AKRON (OHIO), August 30: John Cook torched the golf course where he first learned the game, shooting an 8-under-par 62 on Saturday, but steady David Duval still maintained the lead by a shot through three rounds of the NEC World Series of Golf.Duval chipped in from 9 metres (30 feet) for a birdie at the 17th, but then had trouble getting out of the deep rough after pulling his drive on the closing hole. He settled for a bogey hitting a difficult 1-metre (4-foot) putt - for a second straight 66 that put him at 9-under 201.Cook, who had just six birdies while playing the first two rounds in even par, started the day tied for 10th and was five strokes behind co-leaders Duval, Tiger Woods and Craig Parry.Yet he came out of the pack to flirt with the magical 59 - the lowest score ever recorded in a US PGA Tour event. The 10-time Tour winner was nine under heading to the 16th tee and needed birdies on two of the last three holes to join Al Geiberger (1977) and Chip Beck (1991) as the only players to ever shoot 59 on Tour.A three-putt bogey on the 17th green - including a quirky U-turn on his 1-metre (3-foot) par putt - ended his run at history. Still, the 62 matched the lowest round in an American PGA Tour event this year.Almost lost in the wake of Cook's blitz was the steady assault of Duval. While many of the rest of the big names near the top of the leaderboard floundered, Duval had four birdies on the front side and never lost the lead.Smriti Mehra shinesNEW DELHI: Indian pro Smriti Mehra fired a superb three-under 69 to be three strokes adrift of the leading pack when fading light suspended play in the second round of the 700,000-dollar LPGA State Farm Rail Classic golf tournament at Springfield, Illinois (USA) last evening.
