Nick Price Is Elected to Hall

Nick Price no longer has to wonder what it takes to get into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Price, who won three major championships and dominated golf in the early 1990s, was elected Tuesday through the PGA Tour ballot and will be the 99th member of the hall.

No other player was elected through the PGA Tour or International ballot.

Price will be inducted Oct. 20 at the World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Fla., along with two-time PGA champion Leo Diegel, former Japanese star Chako Higuchi and Annika Sorenstam, who qualifies as soon as she plays 15 events on the LPGA Tour this year.

“I was hoping that it was going to be my time soon,” Price said. “It happened sooner rather than later.”

Price received 76% of the vote on the Tour ballot, easily getting the minimum 65%. Tom Kite received 59% of the vote, followed by Henry Picard (43%), Curtis Strange (38%) and Larry Nelson (37%).

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The ConAgra Skins Game is moving from Landmark Golf Club to the Trilogy Golf Club in La Quinta when it’s played Nov. 29-30.

Mark O’Meara is the defending champion in the $1-million event, which will be played at its seventh different course in its 21-year history. Trilogy opened in February.

College Sports

Gabriel Pruitt, a 6-foot-3, 170-pound junior guard from Westchester High who served a one-year suspension from high school basketball, has orally committed to play at USC beginning with the 2004-05 academic year.

Pruitt transferred to Westchester from Compton Centennial last season but could not play after the CIF City Section rules committee uncovered evidence of a fabricated address. As a sophomore, he averaged 15 points.

USC also received an oral commitment from 7-foot, 245-pound Robert Swift, a national top 10 junior center from Bakersfield.

Guard Chris Thomas of Notre Dame is making himself available for the NBA draft but said he will not sign with an agent to keep open an option of returning for his junior season.

Theodis McMiller, a freshman football player on Western Kentucky’s Division I-AA championship team, drowned after his canoe capsized while he was fishing in a lake Saturday.

Tennis

Pete Sampras pulled out of next week’s German Open, increasing the possibility he will not play in the French Open for the first time in 13 years.

Sampras gave no reason for his withdrawal.

Fourteenth-seeded Gustavo Kuerten lost to Gaston Gaudio, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, in the first round of the Italian Open at Rome. In other matches, Juan Carlos Ferrero defeated Mark Philippoussis, 7-6 (3), 6-4, and Carlos Moya beat Fernando Vicente, 6-2, 6-4.

Motor Racing

Steve Park was fired by Dale Earnhardt Inc., ending the tenure of the first full-time Winston Cup driver hired by the late Earnhardt. The team hired Jeff Green on an interim basis.

Shigeaki Hattori of Japan was hospitalized because of a concussion and a broken finger suffered in a crash during a practice for the Indianapolis 500.

Hockey

Mats Sundin and Peter Nordstrom each had a goal and an assist to lift Sweden over Switzerland, 5-2, in the World Hockey Championships at Turku, Finland. In other games, Germany tied host Finland, 2-2; Austria beat Ukraine, 5-2, and Latvia beat Denmark, 4-2.

Tony Soares has been appointed president of the Ice Dogs, said Rick Adams, the team’s co-owner and managing partner.

Pro Basketball

The Sparks waived guard Rita Adams and forward Sonja Brown and suspended second-round draft selection Schuye LaRue, who left the team for personal reasons.

Passings

David Woodley, who started at quarterback for the Miami Dolphins in the 1983 Super Bowl, died at 44.

Woodley died of liver and kidney failure Sunday at a hospital in his native Shreveport, La., said his niece, Lucy Woodley.

He had a liver transplant in 1992. Story in Section B.