Lewis Extends His Lead to Three

J.L. Lewis has the lead -- and the attention -- all to himself in the John Deere Classic at Silvis, Ill.

Lewis shot a two-under-par 69 Saturday, extending his lead to three strokes at 15-under 198 after three rounds at the TPC at Deere Run.

Hank Kuehne (67), Richard S. Johnson (68) and Craig Bowden (68) were 12 under, and Jeff Brehaut (66) and Robert Damron (69) followed at 11 under.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever won from the front on a tour event,” said Lewis, who won a playoff in the 1999 tournament at Oakwood Country Club and came from seven shots back to win the 84 Lumber Classic in 2003.

Lewis led after the second round too, but not many outside his immediate family probably noticed amid the Michelle Wie mania.

Wie, the 15-year-old from Hawaii, was on the brink of becoming the first woman in 60 years to make a cut on the PGA Tour, but she struggled on the last four holes and missed by two strokes.

It appeared that Johnson might challenge Lewis when he holed a shot from 138 yards out for an eagle on No. 1. But he fell back to par for the day by the sixth hole, and couldn’t get much else going.

He did come close to an eagle on the par-five 17th, but his putt from 11 feet hung on the lip of the cup and didn’t drop.

“I was just expecting it to go to the middle of the hole, and then all of a sudden, for some reason, it just broke a little right,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t believe it. I got a good bounce on No. 1, so it probably evened out.”

Kuehne made a late run, shooting four under over his last six holes. He almost had a fifth birdie too, but the ball stopped less than six inches from the cup on No. 18.

“I’m going to have to go out there and make four, five, six birdies tomorrow and play a solid round,” Lewis said. “That’s how you do it. You’ve got to give yourself an opportunity.”

He could be in for an even bigger opportunity. The top finisher not already exempt gets a spot in the British Open.

“That would be cool,” Bowden said. “I’m kind of in a tough predicament because I’ve got my motor home here and my wife and my baby, and I don’t know what I’m going to do. But if it happens, it happens, and I’ll deal with it when it comes.”

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Hale Irwin moved closer to his 11th major victory, shooting a third consecutive four-under 68 to take a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the Senior Players Championship at Dearborn, Mich.

Irwin moved to 12-under 204, a stroke ahead of Dana Quigley (72), Gil Morgan (67) and Tom McKnight (70).

Irwin, the winner of seven senior majors, has won 28 of 37 events on the 50-and-over tour when he led or shared the lead entering the final round.

The Champions Tour’s leading money winner has eight top-10 finishes in the last 10 Senior Players tournaments.

Quigley, slowed by a hip ailment, is playing his 264th consecutive tournament and the 278th in a row for which he has been eligible.

If his hip doesn’t improve, his eight-year run will end today because he doesn’t want to sit through a long flight to the Senior British Open.

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After parring 11 holes in a row, Hee-Won Han made birdie putts on two of the last three holes to cap a five-under 66 for a two-stroke lead after three rounds of the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic at Sylvania, Ohio.

Han, who started the day a shot behind Beth Daniel, was at 11-under 202. To earn her fourth career win, she will have to hold off Jeong Jang, who shot a 67 to move to nine under.

Meg Mallon and 50-year-old Marilyn Lovander -- winless in her 180 LPGA Tour starts -- were eight under after 68s.

Birdie Kim (71), Sung Ah Yim (68), Heather Bowie (69) and Becky Morgan (68) were at six under. Daniel, 48, trying to break her own mark as the oldest to win an LPGA event, had a double bogey on the last hole to shoot a 73. She is at 208.

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Annika Sorenstam will defend her title in the Office Depot Championship at the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, Sept. 26-Oct. 2. It will be the first professional event at the Rancho Palos Verdes course, formerly called Ocean Trails.