GOLF ROUNDUP : Gallagher Maintains His Lead

Jim Gallagher Jr. avoided the pitfalls that befell playing partner Payne Stewart and retained a one-stroke lead through two rounds of the World Series of Golf Friday at Akron, Ohio.

“Par’s a good score, to say the least,” Gallagher said after a 71 left him at three-under 137. He started the round with a one-stroke lead over Stewart after opening with a 66 at parched and hard Firestone Country Club.

One shot behind were defending champion Jose Maria Olazabal, Billy Mayfair and Mike Sullivan.

John Daly, saying his injured right hand was all right, shot a 73. On Thursday, he hurt his hand when his wedge struck a tree root while hitting a chip shot. He finished with a 78.

A 270-yard three-iron on the 17th hole Friday convinced him his hand was OK. “I was a little scared to grip it before that, but I think I’m 100% now,” he said.

Stewart, playing in the same twosome with Gallagher, pulled even with a birdie on No. 1 and took the lead with another at 15. But at the signature hole, the 625-yard, par-five 16th “Monster,” Stewart hit his approach into the water and ended up with a triple-bogey.

He compounded that mistake on the next hole, missing the green right, chipping short, then rolling the ball past and two-putting for a double-bogey that dropped him four shots behind Gallagher.

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While first-round leader Patty Sheehan shot a 78, Liselotte Neumann had a bogey-free 66 to take a three-shot lead after two rounds of the du Maurier Classic at Montreal, the LPGA Tour’s last of four major championships.

Neumann, at 7-under-par 137 after 36 holes, is three strokes ahead of Jenny Lidback, a Peru native who holds Swedish citizenship but lives in the United States. Lidback, who is seeking her first win in seven years on tour, shot 69.

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The winds blew and the scores soared as five golfers--George Archer, Rocky Thompson, Iaso Aoki, Jim Colbert and Buddy Allin--posted three-under-par 69s to share the first-round lead of the $800,000 Bank of Boston Senior Classic at Concord, Mass.

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Defending champion Tiger Woods won two matches to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Championship at Newport, R.I., and so did Steve Scott, 18, of Coral Springs, Fla., who is trying to replace Woods as the youngest amateur champion.