Lpga

Nancy Brown fired a 2-under-par 69 yesterday for a 1-stroke lead over Missie McGeorge after three rounds of the Red Robin Kyocera Inamori Classic. Brown, who started the round with a 2-shot lead, carded three birdies and one bogey over the 6,024-yard StoneRidge Country Club course and was at 8- under 205 heading into today's final round. McGeorge started the day alone in second place and cut a stroke off Brown's lead with a 68. PGA HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Gene Sauers shot a wind-blown 2-under-par 68 to take a 3-shot lead after three rounds of the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic.

She has been Sis for more than 25 years, ever since her big brother discovered that he couldn't pronounce Nanette. On her birth certificate, she is Nanette, but Sis Seman is sort of a snappy-sounding name for a professional golfer, one that would naturally lend itself to endorsements and such, if it ever comes to that. But right now, in her rookie season, Sis Seman is young and struggling and unknown outside the tight, little world of the women's pro tour. She travels like a gypsy from golf course to golf course, tournament to tournament, in search of a payday.

When the LPGA announced Wednesday that it will begin testing for performance-enhancing drugs in 2008, thereby becoming the first major golf tour to do so, it was only a matter of hours before the PGA Tour also jumped into the fray. Two days earlier, said the Tour, during a meeting of its policy board, it was agreed, among other things, that it should come up with a list of "prohibited substances. " Not a bad start for a professional sports league that until now has pretty much been alone in insisting that it didn't need a drug-testing policy because it didn't have a drug problem.

Karrie Webb's slow, steady climb back to her Hall of Fame standards hit warp speed with one magical shot yesterday that sent her to a stunning playoff victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Rancho Mirage, Calif. Webb holed a pitching wedge from 116 yards for eagle on the par-5 18th hole to close with a 7-under 65, then made a 7-foot birdie putt on the same hole in the playoff to beat Lorena Ochoa and capture her seventh career major. As exhilarating as it was for Webb, it was devastating for those she beat.

Nancy Brown and Britain's Laura Davies shot 4-under-par 67s yesterday to share the lead after two rounds of the $300,000 Inamori Classic in Poway, Calif. Davies, one of nine golfers who started the day 1 shot off the lead, carded five birdies and an 18th-hole bogey for a two-day total of 6-under 136 on the hilly, 6,024-yard Stone Ridge Country Club course. Brown, who also shot an opening-round 69, birdied six holes on the par-71 layout but bogeyed her third and 11th holes.

Once again, the $750,000 McDonald's Championship - which annually has one of the highest purses and best fields of the LPGA season - will not receive any national television coverage. A combination of the nation's economic climate, the late arrival of sponsorship money and the inability of CBS or ESPN to come up with a satisfactory proposal means next month's tournament at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington will be without live television for the second straight year. According to Frank Quinn, the tournament's co-founder and honorary chairman, "There was no one to blame.

Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez plans to stop playing tournaments full time at the end of this season, her 25th on the LPGA tour. "I am not walking away from golf," Lopez said yesterday in Phoenix before playing in the pro-am of the Ping Banner Health, the LPGA's second tournament of the season. "I am at the beginning of a brand-new chapter in my golf career. " She said she would compete in selected tour events and will take part in corporate tournaments, course design and work to develop new ideas for her namesake club line.

Colleen Walker, who has missed the last three LPGA seasons with a wrist injury, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Walker, 46, whose nine LPGA victories include a major championship at the 1997 du Maurier Classic, is undergoing chemotherapy and hopes to return in 2004. She planned to play this year until a lump was detected in her left breast during a routine mammogram on Jan. 6. She had a mastectomy Feb. 17, and while subsequent tests showed no signs of cancer, Walker chose to undergo chemotherapy and radiation as a precaution.

GALLOWAY, N.J. - Since she won the 2012 ShopRite LPGA Classic, Stacy Lewis has been making history. She was the first U.S. player in 18 years to win LPGA player of the year and only the second American to be No. 1 since the women's world rankings were introduced in 2006. Note the key word here: American. Despite the presence of outstanding players from the United States such as Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr, and Paula Creamer, Americans had been shut out of the top for quite some time until Lewis, 28, ascended.

Two-time champion Cristie Kerr shot a 5-under 66 to take a 2-stroke lead over second-ranked Stacy Lewis and Suzann Pettersen after the third round of the LPGA Tour's Kingsmill Championship in Williamsburg, Va. Kerr made six birdies to reach 10-under 203. Lewis shot a 69, and Pettersen had a 68.   LACROSSE: Syracuse beat host Villanova, 13-9, to win its fourth straight Big East men's title. The Orange never trailed, but the Wildcats scored four straight goals in the second half to pull within two in the fourth quarter.

