Wie remains in contention to win LPGA card for '09

Michelle Wie

offset her mistakes with enough birdies yesterday, shooting a par 72 that left her two shots behind and still in good shape at the LPGA Tour qualifying tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Mollie Fankhauser shot a 66 on the tougher Legends course, host of all the top players in the third round, and finished at 12-under-par 204. She has a one-shot lead over Japan's Shiho Oyama, who had a 71.

Wie was another shot behind at 10-under 206 with Stacy Lewis, who made 12 straight pars until finishing with a birdie for a 71. Lewis won an NCAA title at Arkansas on the Legends course at LPGA International.

The 90-hole tournament concludes tomorrow with 20 players earning their LPGA cards for 2009.

In other golf news:

* Sweden's Henrik Stenson led by six shots through 10 holes of the second round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa, before play was suspended because of lightning.

* The 2009 Indian Masters was canceled because of security fears following the Mumbai terror attacks and difficulties finding a sponsor during the global economic downturn. The European Tour Event was to have been played from Feb. 5-8 at the Delhi Golf Club.

* Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal won a World Cup downhill race in Beaver Creek, Colo., a year after a crash ended his season. The Americans had trouble on the fast Birds of Prey course. Bode Miller wiped out after clipping his left ski on a gate, Marco Sullivan wound up too wide on a turn burning by a gate and Andrew Weibrecht flew into the air before becoming ensnared in protective fencing. He suffered only a bloody nose. Steven Nyman turned in the top U.S. finish, seventh.

* Defending World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn, of the United States, won the first women's downhill of the season, a race in Lake Louise, Alberta.

* Frank Rommel won a men's World Cup skeleton race in Altenberg, Germany, and Anja Huber won the women's event to give Germany a sweep of all four races this season.

* Wings transition player John Christmas, a Lower Merion High and University of Virginia product, will take the upcoming season off to establish a non-profit program to educate children in Philadelphia about lacrosse and the importance of positive thinking.

* Courtney Barg scored in the 15th minute and Notre Dame beat Stanford, 1-0, to reach the championship of the NCAA Women's College Cup. The Fighting Irish will play the UCLA-North Carolina winner tomorrow.

* Wait a While, third-place finisher in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 24, tested positive for excessive levels of procaine, a local anesthetic.

* World and Olympic champion hurdler Liu Xiang had successful foot surgery in Houston.

* With NBA star Yao Ming offering a message of support, China entered its bid to host basketball's world championship in 2014. Italy and Spain also made presentations to the sport's governing body. *