Mickelson Breaks Leg on Slopes

A broken leg suffered while skiing will keep Phil Mickelson, this year’s second-leading PGA Tour money-winner, off the golf course for a while.

Mickelson, a left-hander from San Diego, broke his left leg Thursday at Arizona Snowbowl, near Flagstaff, when he hit some ice, causing him to lose control and crash into a tree.

A pin was inserted from below the hip to above the knee, but Mickelson won’t need a cast, said Steve Loy, his agent.

“The doctors say he’ll have a 100% recovery,” Loy said, adding that the leg should mend in four to six weeks.

Mickelson has earned $315,845 with four top-10 finishes in six tournaments.

Track and Field

Gwen Torrence, the 1992 Olympic 200-meter champion, broke her American record for the 200 with a time of 22.84 seconds in a preliminary heat at the USA-Mobil Indoor Championships in Atlanta. She had set the previous record of 22.85 at San Sebastian, Spain, on Feb. 2, 1993.

Winter Sports

Austrian Hannes Trinkl won the World Cup downhill at Aspen, Colo., with a time of 1 minute 38.95 seconds, 0.03 seconds ahead of Canadian Cary Mullen. Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe finished 55th in 1:42.21.

Pro Football

Cornerback Donald Frank, made expendable by the San Diego Chargers’ free-agent signing of Dwayne Harper, was traded to the Cleveland Browns for a sixth-round draft pick in 1995. . . . Cornerback D.J. Johnson signed a four-year, $5-million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers after starting the last four seasons.

Basketball

Charlotte Hornet guard Rumeal Robinson said he was sent back to Charlotte from the West Coast because Coach Allan Bristow has a personal vendetta against him. The Hornets said Robinson was sent home to recover from an Achilles’ tendon injury.

Ricky Nedd of Appalachian State set an NCAA Division I all-time field-goal percentage record, making 412 of 597 shots, or 69%, to break the old mark of 68.5% set by Purdue’s Steve Scheffler from 1987-90.

The Ft. Wayne Fury of the Continental Basketball Assn. fired Coach Rick Barry. The Fury was 14-30 under Barry, 49, a member of the Hall of Fame and the NBA’s all-time free-throw percentage leader.

Hockey

Free-agent center Petr Nedved, a contract holdout with the Vancouver Canucks, signed an offer sheet with the St. Louis Blues. Nedved, 22, had been seeking a contract worth at least $3 million over two years. He helped Team Canada win the silver medal at the Lillehammer Olympics.

Miscellany

The NCAA has ordered an additional year of probation, until June 1995, for Washington State’s athletic programs as a result of rules violations cited in a 1992 Pacific 10 Conference investigation. The Pac-10 restricted the number of scholarships in men’s track and field, cross-country and baseball for four years and stripped the men’s track and field team of Pac-10 championships it won in 1985 and 1991 because of improper accounting and jobs administration that allowed out-of-state athletes to receive more money than they were entitled to.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf showed no mercy on countrywoman Sabine Hack on her way to a 6-2, 6-1 quarterfinal victory at the Virginia Slims of Florida. Graf, the two-time defending champion, will play Helena Sukova, who defeated Gabriela Sabatini, 6-4, 6-4, for the first time in seven years.

Names in the News

A judge in Ohio agreed to appoint a psychiatrist to evaluate Ricardo Punsalan, brother of Olympic ice dancer Elizabeth Punsalan. He is charged with aggravated murder in the stabbing death of his father. . . . Former NFL and Ohio State quarterback Art Schlichter was indicted in Ohio on charges that he stole more than $50,000 from a suburban Cincinnati bank and two individuals.