Woods, Duval Show Why They’re on Top

Listening to Tiger Woods, you would think David Duval single-handedly won the World Cup of Golf for the United States.

Woods played a role Sunday too.

With host Argentina making a run while cheered on by thousands of spectators, Woods sank a 40-foot birdie putt at the 11th hole to give the U.S. team a cushion it wouldn’t relinquish en route to a three-shot victory and the $1 million top prize at Bella Vista.

“David played great all week, and he really carried us,” Woods said. “I only made one putt. Other than that, I didn’t feel like I did much of anything.”

That putt was significant.

Woods and Duval entered the day with a three-stroke lead over Argentina’s Eduardo Romero and Angel Cabrera. The lead was down to one shot when the Americans got to the par-three, 146-yard 11th hole.

Duval’s tee shot, perhaps caught by heavy winds, carried well left of the pin. Woods, playing next in the alternate-shot format, calmly sank the slightly downhill putt to build a two-stroke lead.

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Raymond Floyd sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the first sudden-death playoff hole as he and his son, Robert, beat Johnny and Scott Miller to win the Father-Son Challenge at Paradise Islands in the Bahamas. The victory was the fourth in six years in the $860,000 event for Raymond Floyd, who won three times with Raymond Floyd Jr.

Soccer

Connecticut won its first NCAA men’s soccer title since 1981, beating Creighton, 2-0, at Charlotte, N.C. in a game that atoned for the Huskies’ four-overtime loss in the semifinals last year.

Chris Gbandi and Darin Lewis scored for the Huskies and were honored as the game’s outstanding offensive and defensive players.

Gbandi, who won the Hermann Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate player, put Connecticut up, 1-0, in the 16th minute on a direct kick from 24 yards out.

Cindy Parlow scored twice in five minutes to rally the U.S. women’s national team to a 3-2 victory over Mexico at Houston.

Chinese star forward Sun Wen was the first selection of the inaugural Women’s United Soccer Assn. draft at Boca Raton, Fla. The Atlanta Beat selected Sun, one of five members of China’s national team taken among the first six picks in the first round.

FIFA delayed any decision on a proposal to rotate the site of future World Cups among the continents, after South Africa’s losing bid for the rights to host the 2006 event.

Joseph Blatter, president of the world soccer governing organization, said that a special meeting on the subject will be held in the spring in Argentina.

Retired star Vava, who played with Pele on Brazil’s 1958 and 1962 World Cup championship teams, remained in a Rio de Janeiro hospital amid reports he suffered a stroke.

Winter Sports

Janica Kostelic of Croatia rallied from 10th place after the first run to win her third consecutive World Cup women’s slalom race at Sestriere, Italy.

With an amazing second run, the 18-year-old recovered from a gap of 0.73 seconds to get the fifth win of her career.

The U.S. finished in first and third place in two-women bobsled racing on the World Cup circuit at Vienna, Austria. USA 1, with Jean Racine and Jennifer Davidson in the sled, had a winning run of 1 minute, 50.17 seconds. . . . Joe Sisson of Evanston, Wyo., and brakeman Kurt Prusse of Logan, Utah, won the America’s Cup two-man bobsled at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Canadian speedskaters won two long-track World Cup races with Olympic champion Catriona Le May Doan winning the women’s 500 meters and Mike Ireland taking the men’s 1,000 at Seoul. . . . World champion Armin Zoeggeler won the men’s singles at a luge event in La Plagne, France and moved into first place in the World Cup standings.

Miscellany

Pat Cash won the Honda Challenge seniors title, beating a racket-throwing John McEnroe, 6-7 (3), 7-5, 14-12, at Royal Albert Hall in London.

Russian figure skating coach Svetlana Korneitchenko sustained massive chest and brain injuries in a car crash last Tuesday and is in critical condition at a Cleveland hospital.

College football Hall of Fame inductees Marcus Allen, John Elway and Terry Donahue will be honored Tuesday at the National Football Foundation awards dinner in New York.

Sunny Garcia won a record fifth Vans Triple Crown of Surfing title when Kaipo Jaquias, his closest title competitor, was eliminated in the pre-trials of the Mountain Dew Gerry Lopez Pipe Masters, the final event of the surfing series, at Sunset Beach, Hawaii.