Strong Start Has Wadkins Hoping His Day Has Come

For 22 years, Bobby Wadkins has played the PGA Tour. He has made a good living, had a few high finishes but never won a tournament.

Maybe that 658-event losing streak is about to end.

Wadkins, displaying a magnificent--and hardly customary--touch with the putter, shot an eight-under-par 64 Thursday and led after the first round of the Buick Challenge at Pine Mountain, Ga.

“Nobody is more surprised than me,” said Wadkins, who is one shot ahead of Jim McGovern. “I putted like Ben Crenshaw. I have his caddie this week. Maybe it’s rubbing off on me.”

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Robin Hood shot a seven-under 65--the best round of her nine-year LPGA career--and had a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic at Cornelius, N.C.

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Qualifying medalist Brenda Corrie Kuehn of Fletcher, N.C., beat Jo-Ann Lindsay of Edina, Minn., 3 and 2, to advance to the second round of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Rancho Mirage.

Tennis

U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras and French Open winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov advanced, but Australian Open champion Boris Becker was eliminated from the $1-million Swiss Indoors at Basel.

Sampras advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory over German wild-card entry Thomas Haas. The third-seeded Kafelnikov defeated French qualifier Lionel Roux, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Becker, seeded fourth, was upset by Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Johan Van Herck of Belgium upset top-seeded Felix Mantilla of Spain, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, in the second round of the Sicilian International Championships at Palermo.

Pro Basketball

Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning blames NBA Commissioner David Stern for the failure of the deal that would have brought Washington Bullet forward Juwan Howard to the Heat.

“David Stern stuck his foot in the door and is the one who blew this up,” Mourning told the Palm Beach Post. “This was a vendetta against [Coach] Pat Riley. No question. People in New York [where Riley previously coached] did not want to see Pat do well [in Miami] so soon.”

The Philadelphia 76ers rehired former guard Maurice Cheeks as an assistant coach, four months after demoting him to scouting. . . . Rookie center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a first-round pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers, has a broken bone in his right foot. . . . The Sacramento Kings will go to international arbitration to determine if their No. 1 draft choice, Predrag Stojakovic, will play in the NBA this season. PAOK of Greece signed him last week to a two-year contract. Stojakovic is a naturalized Greek.

Boxing

Trainer Kevin Rooney’s claim that boxer Mike Tyson breached a career-long contract and owes him $49 million was put in the hands of a jury at Albany, N.Y. Rooney claims that Tyson and his mentor, Cus D’Amato, promised he would be Tyson’s trainer for life. . . . Nigel Benn is coming out of retirement for the second time in seven months for a rematch with World Boxing Organization super-middleweight champion Steve Collins of Ireland on Nov. 9 at Manchester, England.

Jurisprudence

A federal judge was unfair in criticizing the University of Nebraska’s response to an assault by former football player Lawrence Phillips, Chancellor James Moeser said.

“I thought it was intemperate, unfair and not based on a real knowledge of what we’ve done. He can’t know what’s going on here and how we’ve handled it,” Moeser said of comments by Chief U.S. District D. Brook Bartlett, who suggested an investigation into the school’s handling of the incident.

Phillips, now with the St. Louis Rams, settled a federal lawsuit filed against him by Kate McEwen, a Nebraska student who once dated Phillips. She said he battered and sexually assaulted her.

Miscellany

Billy Payne, who brought the Olympics to Atlanta, was hired as a vice chairman by NationsBank Corp., which was a major corporate sponsor of the games. . . . Chinese air pistol sharpshooter Wang Yifu, who collapsed at the Atlanta Olympics, was discharged from a hospital although his injured vertebra has not healed. The 36-year-old shooter spent a month receiving treatment for the injury, which he thinks caused him to black out during his last shot at Atlanta. . . . Red Mihalik, 80, a prominent NCAA basketball referee in the 1960s, died Wednesday at Ford City, Pa.