Mallon just misses out on shooting a 59

Watching Annika Sorenstam shoot 59 two years ago was an experience Meg Mallon will never forget.

She almost had one to match it in the first LPGA tournament of this season.

Mallon shot a 10-under 60 in the second round of the Welch's-Fry's Championship on Friday. She needed a birdie on the 18th hole to tie Sorenstam for the lowest score in tour history, but left an 18-foot downhill putt about 3 1/2 feet short.

"Right off the green yesterday, we talked about, 'Is there a 59 out there?"' Mallon said. "I thought there definitely was. I didn't think it was me, but it was nice to have the chance to do that."

Mallon's 36-hole total was 16-under 124, giving her a three-shot lead over first-round leader Lorie Kane, Wendy Doolan and Young Kim. Kane, who shot the fourth 61 in LPGA history Thursday, had a 66. Doolan carded a 62 and Kim 64.

"I wanted to watch another 59," said Kane, who played one group ahead of Mallon and lingered on the final green to watch the leader putt out.

"I keep an eye on the leaderboard, yeah," Kane acknowledged. "They were behind us. So I was kind of aware of what was going on, but I'm just trying to play as best I can."

Grace Park was alone at 128, and Laura Davies and A.J. Eathorne were paired at 129.

Juli Inkster, who won in 1999 and was second to Laura Diaz last year, and 1992 winner Brandie Burton were six shots out of the lead. Inkster shot a 62 and Burton a 64.

Diaz was 18 under a year ago, the second-lowest on the par-72 Randolph Park North Course. But she never adjusted to the shorter Dell Urich course, and she missed the cut at 138 despite rallying to a second-round 67.

The 6,176-yard layout also befuddled Se Ri Pak, the runner-up to Sorenstam for Player of the Year the last two seasons. Pak finished at 138 and got the weekend off for the first time in two years and only the ninth time in 123 events during her career.

Karrie Webb, the other member of the LPGA's triumvirate of superstars, earned the chance for a Sunday payday with a 68-66 start. Seventy-nine players made the cut at 137, including Norwegian rookie Suzann Pettersen, who posted the second 61 of the tournament Friday for a 133.

Sorenstam, who won in Tucson in 2000-01, took the opening weekend off to prepare for Phoenix, where she set most women's scoring records in 2001.

The day Sorenstam shot 13-under 59 at the Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix, Mallon was playing in a threesome with the Swedish star and her sister, Charlotta Sorenstam.

"I thought about her a lot," Mallon said. "That day, the ball was rolling in from everywhere. Of course, she birdied the first eight holes, so it was a little different. And you have to give her credit - that was a par 72."

Mallon, who won this tournament in 1993 for one of her 14 titles, recognized the feeling of a dive into red numbers. The Urich course is being used as the Tucson LPGA venue for the first time. The tournament record for Randolph North was a 62 by Kristi Albers in 1998.

"I have been in this position before," she said. "I had gotten to 11 under in Myrtle Beach and finished - I lipped out on 17 and made bogey on 18 to shoot 62."

Starting on the back nine, she birdied Nos. 10, 12-14 and No. 16 for a 30. On her back nine, Mallon made birdies at Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8. She two-putted two par-5s and made six birdie putts of from 12 to 20 feet.

The other two - an 8-footer on No. 4 and a 2-footer on the next hole - were part of a remarkable surge that got her into record territory. She birdied her 15th hole with a tap-in after just missing a 25-foot eagle putt.

On the next hole, Mallon's 6-foot birdie putt curled away.

She reached 16 under on the next-to-last hole with a 12-foot birdie putt that barely reached the cup, foreshadowing the heartache of a putt left short at the end.

Sorenstam's 13 under remains a record for an LPGA round. Vicki Fergon (1984), Sorenstam (1999) and Webb (2000) all had 11-under rounds that are ahead of Mallon's score in relation to par. Sorenstam, Webb and Pak (1998) were the only women to shoot 61s in LPGA competition until this tournament.

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