May 31, 2000
Page B3
Jlortlanb (Observer
ÿ o r t la nò
Metro/Sports
(Oberi
Woods wins again at Memorial, but
isn’t satisfied
Photo by Associated Press
Tiger Woods, left, receives the M emorial Tournament trophy from Jack
Nicklaus a fter Woods fin ish ed with a 19-under-par 269 on Monday, May
29, 2000 in Dublin, Ohio.
A
sso ciated P ress
Since w inning at the M em orial
Toumament a year ago, Tiger Woods
has won 12 tournaments.
And he’s not satisfied.
“ T m try i ng to get better, f m trying to
work on every facet o f my game. I’m
trying to improve to give m yself
chances in each and every tournament
I play in,” Woods said Monday after
rolling to a five-shot victory in
defending his title at the rain-delayed
Memorial Tournament.
E m ieE lsshota7-under65and never
got closer than four strokes. He was
stunned by the prospect o f a new and
improved Tiger.
“ He’s probably as good as we want
to see him play,” Els cracked.
O f course, no one was surprised that
Woods won. After all, he started the
day with a six-shot head start on
Steve Lowery. After he birdied three
o f the first eight holes, the lead was
eight and it was just a matter o f time
u n til to u rn am en t fo u n d er Jack
Nicklaus handed over the $558,000
first-place check.
W oods’ closing 70 left him at 19-
under 269, five shots better than Els
and Justin Leonard. It also left him a
shot o ff Tom Lehman’s tournament
record.
Yet Woods hardly had a triumphal
march up the 72nd fairway— adding
a w hiff o f color to an otherwise
methodical round on a gray day.
His 7-iron approach from 156 yards
took o ff like a M ark M cG w ire
moonshot, richochetedoffacart path
30 yards beyond the green and
disappeared into the gallery some 50
yards away from the pin. Sheepishly,
Woods walked up the hill toward the
clubhouse and hit two wedges to get
on the green before making his bogey
putt.
Woods left the green shielding his
eyes in mock embarrassment.
“That was one o f the worst shots I' ve
ever seen,” Woods said. “E ve played
in many pro-ams but ... wow! I
definitely need some work.”
Despite that errant shot, Woods had
an impeccable week. He only had four
bogeys, including two in the final
round when his name had all but been
etched on the crystal championship
trophy.
With his 19th career victory, he now
has won more than $4.1 million this
year, already the second highest in
tourhistory behind the $6.6 million he
stockpiled in 1999.
At the age o f 24, he’s already the first
player to top $15 million in career
earnings. H e’s won 11 o f his last 20
tour events and has finished in the
top 10 in 23 o f his last 25 tournaments
worldwide.
And it’s still not enough.
“W hat you’re supposed to do is
continue to try and get better,”
Woods said. “That doesn’t mean that
you’re going to get better, but I’m
trying to get better.”
Nicklaus, one of only three others to
win the Memorial twice, said there
were similarities between the way he
and Woods approached the game.
“If I was hitting the ball the way I
wanted to hit it, I always felt like
everybody else was going to play for
second,” said Nicklaus, winner o f 18
major championships. “And I think
he feels the same way.”
Even though Woods looks at his
game and sees its flaws, others see
what he has accomplished and what
the future could hold.
“ H e’s p h en o m e n a l,” said Paul
Azinger, whose 66 got him into a tie
for fifth at 10 under. “He can turn this
golf course into a par 68.”
W oods, 17-2 w o rld w id e in
tournaments he’s led going into the
final round, will take off the next two
weeks before heading for the U.S.
Open at Pebble Beach.
He said he’ll hang out with his friends,
relax and watch his beloved Lakers in
the NBA playoffs.
As scary as it may sound to other
players, he’ll also tend to his golf
shortcomings, such as they are.
“I have a few things I need to work
on,” he said. “My irons, continue to
work on my short game, my driving
ability...”
Comets 84, Liberty 68
career points. A 3-pointer with
13:25 to play put her over 2,000 for
her career. She finished with 19,
putting her at 2,006.
Swoopes got the Comets started
in the first half, and the defending
champions led 40-33 at halftime.
They built a 66-50 lead with 10:28
to play before the Liberty made
their final charge with a 10-0 run,
cutting the margin to 66-60 with
7:44 left.
But the Comets recovered before a
sellout crowd o f 16,285.
Swoopes also had three blocked
shots and six rebounds.
Tamika Whitmore led the Liberty
with 15 points, while Sue Wicks
had 14.
The Comets started 2-for-13 from
the field before Swoopes heated
up with 15 first-half points and
rallied the Comets to the halftime
lead, their biggest to that point.
Trailing 21-15, theComets went on
a 13-2 run with Swoopes scoring
nine consecutive points with a
steal and layup, two free throws, a
3-poi nter and two more free throws.
The game was a rematch o f the
1999 WNBA championship series.
TheComets beat the Liberty 59-47
last Sept. 5 for their third straight
WNBA championship. New York
guard Teresa Weatherspoon’s 50-
foot shot at the buzzer in Game 2
gave the Liberty a 68-67 victory
and forced the series to the third
game.
New York Liberty 's Teresa Weatherspoon, right, knocks the ball away
from Houston C om ets' Tina Thompson during the second half Monday.
