course.

A.J. Eathorne of Canada had a 71 and was alone in second place. Tied for third at 140 were first-round leader Tina Barrett, who followed her opening 67 with a 73, and South Korea’s Mi Hyun Kim, last year’s runner-up, who had a 71.

Sorenstam is not playing in this event for the third year in a row.

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Morris Hatalsky shot a seven-under 65 to take a one-stroke after the first round of the Farmers Charity Classic at Grand Rapids, Mich.

Hatalsky, who won the Columbus Southern Open in May, had five birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Egypt Valley Country Club.

Bruce Fleisher, Hubert Green, Tom Wargo, Ed Dougherty and Mike Smith were tied for second place after opening 66s.