Subpar Duval Still in the Hunt for Victory

This is hardly encouraging news for the rest of the PGA Tour: David Duval doesn’t play his best, yet he’s lurking near the top again.

Stewart Cink and Mike Weir shared the lead after Saturday’s third round of the BellSouth Classic at Duluth, Ga., with Duval one shot off the pace and honing in on another victory.

“You’re not always going to play your best,” said Duval, whose 13-under 203 left him tied with second-round leader Rory Sabbatini and John Huston. “When you stop thinking you have to rely on playing great to put up good scores, you take a real step forward.”

Duval, who hoped to use this tournament as a relaxing warmup for the Masters, will have to change his focus now that another victory is in sight. He already has won three times this year and has 10 victories in his last 33 tournaments.

After muddling through the front nine at the TPC Sugarloaf course north of Atlanta, Duval strung together four birdies after the turn for a four-under 68.

Cink, a teammate of Duval for one year at Georgia Tech, shot a 66 to share the top of the leaderboard with Weir, a Canadian who earned a spot on the tour through qualifying school.

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Graham Marsh, unshaken by a one-day snow delay in The Tradition, came back with a five-under 67 to open a three-shot lead on Larry Nelson with one round to go at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Marsh, who shared the lead with Howard Twitty after the first round, got closer to his first 1999 title and second Senior PGA Tour major with a 36-hole total of eight-under 136. Marsh won the 1997 U.S. Senior Open, and hasn’t won since.

Nelson charged into contention on a day when shot-making replaced weather as the top story of the tournament, shooting a strong 66 in springlike conditions compared with sleet Thursday and four inches of snow Friday.

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Juli Inkster withstood an early double bogey en route to a two-over-par 74, and held a three-stroke lead over Sherri Steinhauer after three rounds of the Longs Drugs Challenge in Lincoln, Calif.

Inkster, an 18-time tournament winner, has a total of six-under 210.

Tennis

Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Anna Kournikova of Russia gave women’s tennis its second consecutive teen-aged final, advancing to the Family Circle Cup championship at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Hingis, the world’s No. 1 player, downed No. 3 Jana Novotna, 6-2, 6-3, while Kournikova, seeded seventh, overcame a first-set tiebreaker loss to defeat No. 6 Patty Schnyder, 6-7 (7-5), 6-0, 6-3.

A week ago, Venus Williams, 18, outlasted 17-year-old sister Serena in the Lipton Championship final.

Miscellany

Jeff Green moved from the 18th position at the start to win his first NASCAR Busch Series Grand National race of the season at the BellSouth Mobility 320 at Nashville. . . . Ron Hornaday won the biggest prize in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series history, $140,000, along with his 25th career victory, as he captured the NAPACard 200 race at Monroe, Wash.

Florida used its sprinters to defeat UCLA, 101-99, ending the Bruin men’s 51-meet home track winning streak. The UCLA women stretched their win streak to 58 meets overall, 47 at Drake Stadium, with a 110-81 victory. . . . Paced by Kareem Streete-Thompson and anchor Rohsaan Griffin, the Austin All-Stars shocked the HSI team of Jon Drummond, Maurice Greene, Ato Boldon and Curtis Perry in the Texas Relays 400-meter relay with a time of 38.23 seconds at Austin.

Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands defeated Jenny Thompson in the 50-meter freestyle at the World Short-Course Swimming Championships at Hong Kong, ending Thompson’s 12-race win streak.

Cambridge extended its winning streak over Oxford to seven in the Boat Race in London, and had help from an American--6-foot-9 Josh West, the tallest rower in the event’s history.

Tennessee-bound Kara Lawson and North Carolina recruit Jennifer Thomas each scored 20 points to lead the White team to a 100-82 victory over the Red in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn. High School All-American game at Hartford, Conn.