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Show t We Salt fake Section C Thursday, July Sports fibune. 18, 1985 Page 1 j sr For Recorded Scores Call Local Sporl Information Call 237-200- 1 ' 00-(f2-135l 237-202- 5 Golf, Like Beer, Has s. American Golfers Dont Hove British Taste By Mark Purdy Newspapers A lot of England American golfers have stayed home from the British Open this year. I think I know why. The difference between American golf and British golf is the difference between American beer and British beer. One is clear and smooth. The other is murky and bitter. One goes down with a sigh, the other with a wince. Essentially, American beer tends to caress and enchant you. So does American golf. Essentially, British beer tends to claw at your stomach add punch your out. So does British golf. bloody Many human beings, especially those of the American persuasion, never quite develop a taste for either. During the 1974 British Open, for example, Hale Irwin was having an especially ugly day at Royal Lytham Golf Club. The wind was howling in his ears. His shots were bouncing off the rock-harlumpy fairways in every direction except straight. Irwin was not amused. Finally, when still another shot had skidded off in the general direction of Nor way, Irwin turned to his playing companion, Gary Player, and capitulated. Knight-Ridd- er - SANDWICH. Ain Ja6k Nicklaus tees off during final prac- tice round for British Open, which begins i I; :lrtd Prtu Lmtrphoto Bear is looking for Us fourth British Open' Itle over there. Thursday. The Golden The Feeling Is Special , u BdsebalVs All-St- ar ' - All-St- 1 Game Is the Best j Pride is much more of a factor in baseball's Game because in a competitive setting players want to impress their peers and because players are quite aware that they're representing their respective league. Nobody is going through the motions at the Midsummer Classic. ' Baseball players compete against each other in spring training and winter ball, providing them opportuni All-St- ar hrs won five of them, says it isn't getting any easier. "How would I describe what it's like to the average golfer? he asked. date.. "Now that there's a date, we hope it will have some effect on the stalled negotiations, union spokesman Mark Belanger Mid Wednesday. Belanger, a Balt Imore Orioles shortstop during 1965-8is special assistant to Don Fehr, the acting executive director of the Players Association. Lee MacPhail, president of the Player Relation Committee which bargains for the owners, and his staff were unavailable Wednesday. They were returning from Tuesday nights Game in Minneapolis. On Monday the union set the strike date which would take effect if a new collective bargaining agreement is not reached. The agreement ended 1, All-St- ar Dec. 31. Belanger pointed out that in 1981, the players struck for 50 days during the season, "things were different. That strike was planned by them the owners. They had strike insurance. Their losses were covered. They were trying to bust us. Now, they dont have any strike insurance. The primary issue is money. The owners say they are operating at a loss, that they were more than $40 million in the red last year. The players, looking at the same financial records, insist the owners made about $10 million. The owners last contribution to the players pension plar. was $15.5 million, d of the teams television revenues under the previous network contract The new TV contract is worth $1.1 billion over six years. The players say the owners contribution should continue to, Ije would mean $60 million a year. The owners say the fact that their previous contribution was d the TV money was only coincidental, and they insist they need the added TV income to pay increased salaries. when all-st- . world. Tom Watson, who table Thursday for the first time since the union set Aug. 6 as a strike ar All-Sta- rs well-know- NEW YORK (AP) Negotiators for major league baseball's players and owners return to the. bargaining All-St- i Mid Irwin, is tike playing golf on the moon." The 114th British Open begins Thursday. Hale Irwin will not be here. The moon will. ' To be sure, it is not the exact moon Irwin described. This years tournament site is Royal St. George's Golf Club, on England's south coast, as opn sites in posed to the more Scotland. But it is the tame concept. British championship courses are all built along the ocean. They are all laid out over the natural terrain. There are no trees. There are humps in the fairways. There are thick, knee-hig- h weeds in the rough. There are no water sprinklers, se the greens do not hold even the most lofty shots. And when the gale-forc- e winds biow across the shaggy brown landscape, its time to call out the paramedics. "Nowhere on an American course will you find conditions like this," said Player, who has won two British Opens. "That's why this is the most difficult championship to win in the Baseball Talk Resumes On Thursday - By Gary Santaniello MINNEAPOLIS Beneath the wearisome excesses the media, hype, the civic the the programmed pageantry Game remains a vital link to the true pulse of baseball. It is a game for the fans but also it is an event in which the players feed off the fans Rqre eitffiusiesm,.