May 29, 2000, in Houston. Weatherspoon was called for a foul on the
play. The Comets beat the Liberty 84-68 in the season opener.
A ssociatep P ress
Cynthia Cooper became the first
player in WNBA history to reach
the 2,000-point mark and Sheryl
Swoopes scored 27 points Monday
as th e th re e -tim e ch am pion
Houston Comets defeated the New
York Liberty 84-68 in the season
r
opener.
In a tearful pre-game ceremony, the
Comets raised their third straight
W NBA cham pionship banner
inscribed “No. 3 for No. 10” in
honor o f Comets point guard Kim
Perrot, who lost her fight with
cancer last Aug. 19.
Cooper entered the game with 1,987
Advertise in
The Portland
Observer
Call
288-0033 today
Feocuring Fo/nous Cajun Flavot!
Devils relishing underdog role
W aiting to see who would win the
Western Conference finals was an
enlightening experience for the New
Jersey Devils.
U didn’t seem to matter whether the
defending champion Dallas Stars or
the Colorado Avalanche advanced
to th e S tan ley C up finals, the
perception am ong the so-called
experts was that whoever won was
going to take the Cup.
The Devils smile when reminded of
that, and they’ll note how tough it will
be to beat the Stars when the best-of-
seven finals gets under way tonight
at the Continental Airlines Arena.
The Stars have more experience, their
defensive style is tough to beat, they
have great skill players in Mike
M o d an o , B rett H ull and Jo e
N ieuw endyk and goaltender Ed
Bel four has allowed only 31 goals on
450 shots, a .931 save percentage.
Dallas also won both games in the
season series.
If you know the Devils, that sounds
verysimilarto 1995, whenNew Jersey
met the Detroit Red Wings in theC'up
finals.
Everyone picked the Red Wings with
their left -wing lock and star-studded
cast that included Steve Yzerman,
Sergei Fedorov and Mike Vernon.
The result: The Devils swept in
winning their first and only Stanley
Cup.
“ It’s a lot like ’95," said Claude
Lemieux, one o f nine holdovers from
that team and the winner o f the Conn
Smythe award as the playoff MVP.
“We don’t have their experience but
we have youth and guys who have
been getting better every round,"
Lemieux said. “They are only going
to get better as they ge, older and as
they play in the finals, they will get
more comfortable.”
What makes the comparison to 1995
even more remarkable is the way the
seasons went.
New Jersey started out strong both
counterattack. Defensively, both
teams can be bruising along the back
line.
Devils captain Scott Stevens is a
leading candidate for this year’s
playoff MVP. He has been matched
against Pavel Bure o f Florida, Mats
Sundin o f Toronto and John LeClair
of Philadelphia in the first three rounds
o f the playoffs and those players
combined for one goal.
Stevens also has been devastating
with his checks, turning the tide in
Game 7 o f the Eastern Conference
finals by knocking out Eric Lindros of
the Flyers in the first period.
Stopping Modano and Hull, who
share the goal-scoring lead in the
playoffs with nine apiece, might be a
little more difficult.
Present coupon when ordering One coupon per customer per visit
m i x e d CHICKEN
Void where prohibited Not »olid with ony other offer
Good at participating Popeyes* only ©2000
AK Enterprises. Inc
^wa***'
2 L€. SI DES • 7 BISCUITS
New Jersey Devils right winger Jason Arnott skates over the Stanley Cup
logo during team practice in East Rutherford, NJ on Monday, May 29.
The Devils and the Dallas Stars play game one o f the Stanley Cup fin a l
Tuesday.
years and then faded down the stretch
in the regular season, leaving doubts
whether it could make a run at a
championship. They played very well
in the opening two rounds o f both
playoffs and then beat Philadelphia
in a very hard-fought conference
finals, with the difference this year
being it took seven games instead o f
Otter expires June 30, 2000
Let s Play
T he Races!
six.
“We feel good about ourselves and
we are going to have to play our
game,” defenseman Ken Daneyko
said. “That’s what w e’ve done all
playoffs, worry about what the New
Jersey Devils are doing. If we can
execute, we think we have a shot.”
Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock isn’t
buying into the predictions his team
is a lock for a second straight title.
“I don’t think where they are surprises
anybody," Hitchcock said. “I think
we should be the favorites because
we are the defending champions. That
is what makes us the favorites, but
that al I goes out o f the way in the first
period.”
The series pairs two teams that like to
clog the neutral zone and then
TH EATER
M ovies N ightly
fcO /Z /
with W eekend M atinees
For schedule
Wednesday-Saturday: Post Tim e 7:30 p.m.
Sunday Matinee: Post Time 1:00 p.m.
information tall:
Holidays:
Memorial Day, July 4, & Labor Day Matinees
Post Time 1:00 p.m
2 8 8-2 180
McMcnamins Kennedy School
5736 NF 33rd • Portland, Oregon
w w w .m t m c n a m in v < n m
g
reif e
- ■ » i e i / h
m o
q u
i nd
T? ws?
FREE PARKING
FREE ADMISSION ALWAYS'
Reservations: (503) 667-7700
N.E. 223rd & Glisan
www.MultnomahGreyhoundPark.com
I