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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1997)
Woods takes tourney win in Thailand ■ PGA: Tiger Woods got a hero’s welcome from the homeland of his mother The Associated Press BANGNA, Thailand — Tiger Woods began his trip to Thailand with a bout of heat exhaustion and food poisoning. By the end, things were work ing out quite nicely. There was a royal decoration, a blowout victo ry in the Asia Honda Classic and a week’s earnings of more than $500,000. “Always keep the game fun,” Woods said Sunday. “Obviously golf is a very serious part of my life, but when you stop having fun at it, that’s when it’s time to hang it up.” Woods won the tournament by 10 strokes, receiving an embrace from his mother on the 18th green while a crowd of some 3,000 fans chanted his name. With no competition down the stretch, Woods was smiling and doffing his cap the last few holes, the first time he could enjoy such a luxury since he turned profes sional last year. Woods closed with a 4-under par 68 for a total of 20-under 268. He earned $48,000 for the victory plus a $480,000 appearance fee. “I knew my swing wasn’t work ing well,” said Woods, whose every move drew applause. “I made some bad shot out there, but I made some key putts and that’s what wins golf tournaments.” Kultida Woods, the golfer’s mother who was born in Thai land, hugged her 21-year-old son after he paired the final hole. The week did not begin with such promise for Woods. He quit on the 13th hole of Wednesday’s pro-am with what tournament or ganizers said was heat exhaustion and food poisoning. The 20-hour flight from California and the sap ping heat left Woods weak with jet lag and fatigue. By the end of the week, that was long gone. Woods, whose closest rival was Mo Joong-kyung of South Korea at 278, had five birdies during the final round and nearly eagled the fourth hole. He had a bogey on the 17th hole when a drive sliced into the wa ter. Woods was presented with the royal decoration by Prime Minis ter Chavalit Yongchaiyudh at a re ception Sunday night. With his mother at his side, Woods accepted the honor for helping promote Thailand’s im age and credited his parents for his achievements. He said his fa ther, Earl, did not come to Thai land because he was preparing for heart surgery'. “Papa, I love you,” he said. “Tonight is special. It shows what happens when two loving people really care and share with a child. Without their teaching, without their love, quite honestly, I wouldn’t be here.” After the reception, Woods left to catch a flight to Melbourne, Australia, where he will compete in the Australian Masters starting Thursday. Sharing third place at 279 at the Thai country Club were Mexico’s Carlos Espinosa, Taiwan’s Chang Tse-peng and Canada’s Jim Rut ledge. Rutledge closed with a 63, breaking the course record Woods set two days earlier by one stroke. McCall’s story keeps getting stranger ■ BOXING: Oliver McCall said he was using a fight plan, not suffering an emotional breakdown against Lennox Lewis The Associated Press LAS VEGAS — If Oliver McCall was employing some bizarre strategy to beat Lennox Lewis and win the WBC heavyweight title, he forgot to tell his cor ner about it. McCall’s claims that he was playing possum in some altered version of Muhammad Ali’s famous “rope-a-dope” rang hollow not only with Nevada boxing regulators but his own trainer. "Lennox was in there with a lunatic,” McCall’s trainer, George Benton, said. “Any man in his right mind wouldn’t act like that.” Benton stood, arms folded and a disgusted look on his face, as his fighter first refused to return to his cor ner after the third round, then refused to fight in the fourth Friday night at the Las Vegas Hilton. After standing in the ring crying between the fourth and fifth rounds, McCall took a few more punches to the head before referee Mills Lane finally stepped in to stop the fight at 55 seconds of the fifth round. "They did not give Oliver the opportunity as a fighter to play out my fight game,” McCall said Sat urday, claiming that throwing only two punches in the fourth round and letting Lewis hit him at will was part of his strategy to win the fight. "The man’s mind just wasn’t there,” Benton said of his fighter, who is in drug rehabilitation for the third time. “It started a long time ago, and it finally caught up to him.” Lewis, who had thought for a few minutes that Mc Call was trying to trick him, agreed. “McCall is just plain mad,” the new WBC champi on said. Nevada boxing officials, meanwhile, continue to hold up McCall’s $3,075,500 purse pending a hear ing within 30 days by the state athletic commission. McCall could be fined for not putting up a fight, pending the results of an investigation into his ac tions. “There was something wrong, something going through his mind,” said commission Chairman Dr. Elias Ghanem. “We would have a hard time licens ing him again until we know he is back to normal.” McCall appeared at a press conference Saturday, along with a psychiatrist who examined him earlier in the day and declared him mentally fit. Psychiatrist Leonora Petty, though, recommended follow-up treatment, and