Winds Blow Golf Scores High

Betsy King’s 71 was the only sub-par score of the day, and her 36-hole total of one-under-par 143 was good for a four-stroke lead Thursday midway through the $700,000 LPGA Tournament of Champions at Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, Fla.

Nancy Lopez, one of three golfers at 147, shot a 72 and was the only other player in the field of 40 to match par on a day when the wind gusted to 35 m.p.h. Lauri Merten, whose 71 was the only sub-par round on the first day, shot a 78.

*

Raymond Floyd and Jim Thorpe mastered winds of 40 m.p.h. with 68s to share the first-round lead in the Doral-Ryder Open at Miami. Other big-name entrants suffered from the elements, Jack Nicklaus shooting an eight-over-par 80 on Doral’s Blue Monster course, and Johnny Miller, surprise winner at Pebble Beach last month, shooting an 83.

Jurisprudence

Tonya Harding’s lawyers filed an appeal challenging the U.S. Figure Skating Assn.’s disciplinary hearing March 10 to consider whether she should be penalized for her role in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. Harding’s attorneys contend that, because of their appeal, the panel lacks jurisdiction to proceed with the hearing.

Harding’s attorneys contend the USFSA has the authority to hold the hearing only after the criminal investigation of Harding is complete.

Former Viking safety Joey Browner, 33, was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct--an offense tantamount to rape in Minnesota--after a complaint by a 34-year-old woman who said she was assaulted in her home on Jan. 15.

In a case that affects numerous professional athletes, the state Supreme Court left intact a ruling requiring former Raider quarterback Marc Wilson to pay state taxes based on the time he spent in California during the football season. The case, a dispute over $119,000 in taxes, penalties and interest from 1984 through 1986, involved the question of whether Wilson’s contract required him to be on the job all year or only during the NFL season.

Football

Jack Reilly, 48, who spent the last four years on the San Diego Chargers’ coaching staff, was hired by the Raiders as an assistant to work with either the tight ends or running backs.

Howard Tippett, who spent the last two seasons as the Rams’ special teams coach, was named to a similar job with the Detroit Lions.

Basketball

Tates Locke, basketball coach at Indiana State since 1989, was fired after a 4-22 season, worst in his five years there.

Derek Anderson, Ohio State’s leading scorer, had surgery to repair a ligament in his left knee. . . . DePaul’s Tom Kleinschmidt, the Great Midwest Conference’s leading scorer, has been suspended for a game for taking part in an altercation outside a Chicago tavern.

Miscellany

The Lillehammer Winter Olympics had no positive drug tests, the International Olympic Committee reported. . . . Linford Christie of Great Britain won the 60 meters in 6.52 seconds in the San Sebastian indoor track and field meet in Spain, edging American Michael Green (6.54) and Canada’s Bruny Surin (6.62). . . . With 35-m.p.h. winds causing chaotic play, top-seeded Steffi Graf defeated Elena Likhovtseva, 6-2, 6-4, and second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario beat Julie Halard, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Virginia Slims of Florida at Delray Beach.

Names in the News

Gary Wood, who played football at Cornell and for the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints, died at 52 at Melville, N.Y., apparently of a heart attack in his sleep. . . . Clarence (Kleggie) Hermsen, the leading scorer for the 1948 Baltimore Bullets of the NBA, died in St. Paul, Minn., at 70.