Dorothy fires 69 for joint 20th

Fil-Am Dorothy Delasin shot her second 69 in three days but dropped another stroke off new leader and fellow rookie Jen Hanna in a torrid third round scoring Saturday in the Subaru Memorial of Naples tournament in Naples, Florida.

The 19-year-old Delasin regained the form that anchored her fine start in the LPGA Tour as she bounced back from that mediocre 72 in the second round to pool a six-under 210 aggregate after 54 holes of the $850,000 event.

But that hardly boosted her bid for the top $127,500 purse as Delasin fell seven strokes off Henna heading into the final round although she moved up from joint 28th to a share of 20th with five others, including Liselotte Neumann, who had a 68.

Hanna, 24, sizzled with a five-under-par 67 for a 13-under 203 to take a two-shot lead over England's Helen Dobson and 39-year-old Nancy Scranton.

Dobson turned in the day's best score of 64 while Scranton shot a 68 for a share of second at 205, while Cindy Flom (66), Jane Carter of Australia (69), Catrin Nilsmark of Sweden (68) and Tina Barrett (70) were at 206.

Second-round leader and defending champion Meg Mallon carded a 72 and fell into an eighth-place tie at eight-under. She carded a 16-under 272 here last year for one of her two wins on the season.

A 1998 graduate of Furman University, Hanna earned her Tour card by finishing 13th at last year's Qualifying tournament. She competed on the Futures Tour through last season and was 13th on the 1999 money list.