Unknowns Surface At Players Tournament

Golf

Never in the 22-year history of The Players Championship has the winner been someone who had never won on the PGA Tour.

Tommy Tolles can change that today. So can David Duval. Or Michael Bradley.

Tolles, the 29-year-old in his second year on the tour, handled a steady rain and the pressure of playing in the last group of the day to shoot a 69 on Saturday at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., for a 14-under-par 202, two strokes better than Duval.

Bradley was three back at 205 with Jay Haas.

Tolles has been truly brilliant, making two bogeys in 54 holes.

Seven players were at 10-under, four strokes back, including Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie, Fred Couples and Vijay Singh. Four others, including Phil Mickelson and John Daly, were at 9-under.

Former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett was at 4-under, shooting a 73 for a three-day total of 212.

Sheehan tied at Dinah Shore

LPGA Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan, with a Nabisco Dinah Shore championship conspicuously absent from her list of 34 career victories, fired a 5-under 67 to tie Brandie Burton for the tournament lead at Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Burton, who hasn’t won a title in three years, shot a 68 at Mission Hills to continue her comeback from an opening 75. She had a 67 the second day.

Sheehan and Burton were at 6-under 210 at Mission Hills Country Club in the LPGA’s first major of 1996.

Overnight leader Tracy Hanson of Rathdrum, Idaho, fired a 74 and was tied for third with six others at 4-under 212. Robin Walton of Clarkston, Wash., was at 3-over 219.

Four-way tie at Dominion Seniors

At San Antonio, Tom Weiskopf birdied six of the last 11 holes to gain a share of the second-round lead with Bob Dickson, Graham Marsh and Larry Mowry in the $650,000 Dominion seniors tournament.

Despite a bad start, Weiskopf shot a 69 to complete two rounds over the 6,814-yard Dominion Country Club course at 6-under 138. Dickson had a 68 and Marsh and Mowry also shot 69s.