Morgan-Irwin Battle Goes Down to Wire, of Course

Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan, one-two on the Senior PGA Tour all season, turned the Tour Championship into their personal shootout on Saturday at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Morgan’s second consecutive 66 put him at 15-under and two strokes in front of Irwin, who fired a 68 at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club. No one else was within five shots of the two, who have 14 titles and almost $4 million between them in 1997.

On the line in today’s final round is $328,000. Should Irwin win, it would be a record 10th victory this year.

A win by Morgan, his sixth, would put him with Irwin, who fired three consecutive birdies on the back nine to close the Morgan lead, at more than $2 million earned.

Hubert Green, former two-time winner Mike Hill and Dave Eichelberger are tied for third at eight-under.

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Mark Calcavecchia overcame a shaky start and a mild challenge by Lee Westwood, shooting a one-under-par 71 for a six-stroke lead after three rounds of the Sarazen World Open at Braselton, Ga.

Calcavecchia, who had a seven-stroke lead over Westwood and Australia’s Peter O’Malley after two rounds of the $2 million tournament, managed to solve the gusty winds on the back nine after Westwood got to within three stokes.

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Davis Love III, who has 12 career victories on his resume--including this year’s PGA Championship--and David Toms, who won his first tournament a little over three months ago, birdied the final hole to continue to share the lead after three rounds of the Kapalua International at Kapalua, Hawaii. Both started the day deadlocked at 11-under 133.

Each wound up the third round with 67 to put them at 17-under 200.

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Lee Janzen has replaced Fred Couples in the field for the Franklin-Templeton Shark Shootout. The $1.1-million event will be played Friday through Sunday at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. . . . Leta Lindley, winless in two seasons on the LPGA Tour, took a one-stroke lead in the Japan Queen Cup at Otsu, Japan, by firing a seven-under-par 65 for a 136 total. . . . The Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill., reached a verbal agreement with the United States Golf Assn. for the 2005 Walker Cup matches between the United States and Britain-Ireland.

Tennis

Lindsay Davenport ended Serena Williams’ run in the Ameritech Cup at Chicago, beating the 16-year-old sister of Venus Williams, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the finals of the $450,000 tournament.

Serena Williams, ranked No. 304 when she entered the tournament as a wild card, had won three matches, including upset victories over Mary Pierce and Monica Seles.

The third-seeded Davenport will face either Iva Majoli or Nathalie Touziat in the finals.

Pete Sampras clinched the year-end No. 1 ATP Tour ranking for the fifth consecutive year, tying Jimmy Connors’ record for finishing the most consecutive years at No. 1.

Sampras, who won seven titles this year, clinched the top ranking when Patrick Rafter lost to Jonas Bjorkman in the semifinals in Stockholm.

Top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov breezed past Daniel Nestor of Canada, 6-4, 6-3, and second-seeded Petr Korda beat Wayne Black of Zimbabwe, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the finals of the Kremlin Cup at Moscow.

Miscellany

Fresno State basketball guard Rafer Alston has pleaded no contest to his second battery charge this year.

Alston, who has been suspended for the Bulldogs’ first game, was placed on three years’ probation for beating an ex-girlfriend, Rachael Henderson, outside the university’s weight room. Alston’s earlier battery conviction involved a neighbor last May.

The NASCAR Busch Series will go to 31 races next year with the addition of an event at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado Springs, Colo., to be held June 14.

Jack Sprague, needing only to qualify to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, won the pole for the Carquest Auto Parts 420K in Las Vegas.

Canadian Marc Gagnon won the 500-meters final in 43.658 seconds at the short track speedskating Olympic qualifier at the Hague, Netherlands.

Gagnon also won in the 1,000 meters to finish atop the individual classification at the Uithof Ijsbaan.

South Korean Kim Yun-Mi won the women’s classification after finishing fourth in the all-Asian women’s 500 final.

Chilean police in Santiago used water cannons and anti-riot squads to disperse thousands of angry soccer fans who failed to get tickets for next weekend’s key World Cup qualifying match between Chile and Bolivia.