Ogilvie leads Hope Classic

Joe Ogilvie keeps selling himself short.

After shooting a 6-under 66 Friday to go to 23 under in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic at La Quinta, Calif., he downplayed his round.

“I got lucky, basically. The way I played, 66 was a gift,” said Ogilvie, who holds a two-shot lead over Australian Peter Lonard.

Ogilvie shot a 63 a day earlier and said then that, while he was leading “score-wise” with a three-shot edge over Phil Mickelson, he considered Mickelson “technically” in the lead. That was because Mickelson already had played the more difficult of the four courses used for the tournament.

But defending champion Mickelson, also the 2002 winner, wasn’t in the lead technically or otherwise after 54 holes, with his 70 dropping him seven shots behind Ogilvie.

Craig Stadler, who won the Hope in 1980 for his first tour victory, shot his way into contention with a 65 that put him in a group with Mickelson at 16 under, seven shots behind Ogilvie.

Ogilvie made much of his own luck during the third round, rolling in birdie putts of 20, 15, 25, 18 and 22 feet on his first nine holes.

He began his round on the back nine at Tamarisk Country Club and had a 5-under 31 at the turn. He made two birdies and a bogey over his last nine holes.

His only “main hiccup” during the round, he said, came on the par-5 No. 4, his 13th hole of the day.

“I had a bad lie and chipped it over and kind of three-putted from there,” Ogilvie said.

Four tied for lead at Turtle Bay

Hale Irwin got off to a fast start in his bid for a fifth straight victory in the Turtle Bay Championship, shooting a 5-under 67 for a share of the first-round lead in the Champions Tour event at Kahuku, Hawaii.

The 59-year-old Irwin, seeking his sixth overall victory in the event, was tied with Keith Fergus, Gil Morgan and Allen Doyle.

Dana Quigley, who won the MasterCard Championship on the Big Island last week, was one stroke back along with Bob Gilder, Wayne Levi, Jim Thorpe and Gary McCord.

Woods’ caddie hurts hand in crash

Tiger Woods’ caddie seriously injured his left hand in an auto racing accident in Wellington, New Zealand.

Steve Williams was driving in a heat of a modified saloon car competition at the Baypark Speedway in Tauranga when his car launched into the air and hit a safety fence. He said the skin on his left hand was torn back, exposing the bone.

Williams hopes to return to work for the Nissan Open in Los Angeles, beginning Feb. 17.