Els Wins Match Play, but Isn’t All That Happy

Ernie Els couldn’t find much to rave about after defending his World Match Play title with a 2-and-1 victory over PGA champion Steve Elkington on Sunday at Virginia Water, England.

“At times it was a little low-key,” Els said. “Both of us weren’t on our games. We were trying hard but we couldn’t produce the shots we wanted, particularly on the greens.”

Els won the 36-hole final with a birdie on 17 to earn $270,000, Europe’s richest prize this season.

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Jim Furyk, who last year lost the Las Vegas Invitational in the final round, registered birdies on the 15th and 16th holes to win the tournament by a shot over Billy Mayfair.

Furyk, a second-year pro with an unorthodox swing and sweet putter, earned his first PGA Tour victory with a five-under 67 for a 28-under total on the same course where he led after four rounds of his rookie season only to finish fifth.

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Don Bies sank a short par putt on the final hole to win his first tournament since 1992, taking advantage of Lee Trevino’s 18th-hole bogey to win the $700,000 Senior Gold Rush by one stroke in Rancho Murieta. Bies shot a 68 for an 11-under 205 total.

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Annika Sorenstam, rallying from three strokes behind, forced a playoff with Laura Davies and then rolled in a 40-foot chip shot on the first extra hole to win the World Championship of Women’s Golf at Cheju Island, South Korea.

The Swede, playing in a twosome with Davies, had two birdies and no bogeys for the day’s best score, a two-under 70. That tied her at six-under 282 for the regulation 72 holes with Davies, who shot a 73.

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U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin shot a three-under 69 and won the Asian Masters by nine strokes at Taipei, Taiwan.

Boxing

Scottish boxer James Murray died in Glasgow of injuries suffered in a title fight with Drew Docherty, leading to a renewal of calls for the sport to be banned in Britain.

Richard Morgan, a spokesman at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital, said doctors had pronounced Murray “clinically dead” Saturday but left him on a life-support machine.

They reassessed his condition Sunday, decided he was dead and then removed him from the machine.

Murray, 25, underwent brain surgery after the knockout by Docherty in the final round of the British bantamweight championship fight Friday night.

Murray’s record was 14-2-0.

“This is yet another individual tragedy which highlights the fact that boxing is not a safe sport,” a British Medical Assn. spokesman said. “While the head remains a target there will continue to be tragedies like this and there will be chronic brain damage to a majority of boxers.”

Tennis

Top-seeded Michael Chang defeated unseeded Mark Philippoussis, 6-3, 6-4, to win the Seiko tournament in Tokyo. . . . Wayne Ferreira of South Africa outlasted American MaliVai Washington, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, to win the $400,000 Czech Indoors tournament in Prague. . . . Jan Kroslak of Slovakia, ranked 129th in the world, upset third-seeded Javier Sanchez of Spain, ranked No. 45, 6-3, 6-4, to win the Israel Open at Tel Aviv. . . . Croatia’s Iva Majoli won her second tournament in a row, defeating Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), in the Porsche final in Filderstadt, Germany.

Miscellany

After a weekend with no major upsets, there were no major changes in The Associated Press college football poll. Florida State was No. 1, followed by Nebraska, Florida, Ohio State, USC and Tennessee.

Russian Alexander Karelin added the seventh world title to his collection in the 130-kilogram class with American Matt Ghaffari winning bronze at the Greco-Roman world championships in Prague.

Eamonn Martin, a 37-year-old Englishman and relative newcomer to marathons, won the Chicago Marathon in 2:11:18. The women’s winner was Ritva Lemettinen, 34, an Olympic team member from Seinajoki, Finland, in 2:28:39.

Red Army General Manager Viktor Gushin told The Canadian Press that it’s time for North America to stop raiding Russian hockey teams.

In a race matching some of the best U.S. women’s middle-distance runners, Suzy Hamilton of Eugene, Ore., took the lead at the turn in an out-and-back course and held on to win the first Malibu Mile at Zuma Beach in 4 minutes 43.6 seconds. PattiSue Plumer of Menlo Park was second in 4:45 and Darcy Arreola of Northridge third in 4:45.9.

Harry Kourfas, 21, of Randolph, Mass., was killed when he lost control of his car at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway and was struck by another car.