Woods Adds Win, Wealth

Tiger Woods hadn’t won anywhere since Feb. 14, so his three-stroke victory in the Deutsche Bank Open golf tournament Monday in Heidelberg, Germany, was welcome.

So was the $200,000 he earned in his first European tour event on the continent, as well as the reported $1 million in appearance money he got.

Woods holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole, his only birdie on the back nine, and finished with his third consecutive 68, four under par. He was at 15-under 273 for the 72 holes, three shots better than South Africa’s Retief Goosen.

Nick Price finished at 277. He had the day’s best round, 65, matching his third-round score.

Said Woods: “I got the start I wanted when I was three under after seven [holes] and I felt like I had a good lead. But when Nick was moving up the leader board, I felt very nervous. I thought I needed two birdies coming in and only got one, but it was enough and it’s nice to get the victory.”

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Limping badly but unwilling to quit, Ford Olinger, who has a degenerative hip disorder and lost his court bid to force the USGA to allow him to ride a cart in the U.S. Open, failed to get out of the local qualifier at South Bend, Ind., shooting a 17-over-par 88.

Soccer

Italian sports and government officials called for either increased security or a ban on transportation to soccer teams’ road games after a fire reportedly set by hooligans killed four people on a train. The train was taking 1,100 fans home to Salerno after Salernitana had tied Piacenza, 1-1, in the teams’ final game of the season.

During the 1998-99 season, 900 people were hurt in Italy in soccer-related incidents.

Three men, two women and two children died in a fire in a gambling house in Port Louis, Mauritius, that was set by rioting soccer fans after their team, Fire Brigade, lost a crucial match to Scouts Club, 1-0.

Motor Racing

Responding to a need to keep wheels from flying into spectator areas during 200-plus-mph races, Indy Racing League officials announced that a new “suspension and wheel-energy management system” would be installed on all cars in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

The restraints, cables made of Zylon, a space-age fiber that has a breaking point of five tons, will be in place Thursday for Carburetion Day practice.

The action was taken after a crash at an IRL race May 1 at Charlotte, N.C., where flying debris killed three spectators and critically injured a 9-year-old girl. CART and Formula One, the other major open-wheel organizations, have similar tether systems.

Football

Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci signed into law a bill to provide $70 million for infrastructure improvements surrounding a proposed new stadium for the New England Patriots football team. The privately financed 68,000-seat stadium in Foxboro, Mass., will be located next to the Patriots’ current Foxboro Stadium home.

The Carolina Panthers signed their top draft choice, tackle Chris Terry, to a package reportedly worth $3 million. He was a second-round pick.

The NFL exhibition season will begin Aug. 7 with a game between Denver and San Diego at Sydney, Australia, and games sending Indianapolis to Chicago and Oakland to St. Louis.

Horse Racing

The state racing commission in Little Rock, Ark., voted unanimously to uphold and extend the suspension of jockey Billy Patin, accused of using an electrical device to spur his horse to victory in the Arkansas Derby on April 10.

Racing stewards at Oaklawn Park had suspended Patin for a year--the harshest penalty they were authorized to impose. But they recommended that the commission extend the suspension until May 5, 2004, for a total of five years, and the commission voted, 5-0, to follow that recommendation.

The commission also upheld the stewards’ decision to disqualify Valhol and redistribute the $300,000 winner’s share of the purse.

Patin had appealed his suspension and $2,500 fine to the commission, while Valhol owner James Jackson appealed the disqualification of his horse. He said he would appeal the commission’s ruling to circuit court.

Basketball

Spencer Gloger, a 6-foot-6 swingman from Santa Margarita High, signed with the UCLA basketball team in what the Bruins hope will be a needed boost for their perimeter game.

Gloger, an All-Orange County selection by The Times, shot 53% overall and 46% on three-pointers and averaged 23.7 points as a senior.

Former California standout Milica Vukadinovic, a native of Yugoslavia, will be unable to join the L.A. Sparks this season because of visa problems, the WNBA team announced. The 6-foot-1 guard practiced with the team last week. She averaged 15.7 points from 1990-93 for Cal and later played professionally in Germany.

Pepperdine guard Rasheeda Clark and UCLA center Janae Hubbard were among the players named to the USA World University Games women’s basketball team.

Cycling

Mario Cipollini outsprinted a pack of riders to win the 10th stage of the Tour of Italy at Ansepolcro. France’s Laurent Jalabert finished in the main group, right behind Cipollini, and retained the overall lead by only 0.02 seconds over defending champion Marco Pantani.

Names in the News

Paralyzed gymnast Sang Lan returned to China, where she was greeted in Beijing by teammates’ flowers 10 months after being injured in a fall during the Goodwill Games at Uniondale, N.Y. Though paralyzed from the chest down, she has regained some strength in her shoulders, elbows and wrists and can raise her arms.

Georgia Southern baseball coach Jack Stallings, the winningest active coach in Division I, retired after 39 seasons with a 1,258-796-5 record.