GOLF ROUNDUP : Donald Quits Tinkering, Has 64 to Tie for Lead

Mike Donald put together his two best scores of the season and tied Ian Baker-Finch for the lead after Friday’s second round of the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic at Williamsburg, Va.

“For the first time in a long time, I actually feel like I’m out there trying to play golf instead of trying to figure out what the heck I’m doing wrong,” Donald said.

Donald, a 13-year pro who had not shot a round lower than a 67 in 17 events this season, opened with a 66 Thursday at Kingsmill Golf Club and followed it with a seven-under-par 64 that left him shaking his head.

“I don’t know if I even remember how to say that,” he said. “Sixty-four. Wow.”

Donald had missed the cut in five of his previous six events, and he came to Williamsburg with 1991 winnings of only $31,243, 155th on the money list.

“I’m sort of back on track again,” he said. “I’m not going to say I’m playing the best golf of my life the last two days, but it’s good to be playing well again.”

Baker-Finch added a 68 to his course-record 62 Thursday. One stroke back at 11-under-par 131 were Dan Pohl and Bob Gilder. Pohl shot a 67 and Gilder a 68.

Donald has been scrambling to regain the form that made him a winner on Kingsmill’s 6,776-yard layout in 1989 and got him into a playoff with eventual champion Hale Irwin in last year’s U.S. Open.

As he tinkered, his game began to suffer.

“I was hitting shots that I wouldn’t have hit if I would have just walked up to the ball, stood over it and just hit it,” he said. “But by trying to make the perfect swing, my bad shots became awful.”

U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart successfully battled a strong wind to shoot a 71 for a two-round score of 140 and the lead at the halfway stage of the Irish Open in Killarney.

Stewart had four birdies to finish with a two-round total of 140, one stroke ahead of defending champion Jose-Maria Olazabal of Spain and Briton Martin Gates.

First-round leader Nick Faldo of Britain slipped three shots behind, finishing with a three-over-par 75 after a spectator’s camera flash cost him a bogey at the final hole.

Mike Hill birdied the final three holes to finish at six-under-par 66 and take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the PGA Seniors PaineWebber Invitational tournament at Charlotte, N.C.

Hill led Arnold Palmer, who designed the 6,774-yard course at Tournament Players Club at Piper Glen. Defending champion Bruce Crampton and Doug Dalziel were at 68.

Making the turn at two under par, Hill made five of his eight birdies on the back nine. His nine-iron off the tee at the 142-yard par-three 17th left him four feet from the hole. On the 514-yard 18th, his sand wedge approach shot landed two feet from the cup.

Japan’s Ayako Okamoto shot a six-under-par 65, making up a six-stroke deficit and pulling into a tie with Tammie Green for the 36-hole lead in the $750,000 LPGA McDonald’s Championship at Wilmington, Del.

Okamoto had five birdies in a six-hole stretch, the last at 14, in drawing even with Green at seven-under-par 135. Green, 31, who shot a 64 Thursday, slipped to a 71 over the 6,389-yard, par-71 DuPont Country Club course.

At 136 were Pat Bradley, the year’s leading money winner, Sally Little and Michelle McGann.

Among those missing the cut were Jan Stephenson, Juli Inkster, JoAnne Carner, Judy Dickinson and Hollis Stacy.