$n event that reminds them that baseball can be a game of simple pleasures amid complex surroundings. "This is everything I thought it would be . . . and then some, said Detroit's Dan Petry, who made his first Game appearance Tuesday. "As soon as I got here, I got a differ- ent feeling for the game entirely. It just has given me a better understanding for the game. I've always been a bt&basebaluan, going back to when I was growing .up, but now I think I understand the way fans feel about baseball. I really mean that. I just hope I can keep this feeling." It is a special experience, because it is a special game. Unlike the all-stgames in other pro sports, baseball's brings together players from leagues that do not compete against each other during the season. That creates the sense of confrontation that's missing in the other games. Does anyone seriously believe that the NFC feels it has anything to prove against the AFC in the Pro Bowl? Or that anyone cares whether the Campbell Conference is better than the Wales Conference? Or that the NBAs East consider their conference more macho than the West? Tluf Yankee Rickey Henderson wasnt the only American League slugger who was blown ties to renew acquaintances and build friendships. But we never play tosaid Pittsburgh catcher gether, Tony Pena. Were always playing ' against each other. Thats what makes the Game different. All the best players are on the same team." The atmosphere in spring training is too relaxed, and in the playoffs and the World Series, its too tense. The Game is the perfect compromise between competition and personal relationships that are much a part of baseball. All-St- All-St- ar United Press Inter notional down by ttae National Leagues superior Game. pitching in Tuesdays All-St- "What makes this game special," said Atlanta's Dale Murphy, "is that it doesnt happen that often. I mean, how many times are you going to get together with all these guys? Theyre the best players in the game. And then there's all the great people you get to meet. How many times do you get to hit off Sandy Koufax in batting practice? Thais' why the All-StGame is one of the greatest things that can happen to a baseball player. After the National Leagues 1 victory Tuesday, Minnesota's Tom Brun-ansk- y said, The last two days ar 6-- ar seemed forever getting here. When it finally did get here, all the events and everything passed so quickly. So much happened. Petry said, What the All-StGame does is remind you who you're playing for, instead of you thinking that baseball's like a job. During the season youre playing day-i- n and day- out and it does get to you sometimes,' but you come here and you remem- ber it's a game. It's fun. And it should be fun. You forget sometimes what if was like playing baseball in Little League. ar now-expir- one-thir- one-thir- ' , M. "Well, I would ask him the last 41mje he ever hit a nine-iroand it weritVX) n - yards. That's what happened to Watson here Wednesday during a practice round, on a hole when the wind was behind him. When the wind : was against him, Watson's wouldn't even travel 200 yards. ' , No one here seemed stunned. They tell the story of an elderly club member who was playing here in a stiff The British Open will be hroadcist live at 7 a.m. by ESPN (cable) on Thursday and Friday. ABC (Ckaa--e- l 4) will pick up the coverage Sit-- , urday at a.m. II a.m. and Sunday at 1:30 wind. When he shouted "Fore," the upper plate of his dentures blew right out of his mouth. The wind is your guide here, Watson said. It can be your enemy or your friend, but you've always have to deal with it. You deal with it the way you deal with your wife. Watson is one of those rare Americans who likes to play in Britain." because be has mastered the British style of golf. He has learned ho to play the lumps, and how to bounce the ball onto the greens and toward the flatsticks. ; Jack Nicklaus can do the same thtnk'pod hch here, too. So are Fuzzy ZoeUet, Lanap Wadkins! Lee Trevino and Craig Staler, But the leading money winner n the American tour, Curtis Strange, Is not. Neither is Johnny Miller or Andy North. Neither are eight of the top 15 American . s Batson thinLf It's a crime. : If there Is a florid championship of golf, this is it, he said. "Curtis is our leading money winner, and Andy is our U.S. Open champion. We re missing something when they don't come. 4 . Actually, its Strange and fyorth who are missing out. Any gdlfer worth his endorsement contracts should want to win the British Qpen It is the oldest major tournament, it is played in the nation where golf was invented and it is so soaked with tradition that when you set foot oh' the premises, you feel as if you are: part of a large sepia-tone- d photograph. Every step of the way, history lurks. The Royal St. Georges Golf Club was founded in 1887, when a surgeon from London became frustrated because his home course was closed on He took a train here, Sundays. climbed atop a church tower and decided he would build a course op the nearby Mnd dunes. Since then, nine British Opens jlave been played on those same dimes, with memorable results. Harry; Vaf-do- n and Walter Hagen won here. So did Reg Whitcombe in 1938, when gale winds approached 100 mph and blew over a large tent on the grolmds. d Whitcombe two greens on the final day, but other people were taking six putts, so he beat them.