Par

TULSA, Okla. - Tiger Woods still thought he had a chance to make some noise at, and possibly win, the 101st U.S. Open when he stepped up to his ball on the 12th green at Southern Hills Country Club yesterday afternoon. Woods had just made birdie on the previous hole to get back to 3-over par. If he could make the 6-foot birdie putt here and an eagle 3 on the par-5 13th hole, he would be back to even par and within five shots of the leaders. The world's best player, maybe the best ever, is allowed such a fantasy.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Maybe he is just setting himself up for another of his now legendary comebacks. Maybe he is trying to give the rest of the field at Augusta National for the 64th Masters a false sense of security. Or maybe Tiger Woods was merely proving he was human. What could have been disaster for Woods yesterday was saved by a couple of late birdies that helped him walk off the wind-swept, tricked-up course with a 3-over-par 75. It left him seven shots behind first-round leader Dennis Paulson.

Kevin Moylan, the last man off the course, posted a 2-under-par 69 and tied Bart DeLuca for the first-round lead in the 32nd annual Maryland Amateur Stroke Play championship yesterday at Mount Pleasant Golf Course.Earlier, it had looked like a youth movement at the top, as DeLuca, 18, who just finished a Dean's List freshman year at Wake Forest, was followed by Steve Colnitis, 16, and a St. Paul's junior. They had been the only ones in a 150-player field to break par of 36-35 before Moylan joined them.

BETHESDA -- Amateur Earl Hartman, from Alexandria, Va., registered a par-matching 35-3570 and won the medal in sectional qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open championship yesterday at Bethesda Country Club.With a field of 91 vying for three available places, the others went to pros Chuck Thorpe of Washington, 71, and Billy King of Roanoke, Va., 73.King birdied the first extra hole when he struck a sand wedge shot to eight feet and made the putt to earn the spot over David Hyduke of Sterling, Va., who made par and was relegated to first alternate.

CHEVY CHASE - As if 36 holes weren't enough, one more was necessary to determine the future for three players. In a sudden-death playoff late yesterday at Chevy Chase Golf Course, Dicky Pride and Chris Anderson played par holes to outlast Ryan Hietala and qualify for two spots at the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields in Illinois next week. After completing two rounds of play, the trio found themselves tied with 2-under-par totals of 138. As darkness set in, Pride and Anderson finished one stroke ahead of Hietala in the playoff round on the par-4 first hole.

Larry Storck and Moose Brown teamed for a 2-under-par 68, and their two-day total of 134 brought them the championship of the annual Five Farms Fourball tournament yesterday at Baltimore Country Club. As was the case in Saturday's opening round, only three of the 22 teams finished with sub-par totals for the 6,844-yard, par-70 East Course. Mitch Wyatt-Ron Vannelli had 68-68-136 and were tied by first-round leaders Scott Hargest-Tim Dilli (65-71-136). Storck-Brown, from Hayfields CC, turned in 1-under 34, and Brown effectively sealed the verdict at the 440-yard 16th, where his 155-yard 7-iron shot to 18 inches set up an easy birdie.

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- She wears white tape on two fingers of her left hand and one finger on her right to prevent the chronic blisters she gets from gripping her golf clubs too tightly. The entire Orchards Golf Club is in need of a tape job because unheralded Jennifer Rosales is blistering the U.S. Women's Open. "Props," she joked of the tape that she said she has been wearing for about eight years as protection. And props she has earned this week. Though she wears stylish clothes and snazzy wraparound sunglasses, Rosales, 25, isn't the hip choice of most spectators, who instead are enamored of top-ranked Annika Sorenstam and 14-year-old amateur Michelle Wie. But Rosales, a native of the Philippines who maintains a residence there as well as in California, shot a 69 yesterday to go with her rounds of 70 and 67, and is the only player to shoot three rounds under par in the premier event on the LPGA Tour.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. -- All week long, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club knocked the biggest, strongest and best golfers in the world to the treacherous, hard ground here at the 95th U.S. Open.When the Open ended late yesterday afternoon, one of the smallest and scrawniest -- and best -- was left standing at even-par. Corey Pavin was the only one, and it didn't come as a big surprise to anyone.Long considered one of the game's toughest players under pressure, a player whose first major championship was long overdue, Pavin shot a 2-under-par 68 to beat Greg Norman by two shots and Tom Lehman by three.

NEWPORT, R.I. -- They are not as different as they might seem, Annika Sorenstam and Pat Hurst. Both are roughly the same age, both have had good lives in golf, both shot the same score in 36 holes of playing alongside each other yesterday to finish at even par and both would give anything to win the U.S. Women's Open playoff today. They will give everything they have, which, granted, involves a couple of different inventories: Today's 18-hole playoff 9 a.m., ESPN

DULUTH, Ga. -- Tiger Woods has carved out his legend by having a flair for the dramatic, whether it was making remarkable comebacks in winning three straight U.S. Amateur championships or making history by winning four straight major professional championships. Yesterday, Woods provided the most excitement in the second round of the 83rd PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club by simply making the cut. Just as the flying pigs seemed to be hovering -- in other words, a sign that the improbable was about to happen -- Woods made some flying birdie putts.