Golf roundup
Daly-Donofrio has three-stroke lead in LPGA Tour’s TPC MOBILE, Ala. (AP) – Heather Daly-Donofrio shot a career-best 64 on Saturday to match the course record for three rounds and take a three-stroke lead in the LPGA Tournament of Champions.
She opened with a 69 and had a 66 Friday on Magnolia Grove’s rain-softened Crossings course, leaving her at 17 under. This is the first time in her seven-year career she has posted three rounds under 70.
“I’ve put three days together that are by far the best golf I’ve ever played,” said Daly-Donofrio, whose previous low round was a 65 last year in the Welch’s/Fry’s Championship.
Her 199 total matched the three-round record Carin Koch set in 2002 on the 6,253-yard Robert Trent Jones layout. The 72-hole record is 20 under by Se Ri Pak, who wound up winning the tournament two years ago.
Daly-Donofrio plans to be aggressive in the final round Sunday.
“You can’t play safe on this golf course, so it kind of forces you to be aggressive, which will be good for me,” the former Yale coach said. “Regardless of what happens, these are three of the best days I’ve ever had. When you get this close, though, you want to close it out.”
Despite her play and lead over Sophie Gustafson, that’s no given
“I have to go out tomorrow and try to do the same thing and try and shoot as low a score as I can,” Daly-Donofrio said. “The course isn’t going to change and the scores are going to be low again.”
This is the first time she has had sole possession of the lead entering a final round. Daly-Donofrio was a co-leader when she teed off on the last day of the 2001 Chick-fil-A Championship but shot a 75.
Gustafson had a 65 Saturday and is alone in second place at 202. She had a chance to get closer, but missed 3-foot birdie putts at Nos. 16 and 18.
“That’s just going to make me hungrier for tomorrow,” Gustafson said.
Candie Kung matched her personal low round with a 64 to reach 203. Also at that number after a 64 is Karen Stupples.
Daly-Donofrio is a surprise at the top of the leaderboard for other reasons. She is playing this week because tournament officials extended eligibility criteria this year to include LPGA winners from 2001 – when she got her only career victory in the First Union Betsy King Classic.
She had struggled in this event with an average of 75.5 in 12 rounds before this year.
Daly-Donofrio started the day two strokes behind Laura Diaz, but turned that into a three-shot lead with a 31 on the front nine. The leader rolled in a 4-foot birdie putt on the final hole to cap establish her career best.
“I really didn’t know how many under par I was,” Daly-Donofrio said. “I didn’t look at the leaderboards all day. I knew I was playing well, but I was kind of lost in the round.
“After I made that last putt, I looked at the scoreboard and did the math and got 64. It was exciting.”
Kuehne, Sluman tied with Leonard, Flesch in Franklin Templeton Shootout
NAPLES, Fla. – Hank Kuehne and Jeff Sluman combined for a 10-under 62 and moved into a tie for the lead with Justin Leonard and Steve Flesch after two rounds of the Franklin Templeton Shootout.
Kuehne made a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 17 and rolled in an 8-footer for birdie at the 18th in the best ball format, getting his team to 18 under at Tiburn Golf Club. First-round leaders Leonard and Flesch had a second straight 9-under 63.
Host Greg Norman and Scott McCarron (64) were tied for third with Mark Calcavecchia and Loren Roberts (63) at 15 under. The father and son team of Jay and Bill Haas combined for an 11-under 61 to reach 14 under.
Sluman believes the late second-round push will help his team heading into today’s final-round scramble.
“You’d rather start out the day even instead of one back, especially in the scramble format,” Sluman said. “I think it was important for us just to finish birdie-birdie and not kind of give away what we had rallied so hard to do in the middle of the round after being even-par after five.”
Leonard and Flesch were able to stay atop the leaderboard despite not playing well.
“Fortunately, we were able to make a few and keep ourselves in this,” Leonard said.
Calcavecchia and Roberts closed the first round with three straight birdies and opened the second with birdies on four of their first six holes.
Roberts punctuated the round with a long birdie putt at the 18th.