Woodland Leads by Two After 63

PGA Tour rookie Jeff Woodland birdied six consecutive holes Thursday and finished with a seven-under-par 63 for a two-shot lead after the first round of the Hardee’s Golf Classic at Coal Valley, Ill.

Dave Barr, the 1981 tournament champion, shot a 65, sharing second with Ed Dougherty, Kenny Perry and Jeff Maggert.

A dozen golfers were at 66.

Defending champion David Frost, coming off a victory in the Canadian Open, was five strokes off the pace after a 68.

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Ian Woosnam eagled the par-five 16th hole and finished with a six-under 64 for a one-shot lead after the first round of the Lancome Trophy at Saint-Nom-La-Breteche, France.

England’s Mark James was tied for second at 65 with Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Nick Faldo had a 69 and Fred Couples shot 70 as many players tuned up for next week’s Ryder Cup.

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Early starter Jane Crafter shot a 68 and wound up sharing the lead with late finishers Brandie Burton, Jenny Lidback and Suzanne Strudwick in the first round of the Safeco Classic at Kent, Wash.

The four leaders were four under par over the 6,222-yard Meridian Valley Country Club course.

Basketball

The Boston Celtics plan to retire Kevin McHale’s jersey number, 32, this season and Reggie Lewis’ 35 in 1994-95. The Celtics this season will wear a patch to honor Lewis, the team captain who died July 27 of a heart defect after collapsing on a basketball court at Brandeis University.

Marv Wolfenson, co-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Target Center, says he’s considering selling the team to prospective owners in another city and use the proceeds to pay off $100 million in debt and bond obligations for the Target Center.

Georghe Muresan of Romania, at 7 feet 7 the tallest player ever selected in the NBA draft, agreed to a non-guaranteed, $150,000 one-year contract with the Washington Bullets.

College Sports

Betty F. Jaynes, executive director of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn., called Marianne Stanley courageous for willing to challenge USC in her $8-million sex-discrimination suit.

“This issue is of national importance to all coaches of women’s basketball, the majority of which are grossly underpaid when compared to the salaries paid to coaches of men’s basketball,” Jaynes said in a statement.

Cal State Fullerton hired Julie Knight as assistant coach of women’s gymnastics.

Tennis

U.S. Open runner-up Cedric Pioline of France was upset by unseeded Italian Andrea Gaudenzi in the second round of the Romanian Open at Bucharest, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

In other second-round matches, top-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia defeated Uruguay’s Marcelo Filippini, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, and Francisco Clavet of Spain defeated South Africa’s Marcos Ondruska, 6-1, 6-4.

Second-seeded Marc Rosset of Switzerland defeated beat Patrick McEnroe, 6-4, 6-3, to reach in the quarterfinals of a tournament in Bordeaux, France.

Names in the News

Ethan Allen, a major league outfielder who coached former President George Bush, died Wednesday at age 89. Bush played first base at Yale while Allen was coach there. Allen had a batting average of .300 during 13 years in the major leagues starting in 1926. Allen was also the inventor of a board game called All-Star Baseball.

Jim Staton, a star lineman at Wake Forest who played in the NFL and CFL after World War II, died of cancer at age 66. Staton played for the Washington Redskins in 1951 before rejoining the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL.

Miscellany

High school basketball star Dontonio Wingfield, a freshman at Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in his hometown of Albany, Ga., to two misdemeanor counts of obstruction of an officer and one count of criminal trespass for fighting with police who were called to his house by his mother.