Suzann Pettersen won the LPGA Lotte Championship in Kapolei, Hawaii, beating Lizette Salas with a par on the first hole of a playoff after Salas chunked her approach shot into the water. Charley Hoffman 's quick start gave him a 2-shot lead over U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson after three rounds of the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C., on Saturday. Esteban Toledo , a rookie looking for his first win on the Champions Tour, has a 1-stroke lead heading into the final round of the Greater Gwinnett Championship in Duluth, Ga. Mark Warren of Scotland shot a 4-under 68 to take a 2-shot lead after the third round of the Spanish Open in Valencia, Spain.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. - Inbee Park took the second-round lead Friday in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, making three birdies in a row early on the back nine and rebounding from a wind-blown bogey with four straight pars. Finishing in gusty conditions on another hot afternoon at Mission Hills, the 24-year-old South Korean player shot a 5-under 67 to reach 7 under. American Lizette Salas was a stroke back after a 68, and Sweden's Carolina Hedwall and Italy's Giulia Sergas followed at 5 under.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. - Playing partners Suzann Pettersen and Na Yeon Choi took advantage of perfect morning conditions to share the first-round lead with Jodi Ewart Shadoff in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Finishing before the temperature climbed into the low 90s on Thursday, Pettersen and Choi had bogey-free rounds of 4-under-par 68 at Mission Hills. Ewart Shadoff matched them late in the afternoon. Anna Nordqvist and afternoon starter Amy Yang were a stroke back at 69 in the LPGA Tour's first major championship of the year.

The ShopRite LPGA Classic announced Thursday that the 2013 tournament is scheduled for May 27-June 2 on the Bay Course at Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club in Galloway, N.J. Top women from the Ladies Professional Golf Association will compete for a $1.5 million purse in the 54-hole, LPGA-sanctioned official event. It is scheduled to be televised on the Golf Channel. For more tournament news and information, go to www.ShopRiteLPGAclassic.com .

HOYLAKE, England - Jiyai Shin avoided mistakes in miserable weather conditions Sunday to cruise to a record 9-stroke victory in the Women's British Open that completed an Asian sweep of the four majors. South Korea's Sun Young Yoo won the Kraft Nabisco, China's Shanshan Feng took the LPGA Championship, and South Korea's Na Yeon Choi won the U.S. Women's Open. In the 36-hole finish in the wind-delayed tournament, Shin took a 3-shot lead into the final round after shooting a 1-under-par 71 in the morning.

LYDIA KO won the Canadian Women's Open in Coquitlam, British Columbia, on Sunday to become the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history and only the fifth amateur champion. The 15-year-old South Korean-born New Zealander closed with a 5-under 67 for a three-stroke victory. She broke the age record of 16 set by Lexi Thompson last September in the Navistar LPGA Classic in Alabama, and is the first amateur winner since JoAnne Carner in the 1969 Burdine's Invitational. In January, Ko won the New South Wales Open in Australia at 14 to become the youngest player to win a professional tour event, a mark broken by 14-year-old Brooke Henderson in June in a Canadian Women's Tour event in Quebec.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. - Shanshan Feng closed with a 5-under 67 Sunday to win the LPGA Championship by 2 strokes, becoming the first Chinese player to win an LPGA Tour title and a major. The 22-year-old Feng, the only player from China on the tour, had the lowest round of the tournament at the right time and finished at 6-under 282. "I am so excited right now," Feng said. "I did it!" Stacy Lewis, bidding to win her third straight stroke-play event on the LPGA Tour, shot a 70 to tie for second with Mika Miyazato, Suzann Pettersen, and third-round leader Eun-Hee Ji. Miyazato shot 69, Pettersen 70, and Ji 72. Karrie Webb, who started the day 1 shot behind Ji, had a 72 to finish at 3 under.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. - Eun-Hee Ji shot a 3-under 69 on Saturday, to take a 1-shot lead over Karrie Webb after the third round of the LPGA Championship. Ji was 4 under at Locust Hill. Webb had a 68, matching Ji for the best round of the tournament. Giulia Sergas, who shared the first-round lead but had a 76 on Friday in the wind-swept second round, moved back near the top with four birdies on the front nine and also finished with a 69. Sergas was tied at 2 under with Stacy Lewis, Suzann Pettersen, and Inbee Park.