McCall said he would see a psychiatrist two or three times a week while also continuing his drug rehabilitation treatment. Lewis, meanwhile, returned to London to savor his new title and the revenge gained for his only loss, a second round knockout to McCall when the two fighters first met on Sept. 24,1994. “Winning this title feels better than when I won the first one because this one I won it in the ring,” said Lewis, who was given the title when Riddick Bowe threw it in a garbage can after refusing to fight Lewis in a contract dispute. Lewis will have 90 days to fight WBO titlist Henry Akinwande, another British fighter who is now the top-ranked WBC contender. “Bring anyone on, I don’t care. Eventually I will unify the titles perhaps in 12 months, but you know what boxing politics are like,” Lewis said. Lewis said he considered himself a true heavy weight champion, even though most of the boxing public considers Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson the two top heavyweights. Men: Ducks put away game at the tree-throw line ■ Continued from Page 9 shootaround [Saturday]. They had four post players, so we want ed to tire them out. That’s when we started pressing them in the latter half of the first half and the start of the second. That did help us later. “I think the reason they were a little tired at the end, maybe missed a shot, maybe didn’t make a pass, was because they did get a little bit tired, and [our bench] helped us get them to that point.” The Ducks used their posts to their advantage, getting the ball inside to Kyle Milling, who tal lied his sixth double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Rob Ramaker had a breakthrough game, scoring 10 points, only the second time this season he has scored in double figures. “I haven’t felt like I’ve played a good game in a long time,” Ra maker said. “I wanted to come out this weekend and really assert myself as a player.” When Kenya Wilkins was asked who lit the fire under Ra maker before the game, Wilkins said, “I don’t know. 1 just hope the person who did keeps doing it.” It was Wilkins, though, who re ally fired up the Ducks as he con tributed a team-high 24 points and played a solid 33 minutes. He also heid his opponents, Kareem Jackson and Blake Pengelly, to a combined 13 points in 41 min utes. Wilkins said the Cougars’ de fense concentrated more on Jamal Lawrence than on himself. “Teams are starting to not leave Jamal [open],” Wilkins said. "That’s giving me an opportunity to score more points.” But despite the focus on Lawrence, he still scored 11 points, as did Henry Madden coming off the bench. One of the best statistics of the game was on ffee-throw shooting. Oregon hit 26-of-35, including 18 of-22 in the second half. This was especially crucial after the score was tied at 41 going into halftime. The score stayed close for the first 13 minutes of the second half as the two teams went back and forth with the lead. The Ducks went on a 9-0 run in less than a minute to take a nine-point lead at about the five-minute mark. Al though the Cougars narrowed the gap to within four points with 2:47 to play, Oregon sank ll-of-13 free throws down the stretch to win the game. The Ducks finished their four game homestand with a 3-1 record. They now hit the road to the Bay Area next weekend. Oregon men’s tennis drops match to No. 17 Arizona, falls to 2-2 The Oregon men’s tennis team, playing in its first of two dual matches in Arizona, lost to the 17th-ranked Arizona Wildcats 7-0 on Friday. Despite the shutout, the Ducks did win one doubles match when seniors Mike Goldstein and John DeVorss outlasted Arizona’s Roland Kupka and Jean-Noel Lacoste, 9-8, in the No. 2 position. The Wildcats, however, went on to sweep singles play. The loss dropped Oregon to 0-2 in the Pacific-10 Confer ence and 2-2 overall. The Ducks return home next week for two matches, the first on Feb. 14 against Portland and the second Feb. 16 versus UC Santa Barbara. Cash for books Everyday. Always buying texts, paperbacks, cliff notes, current magazines . . . Smith Family B o o k s t o r c "AS East 13th • 345 1651 1 Block from Campus Jdave a healthy curiosity? Lane County Public Health offers Walk-In Confidential HIV Testing Koinonia Center 1414 Kincaid Mondays 4:00-7:00 p.m. Call 687-4013 “Making it easier to he safe and sure..." ODE CLASSIFIEDS 346-4343 Authentic Chinese Cuisine RESTAURANT & LOUNGE 947 Franklin Blvd. 343-4480 Free Peer Health Counseling is available at the Health Center on the following health topics: nutrition weight management fitness eating disorders HIV/STDs smoking cessation stress management substance abuse sexuality Peer Health Counselor, Melissa Crown Peer Health Counselors are trained to provide health information, assist in setting realistic goals, and provide support and other resources for students that are ready to make healthy changes. Call 346-4456 to make an appointment or stop by the Health Education Room in the Health Center. HEALTH CENTER • 13TH & AGATE • 346-2770 HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAM 346-4456 Check out Rhythm & Reviews E in the Emerald every Friday for the latest in local entertainment!
