Heavy Rains Delay Azinger Comeback

Heavy rain that flooded fairways and filled sand traps at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Mich., washed out Thursday’s first round of the Buick Open golf tournament and delayed Paul Azinger’s long-awaited comeback.

Azinger has been away from the game for nine months after undergoing six months of chemotherapy, followed by radiation treatment, for the cancer in his right shoulder. He then had a non-malignant fatty tumor, unrelated to the cancer, removed from his left side.

On Thursday, he was to have teed off in a competitive event for the first time since last November, but the rain intervened. After shooting a one-under-par 71 in Wednesday’s pro-am, Azinger pronounced himself cured.

*

Betsy King shot an eight-under-par 64 for a two-shot lead over Kathy Guadagnino after the first round of the McCall’s LPGA Classic in Stratton Mountain, Vt.

Basketball

Byron Scott, who helped lead Indiana to the Eastern Conference finals last season, has signed a multiyear contract with the Pacers. The deal was reported to be worth $5 million over three years.

*

George (Tic) Price, assistant basketball coach under Tommy Joe Eagles at the University of New Orleans, was named to replace Eagles, who died of a heart attack last week.

Former Dartmouth College basketball star Bill Raynor was named coach at Holy Cross after six years as an assistant there. Raynor, 42, replaces George Blaney, who left for Seton Hall.

Tennis

Gabriela Sabatini and Natalia Zvereva have withdrawn from the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles due to injuries. Sabatini has tendinitis of the right shoulder, Zvereva a stress fracture of the rib cage.

Top-seeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain defeated Hungary’s Jozsef Krocsko, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the quarterfinals of the $365,000 Skoda Czech Open clay-court tournament in Prague.

In Kitzbuehel, Austria, Goran Ivanisevic and Thomas Muster played up to their seedings by swiftly dismissing their opponents to reach the quarterfinals of the $410,000 EA Generali tournament.

Top-seeded Ivanisevic, of Croatia, fired serves of between 112 and 124 m.p.h. while sweeping Spain’s Francisco Clavet, 6-2, 6-4. No. 2 Muster defeated unseeded Juan-Albert Viloca of Spain, 6-3, 6-3.

Miscellany

Lightning struck a baseball diamond in Lancaster, Ontario, where Calgary and British Columbia were playing in the Canadian Big League Championships, killing one person and injuring dozens.

A tournament spokesman confirmed one person died but did not say whether it was a player.

Right fielder Geoff Jenkins of USC hit two home runs and two doubles in leading the United States to a 9-2 victory over the Netherlands at the 32nd World Baseball Championship in Managua, Nicaragua.

Forty-four percent of American adults surveyed watched at least one World Cup soccer game on television and 31% would like to see a new professional soccer league in the United States, according to a Harris Poll.

The poll of 1,249 adults was conducted from July 25-28 and has an error margin of 3%.

David Izeqwire (16-0) of Nigeria stopped a bloodied Bobby Czyz (41-6) after four rounds in a cruiserweight bout in Ledyard, Conn., retaining his International Boxing Organization title.

In other bouts, Roger Mayweather (51-10) captured the IBO welterweight title with a unanimous 12-round decision over John Bizzaro (21-3-1), and Danelle Nicholson (16-1) won a split decision over John Ruiz (18-2) to claim the IBO heavyweight title.

The Sprint Car Racing Assn. program scheduled for Saturday night at Kings Speedway in Hanford has been canceled. The program will be rescheduled.