Woods Wins Twice, Advances at USGA Junior

Two-time defending champion Tiger Woods won two matches Thursday to advance to the third round of the U.S. Golf Assn. Junior Championships.

Woods, 17, of Cypress, beat Ryan Lavoie of Pasco, Wash., 6 and 5, and Chad Wright of Ventura, 4 and 2, on the Waverley Country Club’s 6,465-yard course.

Recovering from mononucleosis, Woods’ goal was to “get the matches over as fast as possible,” he said. “I did it. I feel fine.”

Woods, the only male golfer to win two junior amateur titles, will face Grady Girard of Newport, Vt., in the third round today. Fourth-round matches are also today; the semifinals and final are scheduled Saturday.

Orange County’s other two players in the field, Zachary Allen of Mission Viejo and Chris Berry of Yorba Linda, lost in the first round. Hank Kuehne of McKinney, Texas, beat Allen, 3 and 2, and Charles Howell of Augusta, Ga., beat Berry, 2-up.

Medalist Ted Oh, 16, of Torrance, struggled but advanced to the third round, and will play Pat Malone of Kingwood, Tex.

Oh, who this year became the second-youngest player in the U.S. Open, edged Teddy Smith of Edmond, Okla., 2 and 1 in the first round, then beat G.W. Cable of Oakton, Va., 1-up.

Woods won the first two holes against Wright with pars and never trailed.