Par

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- The winds blew across the links of the Carnoustie Golf Club in yesterday's opening round of the 128th British Open, and the glowering skies early in the day were a telling sign."

Clark MacKenzie, from Green Spring Valley Hunt Club, registered the only below-par round with a 2-under 34-3468 at the Country Club of Maryland yesterday, and won the medal by three shots in sectional qualifying for the U.S. Senior Amateur championship.With five places available, the other spots went to Frank Bart, Hillendale CC, 34-3771; Jack Vardaman, Congressional CC, 35-3671; Jay Cullen, Elkridge Club, 37-3572; and Paul Loveless, Shepherdstown, W. Va., 36-3672. Pat O'Malley of Baltimore CC also had 72, but lost to two pars in a three-for-two playoff.

Generic drug-maker Par Pharmaceutical Inc. pleaded guilty today to 10 criminal charges and agreed to pay $2.5 million in fines over three years for corrupt acts tied to its former management.Company president Kenneth I. Sawyer entered the pleas to Judge John R. Hargrove for the company in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.Par had pleaded guilty to other criminal charges involving the company and one of its subsidiaries less than two years ago, and paid $400,000 in fines then.Today's fine is the second-largest imposed on any of the five companies among 31 defendants to be charged so far in a continuing federal investigation of corruption in the generic drug industry and the Food and Drug Administration.

CARMEL, Ind. -- The leader board after the first round of the 73rd PGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club yesterday had the long and short of it. Co-leaders Ian Woosnam and Kenny Knox each shot 5-under-par 67s.The tournament was scarred by the death of 39-year-old Thomas Weaver of nearby Fishers, Ind., who was struck by lightning at a parking lot about a mile from the course. Play was suspended at 2 p.m. because of thunderstorms. Weaver was struck shortly after 2:30 p.m.Play resumed at 4 p.m. but was suspended again because of darkness at 7:50 p.m. with 27 players on the course.

STERLING, Va. -- First-round leader Bill Musto was "just trying to keep it around par," as he unfolded a 2-over 74, and took over the 54-hole lead in the Middle Atlantic Amateur at Lowes Island Club yesterday.On a cool, sunny day, the 6,700-yard course played the easiest of the three rounds, as the wind was down and the weather was generally improved.The round by Musto, the Lowes Island club champion playing in his hometown, followed rounds of 70-78, and left him at 222, followed by Tom Offutt and Michael Swiger at 223, and eight players at 224, including Eric Kirsch, who had the tournament's low round, a no-bogey 68, and second-round leader Rich Buckner.

Larry Storck, who started the last round five shots off the pace of record-setting Pat Tallent, ended it by making a two-putt par from 40 feet on the first extra hole to capture the 11th Maryland State Golf Association Mid-Amateur championship at Caves Valley Golf Club yesterday.Storck mounted an almost immediate challenge with three successive birdies beginning at No. 2, and, coupled with a Tallent bogey, made the turn just one stroke off the pace.Tallent fell out of the lead for the first time when he took a double-bogey six at the 333-yard 16th, but a Storck bogey at the 17th, followed by two pars at the 18th, sent them into overtime.

WILMINGTON, Del. - Turning 40 is a day that most adults face with a mixture of nostalgia, anxiety and trepidation. A sort of anticipation that runs the gamut from quiet reflection to blatant fear, all the while putting on a happy face because, hey, it's your birthday, right? Yesterday, Juli Inkster learned all about those sentiments as she celebrated the big 4-0, but on the golf course her dominant emotion was exhilaration. The defending champion torched DuPont Country Club for a tournament-low 65 during the third round of the McDonald's LPGA Championship, taking home a share of the lead as well as a sheet cake from the LPGA.

GULLANE, Scotland -- Nick Faldo said that he was in a comfort zone yesterday in the second round of the 121st British Open at the Muirfield course.He was so comfortable that he shot a 7-under-par 64 for a 36-hole score of 130, 12-under par, and given his track record, he might run away with the Open."

WILMINGTON, Del. -- It seemed only fitting for Laura Davies to win the LPGA Championship on the 16th hole of the DuPont Country Club course yesterday.After all, she had lost it there last year, when her bogey and a birdie by Kelly Robbins had jumped Robbins into a one-stroke lead, which she maintained for the victory.This time, Davies persevered on a windy, brisk day by simply keeping her head while others around her were losing theirs. She had started at plus-1, ran off 15 successive pars, birdied the 16th from 18 feet, then parred the 17th and 18th, negotiating the last one after a 15-yard bunker shot to 12 feet above the cup.Davies finished the weather-marred event with 72-71-70 for even-par 213. It marked the tournament's highest winning finish since Kathy Ahern won in 1972 with a 1-over-par total.

POTOMAC -- They trudged happily off the course at Avenel yesterday, dripping with sweat, their score cards swimming with birdies. The weather wasn't the only thing that was red-hot for the first round of the $1 million Kemper Open.How hot and unbothered were they?Despite a temperature reading of 104 on the driving range at 1 p.m., the low scores reflected the relative ease with which the 6,904-yard Tournament Players Club course was playing. Nearly half of the 156-man field finished under par.As co-leader Bob Gilder said after a 6-under par 65, "I think the golf course is kind of like a sitting duck."