Sutton Gets Off to a Fast Start and Takes Early Lead

Hal Sutton tied a course record with an eight-under-par 64 Thursday for the lead after one round of the Honda Classic at Coral Springs, Fla.

Rookie Eric Booker shot 65, Doug Barron was at 66, and Dicky Pride and Bradley Hughes shot 67. Nine golfers, including 1998 player of the year Mark O’Meara, were at 68.

On a day with little wind and lots of sunshine, Sutton started fast with a 40-foot birdie putt at No. 2. He made four birdie putts of 10 to 15 feet and birdied his last three holes.

Last year Sutton had his best results on the PGA Tour since 1983, winning the Tour Championship, the Westin Texas Open and $1.8 million, fifth on the money list. There were more achievements in January: He finished fourth in the Phoenix Open and became the father of twin girls.

“This is without a doubt the happiest time of my life,” Sutton, 40, said. “I look forward to getting up every day.”

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Se Ri Pak shot a five-under-par 67 for a share of the opening-round lead of the Welch’s-Circle K Championship at Tucson.

Also grabbing a piece of the lead were former champion Dottie Pepper, Hiromi Kobayashi of Japan and rookie Ashli Price-Bunch.

College Basketball

Georgia fired coach Ron Jirsa after two disappointing seasons.

Athletic Director Vince Dooley said the main reason for the change was the Bulldogs’ poor finish this season. Georgia lost 11 of its last 14 games, winding up 15-15.

Jirsa, who had never held a college head coaching job, was appointed to lead the Bulldogs when Tubby Smith left for Kentucky after the 1996-1997 season.

“There was no real hope or encouragement as we looked to next year or looked to the future,” Dooley said. “That, more so than anything else, was the reason for the change.”

Dooley said he hopes to have a new coach by April. He stressed that unlike Jirsa, the next coach must have a proven record.

Dooley conceded that Jirsa was caught off guard by the decision when they met Thursday afternoon.

“It appeared to me he was surprised and hurt,” Dooley said.

Manhattan hired Virginia assistant Bobby Gonzalez as coach, replacing John Leonard, who had a 26-57 record in three years, including 5-22 this season. Leonard was fired March 1.

Winter Sports

Lasse Kjus of Norway moved closer to clinching his second World Cup overall skiing title after finishing fourth in the Super-G at Sierra Nevada, Spain, and earning 50 points for an overall total of 1,409--92 better than fellow Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt and 102 more than Hermann Maier of Austria with two races left.

Christian Mayer of Austria won the race, his first World Cup victory in the event. He clocked 1 minute 28.71 seconds, followed by Austrians Andreas Schifferer, 1:29.06, and Josef Strobl, 1:29.53.

Organizers postponed the women’s super-G until today because of high winds on the course.

Bjarte Engen Vik of Norway virtually clinched the World Cup Nordic combined title by finishing fourth in a cross-country sprint at Falun, Sweden. With only two meets left, he leads Finland’s Hannu Manninen, 1,755 points to 1,542 in the overall standings.

Manninen was third behind Kenji Ogiwara of Japan and Ladislav Rygl of the Czech Republic. Ogiwara won the ski jumping portion with a 119.5-meter jump but was unable to hold off Rygl in the 7.5-kilometer cross-country race.

Twin brothers Rune and Frode Kollerud finished 1-2 in the men’s freestyle cross-country race to carry Utah into the lead of the NCAA ski championships at Rumford, Maine.

Pro Football

Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch worked out to rave reviews from the expansion Cleveland Browns and other NFL scouts.

Representatives from Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland and others watched Couch throw more than 60 passes and dispel rumors about his arm strength at an indoor field house in Lexington, Ky.

The Browns have the first pick in next month’s NFL draft and the club has made it clear it would prefer to take a quarterback with the selection.

Linebacker Todd Collins, a free agent who was with New England the last six years, has agreed to terms on a four-year contract with the St. Louis Rams. He will replace linebacker Eric Hill, who was released by the Rams two hours after the signing was announced.

Collins started for the Patriots the last five years. He played in 76 regular-season games with 53 starts and has played in six playoff games with five starts, including Super Bowl XXXI.

The New York Jets re-signed linebacker Dwayne Gordon, an unrestricted free agent, to a four-year contract.

Gordon has played six seasons in the NFL, the last two with the Jets. In 85 regular-season games, he has 151 tackles and 65 special team stops.

Miscellany

A lawsuit accusing boxer Oscar De La Hoya of raping a 15-year-old in Mexico in 1996 has been refiled in Los Angeles Superior Court to name two additional defendants, the accuser’s lawyer said.

The new complaint alleges De La Hoya’s brother, Joel, and friend Michael Hernandez took the woman to the hotel room where she was raped. De La Hoya has denied the incident.

Dave Blaney set a track record of 186.755 mph in winning the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR’s Busch Series Yellow Freight 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Blaney broke the record of 186.673 mph set by Dick Trickle last November.

Jeff Green qualified second at 186.648 mph while Mark Martin, the pole-sitter and winner of last weekend’s event at Las Vegas, was third at 186.322 mph.

Former Hawaii football coach Fred vonAppen has filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract after being reassigned to a job at a community college.

The lawsuit said the university was in violation for refusing to negotiate a buyout on the remaining two years of his contract.

The man accused of killing the daughter of NFL Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff pleaded not guilty to one count of murder. Mohammed Haroon Ali, 23, Tracey Biletnikoff’s boyfriend, is being held without bail in the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City.