- That pales slightly to the plight of Harry Bradshaw in 1949. His drive on the fifth hole landed inside a broken beer bottle, in the rough. Afra)dhe might be penalized if he removed the obstruction, Bradshaw took oift his sand wedge, shut his eyes, and swung. The bottle exploded, the ball went only 30 yards, and Bradshaw made a double-boge- y six. He eventually wound up losing in a playoff to Bobby four-putte- Locke. ; Intrigued with the course s tradition, author Ian Fleming later used Royal St. Georges thinly disgpised as Royal St. Mark's as the selling for his $10,000 grudge match between Goldfinger and James Bond. Goldfinger lost, of course. But at least he didn't complain about the moon. UTEP Drops Baseball, But Mizzou Has Different Way to Cut Athletic Budget The University of Texas-E- l Paso had its most successful baseball season in history, but the Miners will I drop baseball as a I varsity Sport and I replace it with a men's tennis team next year, at a saving of $90,000 annu-all- The Texas Legislature ,voted an increase in tu- ,, afc-ition for all state r-- s I schools, which was AJk L--J the reason given John Mooney for the switch in sports. As I recall, the Texas Legislature will not allow any state money to be used for athletics, which may be fine for the University of Texas, Texas AAM and Texas Tech, with their Southwest Conference rivalries, gate receipts, Cotton Bowl and television receipts. J But UTEP has none of these advantages, so a program which was just getting underway must be sacrificed because1 h tennis frtgram i$ more economical in manpower, equipment. travel and meals than a baseball squad is. Since days of Bobby Dobbs and Miners, the UTEP football program frequently has been in trouble, both at the gate ana in the standings. Track and field, coached by Wayne Vandenburg and his successor, Ted Banks, brought in some revenue, until a series of scandals racked and wrecked that program. Only basketball, under the veteran coach, Don Haskins, has been a consistent revenue-produce- r, but without strong attendance in basketball and football, most schools face tough sledding. You may have noticed a story in The Sunday Tribune that the University of Wyoming announced a deficit of almost $700,000 for football and basketball for fiscal 1984. This was the figure given the State Legislature by the Joint Appropriations Committee. According to the figures, the Cowboy football program cost $1.7 million but generated only $1.22 million, while the basketball program gener- the-glo- ry the-Flyi- ng I John Mooney Tribune Sports Editor ated $321,800 but cost $523,050. These deficits are discouraging, since Wyoming over the years built a new football stadium and expanded it twice, and moved from its Hell's Half Acre arena to the War Memorial Fieldhouse and then built a larger basketball arena because the crowds were so large and enthusiastic. Value of Sellouts While universities continue to in- crease their football and basketball seating because of the pressure for season tickets, khere Is an economic factor which treads a thin line and must be considered. You need bigger arenas and stadia because more seats mean more money, but you dont want them so big the fans can pick and choose their games, rather than being forced into buying season tickets to get seats for the big games. Even BYU, with the bulk of its student body living on campus, isnt filling the Marriott Center game after game for basketball. Even the BYU football attendance of around 60,000 doesnt give a true picture because prices of season tickets vary considerably. You have it made in football and basketball when all seats in the house, except for students and faculty, sell for the same price. But the Western Athletic Conference isn't the only league feeling the pinch, although the ruling which broke the NCAA "monopoly on the college TV packpge probably hurt the WAC more than some conferences, which still could command a TV market. The Big Eight Conference is a strong league, with several teams ap- - n baspearing in bowls and ketball tournaments each year. The league has good attendance, good TV exposure and good enrollment and population bases. Yet, the University of Missouri announced its poorest football attendance in 13 years, which forced a 20 percent cut in the budgets for the nonrevenue sports. The Big Eight Conference womens basketball championship team was among the sports cut by 20 percent in the proposed budgets. post-seaso- Even Revenooers Cut Generally, when belts must be tightened, the sports are the first to feel the budget pinch. But Missouri cut back its football budget by four percent and its basketball outlay by 10 percent, which is quite a sacrifice. On the other hand, four percent of a football budget at a major school may amount to more money saved than a much higher percentage of the budget on a sport. .The chairman of the athletic board at Missouri voiced the opinion the Ti- non-reven- non-reven- i gers still would remain competitive despite the cuts, explaining, ; 'We have excellent coaches in all sports who will make these programs competitive. I know they will." The chairman is a professor in veterinary medicine, which may explain his optimism. Seriously, it may be interesting to see how the Missouri cuts work. If teams can remain competitive after such slashes, other schools may get the message, and instead of dropping sports entirely, may be able to maintain a full program by trimming the fat from the budgets. Like Congress and the military, many athletic departments never have faced the afford" stage. Sbme might be surprised to find how much money could be saved, if it meant saving their sports and jobs. Observation Ward; Consider that track and field stars can earn more in a season than the combined total earnings of Babe Roth and Dizzy Dean in their best and still remain amateurs. years |
