United States Can’t Regain Ryder Magic

There was no miracle comeback for the United States this time.

The top-seeded Americans were ousted from the Dunhill Cup at St. Andrews, Scotland, on Saturday when the team of Mark O’Meara, Tom Lehman and Payne Stewart lost, 2-1, to Sweden in the third round.

The Americans were thrashed, 3-0, in Friday’s second round by Italy and stood an outside chance of qualifying for the semifinals of the 16-nation tournament.

Instead, South Africa, the two-time defending champion, and Spain will meet in one semifinal with Australia and Sweden playing in the other.

The Americans, lambasted by Europeans for their boisterous conduct after coming back to win the Ryder Cup, received a cool but polite reception at “the home of golf.” The three-time champions won only three of nine matches in the three rounds.

On Saturday, O’Meara defeated Patrik Sjoland, 69-73; Gabriel Hjertstedt defeated Stewart, 69-74; and Jarmo Sandelin downed Lehman, 71-74.

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Canadian Mike Weir moved within sight of his second PGA Tour victory in four starts when he secured a one-stroke lead after the third round at the $2.5-million Michelob Championship at Williamsburg, Va. The left-handed Weir, who won the Air Canada Championship at Vancouver last month and was the 54-hole co-leader of the PGA Championship with Tiger Woods in August, made his move with four successive birdies starting at the 10th hole on his way to a three-under-par 68, putting him at eight-under 205, one shot ahead of Americans Notah Begay (69) and Tom Byrum (70). . . . Hall of Famer Beth Daniel shot a two-under 70 and took sole possession of the lead after three rounds of the $725,000 LPGA First Union Betsy King Classic at Kutztown, Pa. . . . Bruce Fleisher shot a second consecutive six-under 66 to take a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the Transamerica seniors tournament at Napa. Fleisher’s two-day total of 132 is a tournament record for 36 holes. Allen Doyle, who shot the day’s best round, a 65, is in second.

Tennis

Fourth-seeded and defending champion Tim Henman of Britain defeated Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals of the $1-million Swiss Indoors at Basel. He’ll take on 20th-ranked Karol Kucera of Slovakia, who defeated sixth-seed Nikolas Kiefer, 6-4, 6-3, in the other semifinal. . . . Second-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden battled back after dropping the first seven games to defeat defending champion Michael Chang, 0-6, 6-4, 6-2, and advance to the finals of the Heineken Open at Shanghai, China. He’ll face top-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile, who defeated Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, 6-4, 6-1.

Top-ranked Martina Hingis of Switzerland needed more than two hours to overcome defending champion Sandrine Testud of France, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4, and set up a championship showdown today against Mary Pierce of France at the Porsche Grand Prix at Filderstadt, Germany, site of Hingis’ first WTA title in 1996. The fourth-seeded Pierce took out Anke Huber of Germany, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).

Miscellany

In the first boxing match between a man and a woman, Margaret McGregor won all four rounds on every card at Seattle against Loi Chow, a jockey who showed virtually no boxing skills. . . . Unbeaten Vitali Klitschko (26-0) defended his World Boxing Organization heavyweight title for the first time, knocking down Ed Mahone (21-1-2) twice in the third round at Oberhausen, Germany, before the fight was stopped with 1:15 remaining in the round. . . . Former University of Kentucky football player Jeremy Streck, a starting senior guard last season, died of in the Ohio State Medical Center at Columbus from injuries suffered after being hit by a car on Oct. 1. He was 23. Shortly after the accident, police charged Paul K. Synadinos, 20, of Gahanna, Ohio, with driving under the influence. There was no immediate word whether further charges would be filed against Synadinos.

Dave Soutar defeated John Hricsina, 267-196, to capture the PBA Senior Tour’s most prestigious event, the Villages Senior Tournament of Champions, at The Villages, Fla. . . . Michael Waltrip won a Busch Series race for the first time in six years, taking the lead from Mike McLaughlin after McLaughlin ran out of gas midway through the final lap of the All Pro Bumper To Bumper Auto Parts 300 at Concord, N.C. . . . Australian Dave Grubnic (4.570 seconds, 306.67 mph) was the surprise leader after the first round of top-fuel qualifying at the 12th annual NHRA AutoZone Nationals at Millington, Tenn.

Latrell Sprewell will meet today with New York Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy and General Manager Scott Layden in New York to explain his absence from training camp. . . . Edita Pucinskaite of Lithuania attacked on the uphill section of the final lap to claim the elite women’s title at the World Cycling Championships at Verona, Italy, 18 seconds ahead of the pack.

World Cup champion France defeated Iceland, 3-2, and joined Germany and Italy in qualifying for the European 2000 soccer championships, while England stayed in contention by squeezing into the playoffs to be held in November. Also gaining automatic spots in next year’s tournament were Yugoslavia, Romania and Portugal. . . . Maria Olaru and Andreea Raducan led Romania to a narrow .818-point lead over Russia in women’s team qualifying at the World Gymnastics Championships at Tianjin, China.

Funeral services for Joe Seminario, who coached football at South Gate High from 1952-62 and led the Rams to the 1955 City title, will be held Tuesday at Holy Family Church in South Pasadena. Seminario died Sept. 30 in Portland, Ore., from a heart embolism. He was 78.