Hurst in First With Record Burst at LPGA Tour Finale

Pat Hurst, setting a women’s course record Friday at the Desert Inn Country Club course, shot a 64, eight under par, and took a one-stroke lead over Nancy Lopez in the second round of the LPGA Tour Championship at Las Vegas.

Hurst, a third-year pro who barely made the field of top 30 money winners, had seven birdies against a lone bogey. But it was a five-wood that she knocked two feet from the hole to eagle No. 10 that set the stage for her round. She tapped in the putt, then shot 31 on the back nine.

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Colin Montgomerie’s eagle on the 11th hole helped turn an ordinary round into a remarkable six-under 66 and vaulted Scotland into the lead halfway through the $1.5-million World Cup of Golf at Kiawah Island, S.C.

Montgomerie and Raymond Russell combined for a total of 272, 16 under and two shots better than Ireland and Sweden in the two-man team event. Davis Love III and Justin Leonard of the United States were three shots behind at 275.

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Tiger Woods was named the winner of the Sports Star of the Year Award, which is for athletes who combine excellence in their sports with significant charitable endeavors.

World Sports

Italian Deborah Compagnoni extended her domination of women’s giant slalom, skiing through heavy snow to win a World Cup race by more than three seconds at Park City, Utah. She has won a record six consecutive World Cup giant slaloms.

Compagnoni was fastest on both runs, finishing in 2 minutes 52.60 seconds. Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria was second in 2:56.01 and Andrine Flemmen of Norway was third in 2:56.46.

Irina Slutskaya, two-time European champion, won the women’s singles title in the Cup of Russia figure skating competition at St. Petersburg, Russia.

In pairs, Marina Eltsova and Andrei Bushkov of Russia won the gold.

The city of Ostersund said it will ignore the Swedish Olympic Committee’s decision not to support its bid for the 2006 Winter Olympics and will continue planning a new campaign.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation announced the creation of a “Golden League,” an elite series of six European track and field meets with total prize money of $1 million.

IAAF President Primo Nebiolo said the new circuit will start next year with meets in Berlin, Brussels, Monte Carlo, Oslo, Rome and Zurich. The series may be expanded to include a seventh meet in Paris.

Wilson Kipketer, who broke the oldest world record on the books, and Marion Jones, the newest American sprint star, were selected athletes of the year by the International Track and Field Assn.

Tennis

Sebastien Lareau and Alex O’Brien upset top-seeded Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, to win the Green Group and advance to the semifinals of the Phoenix-ATP World Doubles championships at Hartford, Conn.

Rick Leach and Jonathan Stark also advanced to the semifinals by defeating Don Johnson and Francisco Montana, 6-3, 6-4.

Soccer

Steve Sampson will get a new contract to coach the U.S. soccer team, ESPN reported, but U.S. Soccer Federation President Alan Rothenberg said no decision has been made. ESPN said Sampson would be retained to lead the Americans through next summer’s World Cup in France.

The Jamaica Football Federation has dismissed as “rubbish” press reports that El Salvador’s soccer team took a bribe to throw a World Cup qualifying match against Jamaica.

The game in El Salvador on Nov. 9 was a 2-2 draw, all but ending El Salvador’s chances of advancing to the World Cup in France next year.

Jurisprudence

Owner George Shinn of the Charlotte Hornets will not face sexual misconduct charges, though something probably happened between Shinn and a woman at his suburban mansion, prosecutor Tommy Pope said from York, S.C.

Pope said, however, there was insufficient evidence to prove a crime had been committed.

Matthew Mehler, a mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies, crashed a team van into a utility pole, then fled to his home in Churchville, Pa., police said. He was charged with drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

Miscellany

Britain’s hope that Formula One auto racing would be exempt from a ban on tobacco sponsorship in sports suffered a setback when Padraig Flynn, European Union health commissioner, said such an exemption was impossible.

NASCAR President Bill France Jr., 64, was in a Japanese hospital Friday night after suffering a heart attack and undergoing an emergency angioplasty.