Faldo

VIRGINIA WATER, England -- Severiano Ballesteros equaled Gary Player's record of five World Match Play titles with a 10-birdie, no-bogey performance yesterday that gave him a 3-and-2 victory over Zimbabwe's Nick Price."

ST. LOUIS -- While most of the field seemed stuck somewhere between neutral and reverse, Gene Sauers birdied three of the last six holes yesterday to take a two-stroke lead into the third round of the 74th PGA Championship.On a Bellerive Country Club course that has asserted itself as a stout and unyielding test, Sauers, the first round co-leader, shot a two-under-par 69 for a 36-hole total of six-under-par 136.It put him two shots ahead of Nick Faldo, who missed short putts on the final two holes in posting a second-round 70, and left-hander Russ Cochran and Jim Gallagher Jr., who shot a course-record 66.Behind the leaders, the field began to string out after being bunched after the first round.

SOTOGRANDE, Spain -- They were either unknown in the United States, untested in the Ryder Cup or both. But apparently the rookies on this year's European team at Valderrama Golf Club are undaunted, underrated or both.Whatever the reason, they have greatly outplayed their American counterparts in the 32nd Ryder Cup.Through the matches completed before play was suspended by darkness last night, the European rookies were a combined 5-1-2 compared with 2-5-1 for the Americans playing in their first Ryder Cup. They have played a big part in Europe taking a 9-4 lead.

SANDWICH, England -- After enough heartbreak, frustration and criticism to fill three careers, Greg Norman essentially reinvented his yesterday with the best performance of his life to win the 122nd British Open.Crafting an all-but-flawless, 6-under-par 64, the 38-year-old Australian mastered both the pressures that have hindered him in the past and the harsh challenge of Royal St. George's in one of the greatest closing rounds in the history of major championship golf.Norman's 72-hole total of 13-under-par 267 -- the lowest four-round total in a British Open -- put him two strokes ahead of Nick Faldo of England and three ahead of Germany's Bernhard Langer.

SOUTHPORT, England - Golf had the weirdest dream yesterday. In this dream, malevolent winds burned faces, shoved golf balls from their lies and yanked caps off heads, until all the wreckage and all the tortured shots and all the happy gorse culminated with emphatic applause on No. 18 for ... Greg Norman? Yeah, you know those deep, senseless, REM dreams where familiar faces turn up in unfeasible places? Well, on Saturday, in early-evening sunshine in the dunes of Royal Birkdale, here came the third-round leader in a scene so beyond belief it's unforgettable no matter what might happen today.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Fred Funk had no problem dissecting his poor play in the first two rounds of The Players Championship.Funk, who made a living as the Maryland Terrapins coach from 1982-88, led the PGA Tour in driving accuracy the past two years, when he collected more than $1.5 million in earnings.He didn't win any prizes in the first two rounds at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, when he hit only 19 of 28 fairways. He found 13 of 14 yesterday, when a 68 moved him from 2-over to 2-under.

PGAThe MastersSite: Augusta, Ga.Schedule: Today-Sunday.Course: Augusta National Golf Club (6,925 yards, par 72).Purse: TBA ($2.7 million last year).Winner's share: TBA ($486,000 last year).TV: USA (Today-tomorrow, 4-6: 30 p.m. and 9-11: 30 p.m.) and CBS (Saturday, 3: 30-6 p.m.; Sunday, 4-7 p.m.).Last year: Tiger Woods had a record-breaking performance in becoming the first person of color to win in a major tournament and the youngest Masters winner at age 21. He shot 70-66-65-69 for a record 18-under 270 total, and record 12-stroke margin over Tom Kite.

POTOMAC -- One leader has worked through a stretch when he could barely see, the other when he could barely breathe.Is it the Kemper Open, or the Red Cross Open?D. A. Weibring and Mark Wiebe, two faceless veterans as familiar with the disabled list as they are the leader board, found themselves atop the board at the TPC at Avenel yesterday, when both shot 4-under-par 67s to move to 6-under at the midway point of the Kemper Open.They'll be the final pairing in today's third round, but the focus is on the heavyweights immediately behind them.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Corey Pavin has long built his reputation as golf's little big man, the scrawny guy with the huge heart, a player whose toughness more than equaled his talents.After what happened this summer at Shinnecock Hills on the final hole of the U.S. Open, and after what happened yesterday here at Oak Hill at a crucial moment of the 31st Ryder Cup, Pavin is building something else.His legacy.His 18-foot, downhill chip-in for birdie from the rough behind the 18th hole ended a tense, 5 3/4 -hour struggle with Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer in the day's final match, giving Pavin and Loren Roberts a dramatic 1-up victory.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Something seems to go wrong for Greg Norman every year at The Masters. He is either too aggressive or too tentative. He has gotten off to a number of slow starts that all but negated some fast finishes.Is it possible Norman wants to win at Augusta National too much?"Everybody says it," Norman said Friday. "I personally don't feel that way, but my wife says it and my good friends say it and the people in the media say it, so I guess it must be true."Norman started yesterday's third round in good position, at 2-under-par 142 and five shots behind second-round leader Jeff Maggert.