Rosales makes cut with 68; Miñoza fires 74

Jennifer Rosales finally broke out of a slump and fired a four-under-par 68 Friday (Saturday in Manila) to advance to the championship round of the $700,000 Welch's-Circle K Championship, the sixth leg of the US LPGA Tour, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Making the most of the favorable playing condition at the Randolph Park Golf Course, whose hard, dry fairways paved the way for torrid scoring, the 21-year-old Filipina bounced back from an opening 73 Thursday with that 68 for a three-under-par 141.

It was way behind the 132-aggregate pooled by Cristie Kerr, who also shot a 68, but it was enough to put Rosales in joint 38th for her third final round appearance in five tournaments in her rookie year in the world's most lucrative ladies pro circuit.

It was only the second time that the 1998 US NCAA Division I champion and five-time Philippine Ladies Open winner has broken par in the tour, the first she made in the opener of the Hawaiian Ladies Open last month before winding up in joint 47th.

But as Rosales flourished, compatriot Dorothy Delasin floundered as the 1999 US Women's Amateur champion fumbled with a 75 after a solid 70 and missed the cut for the third time in five appearances.

Kerr, who sizzled with a 64 in the first round, continued her strong play by shooting that 68 as she kept her two-shot lead intact with a 132 at the halfway of this $700,000 event.

Over in Japan, Filipino Frankie Miñoza strung up two 74s after a 72 for a 220 that put him 10 strokes off Tetsu Nishikawa (67-210), in the Token Corp. Cup, the Japan PGA Tour's kickoff leg at the Kedoin Golf Club.