Floyd Leads, as Irwin Falters

Hale Irwin’s annual troubles in the Senior Tour Championship continued Friday as he shot a 73 and fell two strokes behind Ray Floyd midway through the season-ending event at Myrtle Beach, Fla.

Floyd, the 1994 champion, birdied the last three holes for a 68 and a two-day total of 137, seven under par. Jim Albus, who lost to Floyd in a five-hole playoff four years ago, also shot 68, tying Irwin at 139.

Irwin has led the last two tournaments at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club and led the first round of this one with a 66. But something always drops him back in virtually the only major senior event he has never won.

“You’re going to have these rounds,” Irwin said. “It just seems like they are glaring after so many good rounds. The lesser ones just stand out so strongly that it’s kind of hard to forget that it’s just a round of golf.”

*

Tina Barrett--winless over the last nine seasons on the LPGA Tour--tied her career-best score of seven-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead in the Japan Classic at Hanno. Jenny Lidback and Huang Yu-chen of Taiwan were tied for second. . . . Edward Fryatt shot a second consecutive five-under 67 for a 134 total after the second round of the Sarazen World Open at Braselton, Ga. He holds a two-stroke lead over first-round leader Bob Tway, who shot a 70. . . . A combined British-Irish women’s team pulled out of next week’s World Amateur Golf Team Championship in Chile because of concerns for player safety. The withdrawal was made as Britain’s highest court was to resume hearings Monday to decide on the legality of the arrest in London of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Tennis

Pete Sampras, seeking to end the season as No. 1 for the sixth consecutive year, moved closer to that goal as he won in the quarterfinals of the $2.55-million Paris Open while No. 2 Marcelo Rios of Chile lost. Showing no signs of the back problem that plagued him earlier in the tournament, Sampras advanced by beating Australia’s Mark Philippoussis, 6-3, 6-3. Rios was upset by Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 6-3, 6-2. In today’s semifinals, Sampras will play Todd Martin, who defeated Andre Agassi, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. In the other semifinal, Kafelnikov will play Britain’s Greg Rusedski, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Magnus Gustafsson. Sampras’ bid was aided when third-ranked Patrick Rafter of Australia withdrew from this month’s ATP World Championship at Hanover, Germany, because of a knee injury.

Steffi Graf won her quarterfinal match at the Leipzig Open in Germany and became the all-time leading money winner among female athletes. By beating French qualifier Anne-Gaelle Sidot, 7-5, 6-3, Graf was assured of passing Martina Navratilova, who earned $20,344,061 during her 13-year career.

Names in the News

Joe DiMaggio’s condition deteriorated in his battle against pneumonia and a lung infection, and the 83-year-old former New York Yankee great is expected to remain hospitalized in Hollywood, Fla., for at least six more weeks. . . . Arizona freshman Luke Walton, a 6-foot-8 forward and son of former UCLA basketball star Bill Walton, will be sidelined for eight weeks because of a stress fracture in his right foot. . . . Jack Hartman, who coached Walt Frazier at Southern Illinois and won more games than anyone else in Kansas State basketball history, died at a hospital in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 73. . . . Rookie Kenny Irwin won the pole for Sunday’s season-ending NAPA 500 Winston Cup stock car race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. He had a fast lap of 193.461 mph in a Ford on the 1.54-mile tri-oval. . . . Thomas Hearns, trying a comeback as a cruiserweight at 40, needed only 88 seconds to knock out Jay Snyder in front of about 7,000 adoring fans in Detroit.

Miscellany

Tennessee was a unanimous choice for the top spot in the Associated Press preseason women’s basketball poll. UCLA is sixth, its first appearance in the preseason poll since 1981.

The USC men’s basketball team plays the Slam ‘n’ Jam All-Stars in an exhibition tonight at 7 at the Lyon Center. . . . The top-ranked Long Beach State women’s volleyball team, 23-0 overall and 13-0 in the Big West Conference, hosts No. 7 UC Santa Barbara (22-4, 11-2) tonight at 7.

The USC women’s volleyball team, ranked 11th, defeated No. 18 Arizona, 15-9, 15-11, 15-13. USC improved to 16-4 and 11-2, while the Wildcats fell to 18-5, 9-5. The No. 20 UCLA women defeated Arizona State, 15-13, 16-14, 15-4. UCLA is 10-10 and 9-4, Arizona State 10-11 and 7-7. . . . In men’s water polo, Sean Kern scored seven goals, including one two-pointer, for No. 2 UCLA in a 16-11 nonconference victory over No. 10 UC San Diego. . . . In women’s soccer, UCLA’s Staci Duncan scored two goals in the No. 20 Bruins’ 4-0 victory over Arizona at Tucson, and USC’s Courtney Barham scored both goals in the No. 25 Trojans’ 2-0 victory over Arizona State at Tempe.